Living in a smaller town... it is easier to know people.. and see the same things pop up here and there....

One old guy was coming up and checking out my Model 70 with the 28 inch Pac Nor Barrel on it and chambered in 22.250...well it turned out that he had bought the rifle new.. and then shot out the original barrel and then several Donnely made barrels also... He is a competition shooter, and was the guy who actually got me thinking hard on the switch barrel concepts I am currently on...

He was impressed tho, of the groups the rifle was doing... He told me that he got rid of it, because he never ever got that good of groups with it, with the 4 different barrels it had when he owned it...


The it was funny, but a little later in the afternoon, a younger guy shows up in about his early to mid 30s... He pulls out a rifle at first, I thought might be a Winchester Coyote... but I asked him about it while we were going down to post some more targets.. and he told me it was a Ruger 77 VT that he had bought at one of the local gunshops last fall for $450.00... He was bragging about it being a one hole shooter with a load of 25 grains of H 335 and a 55 grain Ballistic tip....

Well after he shoots a little and I also, as we go down to change targets again, he shows me the tight groups this Ruger had shot... so I walk back to the benches and he has to show me this rifle.. because he loves it so much....

I'll be damned, but it is the Ruger 77 VT that I traded in last fall, for a Savage 12 BVSS!!!!

It was an early Ruger 77, having a blued action, and stainless steel factory barrel...so there aren't many around....

Funny thing was, I was looking to rebarrel that rifle... as I had paid $300.00 for it from another old guy at a gunshow about 7 years before... and I had put about 8,000 rounds down the barrel....It was like 6 years old when I got it...

When I went to the small local gunshop, I was offered $400.00 in trade toward a Savage, with a price of $625.00 on the Savage.... so I jumped on that, getting $100.00 more than I had paid for it and put 8,000 plus rounds thru it...

Well this young guy was indicating that he keeps track of how much he shoots come varmint season.. and he had got this rifle, to cut down on the expenses his 22.250 was costing him...

So last season, he had put a little over 2,000 rounds thru it...

Now we know that this Ruger barrel has seen 10,000 rounds thru it, and lord knows how many before I got it when it was 6 years old....and I got it cheap, because the guy said he had shot a lot thru it.. but he bore and barrel looked real good and he even left me test drive it over at the rifle range... and it shot very well....

and the groups I saw it do today were still pretty darn impressive... my biggest reason for rebareling it at the time, was the number of rounds I had put thru it, and I wanted a 223 with a one in 9 twist... to shoot the 69 thru 80 grain match bullets thru....Plus this early production rifle, did not have the varmint trigger like the later VTs have...

But this barrel has 10,000 varifible rounds down the barrel... and evidently a lot in the 6 years before I got it!!!!

So one has to wonder about the life span of a 223 barrel! I'd say this barrel had to have 2500 to 5,000 rounds down it, before I got it...

So aren't 223s great... and isn't living in a small town ( 30,000) pretty neat???

cheers
seafire

seafire - you ever notice that those old varmiters 77's with the blued action seem so shoot much better than the new ones? I've got 2 or 3 of them including one swift that will shoot a bit under an inch at 300. haven't had any of the newer ones come close.

Seafire/B17G: Great story of the "small world" and the barrel resilience that Ruger Rifle had!
I am not sure though what caliber it was - was it a 223 Remington!

I have a favorite "barrel life" story for you all (on this cold Montana morn!).
I was attending a Bench Rest Match near Tacoma, Washington some years ago. I was just observing - gleaning things from the "pros" so to speak and looking for a good deal on a Rifle or on a scope - typical me!
I did have my 27 power Unertl spotting scope on a tri-pod so I could watch a couple of my "buds" (Russ Haydon & Wally Siebert) shoot in the match. My buds did well and I was about to leave as the "really boring" Unlimited Class Rifles were coming to the line!
My man Russ Haydon asked me to stay and watch a particular Rifle shoot for a while!
He didn't mention why right off!
Well all these bright, shiney, stainless works of art (rail gun art!) were banging away when Russ pointed out to me this unnattractive, flat finished, blued barrelled, cluttery looking "Rifle"!
I was nearly embarrassed for the fella shootin it! I mean it looked like lawn fudge there in the midst of all those beautifully finished and shiney Rifles.
I set up the Unertl and watched the owner of that "undistinguished" looking Rifle slip bullet after bullet into the same little hole - at 200 yards!
Then I noticed that the brass being extracted from that Rifles humongous and gawdy looking patina'ed (discolored) action were not the mandatory 6mm PPC size!
They looked to me like 222 Remingtons - and indeed, it turned out they were!
After the targets were psoted and this "Rifle" had finished well ahead of the median (average) of those shooters, Russ told me the story of that Rifle!
That Rifle had been hand made (including the barrel!) by world renowned loading die maker (in my world he is renowned anyway!) L. E. Wilson of Cashmere, Washington!
Back when it was made the barrels of the "Unlimited Class" BR Rifles were made very long and very heavy!
Russ relayed to me how many matches that Rifle had won and which records it had held way back when.
I was impressed then, but Russ continued, and my jaw dropped, AGAIN! That Rifles barrel was the original (from which year I forget) and it had over 16,000 rounds down it! In fact that barrel had been removed, had its chamber chopped off - TURNED AROUND and was then chambered from the other end - thus having the bullets travel the opposite way as they had been travelling previously! This procedure was done 3 (three!) different times during the long life of that barrel! This procedure being done apparently when the leades of the rifling washed away significantly!
So, 4 times the bullets changed directions down that humble looking barrel and it still shot EXTREMELY well!
I was impressed!
I personally "dred" loosing accuracy from a barrel - this happens to Varmint barrels after 2,500 rounds to 5,000 rounds in my experience, with the "burners" like the 22-250 etc. Sometimes, with poor shooting procedures, much quicker will the barrels accuracy die off.
But for a barrel to maintain Bench Rest accuracy for 16,000+ rounds is simply amazing!
I know many BR nuts who start changing barrels by 1,000 rounds! Many of the BR types do pump up the speed in their 6mm PPC's though and some of them hate to fiddle with setting back the chamber a tad to get to fresh rifling leades!
They would rather buy a new barrel at that point.
Its my understanding that L. E. Wilsons son is now making the wonderful dies, case trimmers (the best in the world!) and loading accessories there in Cashmere, Washington. I have a "whole lot" of their fine products in my loading room!
Long live the L. E. Wilson Company!
Long live the 222 Remington family of cartridges!
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

quote:

Originally posted by butchloc:
seafire - you ever notice that those old varmiters 77's with the blued action seem so shoot much better than the new ones? I've got 2 or 3 of them including one swift that will shoot a bit under an inch at 300. haven't had any of the newer ones come close.

Butch....

I have had fair luck with the later 77 VTs I have.. two in 223, and one in 22.250....

Of course I handload... with factory ammo all three sucked.. but so did the older one..

VG,

this Ruger's barrel was chambered in 223...

a lot of what I shot thru it was Blue Dot loads....and earlier in its life at my house.. W 748 loads...