Anyone have a guess at what the barrel life is in this calibre if you want to really push it?
I've never used anything this over bore.Is it a matter of just a few hundred rounds?

Karl.

It shouldn't be Karl. The 338-378, while overbore, is nowhere near as overbore as, say, the 7mm Ultramag, and those bores seem to be lasting reasonably well. I haven't had many problems in this respect with any of my rifles, but then I try to be careful not to burn them out with fast repeat shots continued ad nauseum (ie; prairie dog towns). For that use I stick to relatively efficient 22 centerfires. - Dan

Karl, since having my 30/378 Mark V rebarreled in 338/378 by Shilen, I've probably run between 750-1000 rds. through the gun and it's still going strong. No sign of deterioration in accuracy. I think the biggest "no-no" is going to be shooting a lot of rounds in rapid succession which is going to eat up the throat. Otherwise, it should last a long time.

dan, 100% agreement on your advice not to shoot too many too quickly. I find it very hard to make myself do that though. It's just too much fun to hear that big boom, feel the thwack in my shoulder and see that little hole in the target (especially when the little holes make one big hole).

My advise to anyone with a big boomer: Take along as many rifles as you can carry. Take a shot with the big one, then put it aside while you fire off some 223 or whatever you have. It keeps the volume up for the day and it won't wear out the expensive boomer. Besides, once the barrel gets hot the groups wander anyway, and that's no fun.

Karl,

I have a Weatherby Accumark in .338-378 and have around 750 rounds thru it without any loss of accuracy or performance. As was posted shooting in rapid sucession will cook off a barrel in short order in one of these large overbore calibers. The cooler the barrel stays, the longer it will live. It's as simple as that. On the warmer days I take a can of "canned air" to the range with me. The kind that is used for blowing dust off computers, etc. It helps in cooling down the barrel. About a 5 second shot down the bore drasticly reduces cooling time. Bill T.

Good idea Bill, kind of a modern variation on the old blow tubes for blackpowder rifles. I'll have to take a can with me on my next trip to the range. Thanks for the tip. - Dan

I use a bottle of rubbing alcohol and a rag. Wipe the barrel down with the alcohol and it'll cool down real quick.

Thanks for the comments fellows.

Sounds like its not too bad but along the lines of what someone else said I might run into trouble getting carried away with it



Karl.

I have two 338-378 weatherby accumarks.There is a word of warming this round will go from just fine loads to a locked up bolt fast.I found if ejector mark is on the brass its only a grain or two from locking up.I think they will last long using 250 gr bullets and larger due to less speed and less powder burned.You have to clean them about every 50 shots or less or they will pattern instead of group.My cousin who is a bench rest shooter shot some .25 groups at 100 yards using Nosler partitions 250 gr at 3150 fps.Thats pretty good for that big of a bullet that fast!