the concern with heat on a shotgun barrel is a valid one. the barrel will certainly not warp or anything like that. however heat, on both rifle and shotgun barrels, can cause heat fusions.

An incomplete discharge occurs when a round is fired but gets lodged inside the gun barrel. A second round shot after the incomplete discharge will strike the lodged round and can cause the gun to explode. A delayed discharge can occur when a gun fails to fire but hasn’t totally malfunctioned.

Such an event would be exceptionally rare. Its primer would have to strike a hard and sharp object similar to the end of a firing pin with some force in order to detonate the primer and powder inside the shot shell. Even then, the shell would “explode” but only mildly. Inside a shotgun chamber, the breech.

Depending on the length and thickness of the barrel, the powder charge of the ammunition and the rapidity of fire of the arm, anywhere between zero degrees celsius and 5,000 degrees celsius.

300F

—Firing, and especially rapid firing, heats the gun considerably. In a 5-inch 50-caliber gun, 27 rounds fired in less than 4 minutes caused at the breech a temperature of metal of 275° F. In a 3-inch 50-caliber gun, 160 rapid rounds produced a muzzle temperature of 304° F. …

Things get “too hot to touch” at 200 degrees. Steel doesn’t even begin to glow red until 1500. A little heat is not going to damage your barrel.

400 degrees

The best life can be expected from the 22 long rifle (. 22 LR) barrels with /b> accurate rounds to be expected. We have in our shop one our drop-in Anschutz barrels that has 200,000 rounds through it and the shooter, a competitive small-bore shooter reported that it had just quit shooting.

Gun powder burns and expands extremely rapidly, which is very hot. In fact, gunpowder burns near 5000 degrees Farenheit.

What happens when a gun barrel overheats? The weapon may also become more prone to jamming as both the barrel begins to warp out of shape and individual casings may expand and conform to the inside of the chamber, requiring extra force, or tools to be manually extracted.

about 1400-1600 deg

Every time you pull the trigger, you send a 5,000-degree flame streaking up your barrel. It lasts only a millisecond or so, but it melts your barrel a little bit each time you shoot. And it can seriously affect your rifle’s accuracy and its point of impact.

5 minutes

Heavy barrels are more accurate because the extra weight reduces recoil. Heavy barrels have a third effect that will inherently increase the accuracy of the rifle (and the shooter), and that is less recoil and less muzzle jump.

Machine gun barrels wont melt, you will explode the barrel before it ever gets hot enough to melt, and explosions are very rare, usually the rest of the gun gets hot enough that it cools the oil and jams.

Probably nothing. The barrel is designed to withstand huge forces from firing itself. The AP round in the barrel is going to be hardened steel/DU so it won’t take much damage from the bullet. The bullet won’t set it off, since the AP round needs to be fired for it to be armed.

thirty rounds

A cheaper barrel might last 2500-3000 rounds where a higher end barrel might go 4000+ rounds before crapping out, which often correlates to the original cost of the barrel.

204 is not suppose to be any more of a barrel burner than a . 223, even though it generates a hellacious velocity, it does it with a moderate use of powder, I’ve read that hornady and ruger both say that this cartridge is not a barrel burner!

. 223 rem / 5.56 NATO — 1,000 to 20,000 rounds is probably good. . 308 / 7.62 NATO — 400 to 10,000 rounds.

Barrel Life Comparison Chart

The 6.5 PRC is the king of all the “magnum” 6.5 cartridges because it offers fantastic performance without excessively shortening barrel life or giving punishing recoil. A 6.5 PRC has enough barrel life for you to shoot a competitive season without having to replace your barrel.

3,000 rounds

Pressure, Velocity, efficiency of cartrige, barrel temperature, Etc. Cartridges with high pressure, high velocity and that are over bore tend to shorten barrel life. Anything over 3000 ft/sec starts to shorten life the faster you go.

0.0011 seconds

The Barrel After about 50,000 rounds, the rifling will be worn down and that causes a dip in performance. If you’re not shooting past 25 yards, you may never notice the decrease in accuracy, but it’s still a good idea to replace the barrel to extend the overall lifespan of the gun.

50,000 rounds

You should ALWAYS clean your gun within a few days of shooting it. You don’t need to clean in 5 minutes after you fire but generally within one week will be fine. Things you need to consider are the type of firearm, the age, and the type of ammo.

Why are we going so far deep into figuring out how long your handgun will last? If you store your handgun in a safe, relatively dry, non-humid environment, fire about 500 rounds a month through it, and clean it after every use, that handgun will last you the rest of your natural life.