New Rifle, Barrel Heat Question

[carnaby]

I just got my first rifle, a Winchester 94 (made in 1972) 30-30. I took shooting at the range the other day, put about 20 rounds through it over 20-30 minutes. The barrel gets very hot after this. I'm concerned that I might dammage my rifle with the excessive (?) heat.

Are there any rules of thumb for rifles like this (and .30-06 bolt action, and others for future reference too) for rate of fire and barrel heat? I can put 500 rounds through my .40sw pistol in a session, but I have no idea what the limits are for a rifle.

 

[kaferhaus]

Once the barrel gets uncomfortable to touch, you're just accelerating the wear on the barrel if you keep shooting it before it can cool. Most lever action rifles have thin barrels to begin with, have barrel bands, hand guards touching the barrel etc... once that barrel heats up you're gonna be stringing shots all over the place anyway... I've seen guys chase their "scope sight in" shots all over the paper because the barrel was hot...

Pistols don't burn anywhere near the powder that rifles do, velocities are much lower and barrels are much shorter (a small mass of metal will cool quicker than a large mass of metal will...)

 

[30Cal]

The barrel is going to get hot. If it gets hot enough to char the forestock and smoke any oil left on the barrel and front sight, then I'd worry about considerably shortening the life of the barrel (you'd need to do a good Rifleman imitation and reload quickly between strings). Otherwise, well cared for, it'll probably last longer than you.

A standard rapidfire string in NRA highpower is 10 shots in 60 seconds. In many matches, you'll shoot 2 strings back to back.

One shot a minute is what I'd call slowfire.

 

[Dave R]

My rule of thumb is--if you can't hold the barrel, its too hot. Let it cool.

Takes a lot of shooting to get it that hot.

I've been known to bend that rule with my AK, though.

 

[MrMurphy]

My .30-30 rule is shoot six, reload, take a drink, shoot another six (say six shots a minute). Six because that's what my Marlin held.
It generally didn't get too hot that way.

 

[NMshooter]

You can't shoot that 30-30 fast enough to do damage.

Only manually operated firearms I would worry about are rifles like .220 Swift, .218 Bee, .219 Zipper, etc.

Stuff with a muzzle velocity close to 4000 ft/s.

 

[shermacman]

MrMurphy
What did you drink in between shots??!?!?!

 

[MrMurphy]

Water. Coke. Mountain Dew. Whatever was nonalcoholic and handy.