Bull barrel improve barrel life? Or just accuracy

[apache12]

This may be the wrong category to post this but I'm interested in a ruger 204 for varmit hunting. I've herad it's such a hot round that it smokes a barrel fairly quick. I do t know how many rounds that actually means but does a bull barrel extend life of barrel.?

 

With a small round like a 204 would a sporter barrel be more likely to produce flyers?

[rcdinaz]

I think you have a number of questions in there and there are probably some different opinions.

 

Flyers come from all sorts of issues, for your topic cold barrels probably have more than hot ones to a point.

 

Barrel life, maybe a little more because more heat cam be dealt with having more material in the bull barrel

 

Accuracy, when the barrel gets hot with lots of range or prairie rat shooting the point of impact changes so for bullseye or rats having a narrow margin you can start missing your target as things heat up. So a sporter would give you fits.

 

For coyotes and cats it is not much of an issue. Finding a load that has good accuracy and reasonable groups for 3 shot strings is probably most important. After that I would choose a sporter or sendero type barrel. You will get more shooting by staying in the field and covering ground. You are not going to like your heavy barrel rig much after a day of lugging it around. I lugged one around for a few years and decided it was really a dumb thing to be doing. I have not shot that heavy pig of a rifle in years now.

 

Go to a varmint caller shoot and see how many guys are carrying sporter style rifle, an awful lot of plain rem 700's most just accurized by free floating the barrel, maybe a little trigger work, and a good shooting factory or hand load.

 

If you are looking at an AR platform then there are others that can probably be of more help on here. A little different response maybe on an AR.

[DesertBull]

I don't think the diameter of the barrel has anything to do with barrel life. Barrels are "shot out" because of throat erosion.