Henry Rifle Forums

As a lot of us Henry folk are doing, we're checking out various aspects of the new Henry rifle offerings this year. I have a question about barrel life based on three of the calibers Henry now has for the single-shot rifles.

.223 or .243 or .308 --- which one is the question. I posed that to a good friend of mine, who primarily shoots .308 caliber in his rifle. His answer surprised me because I had not before known this. He said that the .243 caliber is the best choice based on the fact that this caliber is less tough on a rifle barrel than the either .223 or .308. We didn't go into the "why" this is so. Okay, so I decided to bring my Qs to the Forum.

Does anyone know if that is a valid assessment that the .243 caliber is less strenuous/less wearing on a rifle barrel?
If so, what would be reason(s) for that?

Appreciate your insights.

Im no gunsmith or any kind of a metals expert. But from what I have read velocity is one of the key factors in barrel life. The 243 has a smaller bore and the velocity of its bullets would lead me to believe it would be the one to wear out before a 308. They are both the same case with different shoulder angles. I also have read that because of this throat erosion is higher in the 243. Al

If you live long enough to wear out the barrel of a single shot I hope I'm around to see the pics!

I agree. Be all but impossible to wear out a barrel on a single shot. I hang out with the TC single shot crowd and some of those guys are running super hot wildcats and I never hear about anyone wearing out a barrel.

223s have a rep for wearing out barrels because that cartridge is so often shot on an AR platform. Trust me, guys with their black guns in 223 can go through more 223 ammo in an hour than I do several years in my TC 223 single shot. These guys also tend to shoot the barrel to the point of being too hot to touch and that also speeds up wear. I suspect that is part of the rep the 308 gets, too, via the same kind of platform.

Cartridges known to be barrel eaters via throat erosion are usually those that shoot a small caliber bullet at a very high velocity from a case with large capacity relative to the bullet and even that can be avoided, somewhat, by not overheating the barrel.

some great info here.........

Henry88 wrote:some great info here.........

Agreed, Henry88. That's what I was hoping to get back...

Squatch wrote:If you live long enough to wear out the barrel of a single shot I hope I'm around to see the pics!

Yes, I wouldn't mind being the photographer, if I could continue shooting that long! I probably mis-constructed my subject line to frame my Qs. I was not thinking about wearing out a single-shot barrel....you are correct that I wouldn't live long enough to do that.

But I was interested in the impact the different calibers/ammo have, in general, on barrel life. I guess I just set up an initial, crummy query, which created a focus on the single-shot rifle.

These following comments are what I was asking about, and looking to better understand. So thanks to all so far, and particularly to BigAl and NCG. I'm learning a little more about this stuff through your helpful insights. Interesting.

Other comments still welcome and looked for......

BigAl52 wrote:Im no gunsmith or any kind of a metals expert. But from what I have read velocity is one of the key factors in barrel life. ....Al

North Country Gal wrote: Cartridges known to be barrel eaters via throat erosion are usually those that shoot a small caliber bullet at a very high velocity from a case with large capacity relative to the bullet and even that can be avoided, somewhat, by not overheating the barrel.

I would love to see a shot out single shot barrel.

I have been around rifles all my life and when I have a really good shooting rifle I always hope I can have the money for ammo and find the time to burn out the barrel. I had 223 Remington 700's I wore the barrels out after several trips to Montana shooting prairie dogs and ground squirrels. One in particular I kept track of the number of rounds pretty close and it went over 7000 rounds before the throat eroded to where it could be seen easily. Even after that it shot well by just seating the bullets out a little farther. A friend bought that rifle from me to build a target rifle from it and after he shot it with the old barrel still on it he said there was no way he was tearing it apart. He said it still out shot his Sako. He set the barrel back and rechambered it and is still shooting it. I tried to be careful not to over heat it in dog towns by using several rifles so they could cool. NCG is exactly right on the cartridges that scorch barrels being the case is burning more powder than needed compared to bore size.(over bore capacity) Some cartridges burn a lot more powder than a smaller case only to gain a very modest difference in velocity. You can get to the point of no return for what your putting in to what you get back in velocity. My 220 Swift(44 grs.) uses more than double the amount of powder than my 222 Remington(21 grs.) The Swift does 4000'/sec. and the 222 gets 3300'/sec. So for over 100% more powder in the Swift the 222 has a little over 80% of the velocity of the bigger case. The killers on rifle barrels is the same killer as in car engines. Heat and dirt! I like being in gun shops and hear a guy say I need a new deer rifle the old 760 30-06 has the barrel shot out and I only hunt deer with it. Give me a break! Try buying some cleaning supplies and clean the copper and possibly some rust out of it. Well I went a little off the subject. My opinion is if you are buying a rifle and worried about shooting the barrel out don't buy the gun because you won't shoot it any way. That is why barrels are screwed on and not welded on. I do have single shot adapters in my varmint rifles because it makes loading easier and it possibly helps in not getting the barrel as hot because it slows you down some between shots.

A good friend of mine has a Ruger #1 220 Swift he bought in the late '70's. I don't think it's ever been Prairie Dog hunting, but he said he's shot it a lot, and was contemplating having it rebarreled. He took it to a good gun smith that has worked on other things for him. End result: the gun smith lectured him about not knowing how to properly clean a rifle, spent an hour showing him how (not for free ), and sent him on his way. The rifle is fine. And the .220 Swift has a reputation for eating barrels.