Truth to longer necks improving barrel life?

[tobnpr]

I'm about to chamber a blank for a .300 WSM, for ELR target.
Researching where to send it for nitriding after I've chambered it.

Some on both sides of this process, but it does seem to result in less heat erosion making it a worthwhile consideration for barrel burners. Depending on cost may not be worth it for me, since my only expense of rebarreling is that of the blank.

 

[Rugerjim]

Thank you so much for your very valued replies everyone.
I have been looking into this a lot, and still have much to learn. (Clearly.) I'm very interested in developing a 243 cartridge necked down similar to a jaybird but one that essentially doesn't need any special annealing, fireforming, or dicking around and will get close enough to max powder load to shoot with minimal forming.
I just posted another thread on 22-243 Middlestead Vs AI to get some more feedback, but I'd really like to do this one day. I think if it could be done loads of people would love it as 243 brass is cheap and plentiful, but if I do it purely for me, than wonderful
Please check out the Mid Vs Ai thread and if you have any comments please add them.
Special thanks to those that posted great bits of info on here.
Wonderful to be part of such a great group.
Regards, RJ

 

[Alex Wheeler]

This one used to be a tough call for me because without direct comparison its just a guess. Until the 6BRA came about. Before that we all shot dashers and I chambered a pile of them. About 3-4 years ago the BRA really caught on and I now chamber a pile of them. The dasher moved the shoulder forward, shortening the neck. The BRA has .080" longer neck and throat wear is CONSIDERABLY less. I mean its night and day, and Im talking overs hundreds of barrels not just a couple. If I had to put a number on it, I would say a dasher will move 5x more than a BRA. This is Br competition so the barrels are all treated the same way and theres only about one grain difference between the two cases. Throats that dont move make it easier to stay in tune, so Im a huge fan of longer necks. We abuse BR barrels, 10 shot groups and 15 shot ladders in testing as fast as you can rip them. I only shoot 3 with hunting rifles and find that barrel life is plenty good even on the bigger stuff I do like the 300 Norma imp or 338 Lapua imp. We also use those two for our 2000yd ELR match and when they are used for that, barrel life gets short in a hurry. Theres a huge difference between a 3 shot group and 5-10 shots like we do in competition. I think it easily cuts those big cases life in half.

 

[nksmfamjp]

I like necks to hold the bullets. Seriously.

I get that in a low stress round, you could somehow perfectly jam bullets and use the neck as just a touch point.

in a hunting round, I like neck length equal to about 1 caliber or just a bit more. I also like the bullet bearing surface to fully engage this neck. I work hard to get the neck concentric as a basis for holding the bullet concentric. It seems to work.

Then I dial neck tension up or down to not ring bullets when seating and to tune the release....meaning only that sometimes lower neck tension shoots better for me. I haven't fully figured this out.

As for barrel life, I don't care much about that, but I don't really have a round that has been a struggle there.

 

[Roeder]

It makes sense logically but fluid dynamics are usually non-intuitive at best so what seems like logic doesn't always work and why I consider the above to be useful lore.

I'm not so sure that fluid dynamics are non-intuitive, but I do know that many people that install muzzle brakes and some that manufacture them misunderstand the physics of how they work. Of course it really only matters to know what works, not why it does. The theory about neck length and shoulder angle affecting throat erosion comes from smart people and it may indeed have merit. Still, the general rule: more powder equals more throat erosion is certainly the most important.