Can you really wear out a gun?

Guns Magazine, July, 2003 by Charles E. Petty

One of the most commonly asked questions about a new gun design is "how durable is it?" Now, to be blunt, that's a silly question because, since it's new nobody really knows. But even if it's one that has been around a long time there is still no way to predict. There are simply too many variables.

A related question that comes regularly is what spare parts the owner should keep in inventory -- just in case. This requires a level of clairvoyance absent here and also presumes that something is going to break. In fact, other than springs that might require periodic replacement the sort of things that might really break are often not user serviceable.

These questions presume something rarely in evidence. Can you truly wear out a gun? The answer to that is yeah... but.

Loving To Death

Experience has taught me that far more guns are killed than worn out. They can be abused -- or loved -- to death. One of the funniest stories was related to me by a gunsmith who was consulted because a guy's rifle would no longer group as it should. Inspection of the bore revealed the near absence of rifling. When grilled, the owner allowed as how he did clean the bore a mite aggressively. It is far easier to kill a gun than wear it out.

It is my firmly held opinion that very few people shoot as much as they say they do. Few of us keep records -- let alone accurate records -- of the rounds we fire, so the very best we can do is estimate. When I do a gun test I can track the round count by the number of groups fired and certain standardized things I do routinely. So when I'm done I can make a good estimate which interestingly, is always less than I think it will be.

If you ask someone how much they shoot they'll say, "I shoot a lot," but cannot put a number to it. So very often the people who worry about wearing out their guns should seek something of consequence for their concern.

If we use an ordinary definition of "wear out" it would be that the product will no longer perform its designed function. With that in mind it's obvious the average shooter has a rather different definition of that concept. My guess is that it becomes worn out either when it begins to suffer some malady or other, or much more likely, when the shooter tires of it and wants something else. It is, after all, much easier to rationalize a purchase when it's made to replace something that's worn out.

Four Key Factors

The things that determine how long a gun lasts are really pretty simple. The quality of the gun, how much it is shot, the intensity of the ammunition and the care it receives during it's life. Any time we use quality as a criteria it injects a judgement that may be unfair. Without a doubt, price is the most obvious part of this picture and it is probably the most reliable indicator over the long haul, but that doesn't mean that good quality guns have to be expensive. They surely do not. Perhaps the best way to put it is that if the price is low in relation to similar products, it would pay to be a skeptic.

High-Pressure Environment

Centerfire rifles are much more likely candidates to have something truly worn out. That is the barrel. If we talk about a high intensity magnum or super-magnum rifle cartridge the useful barrel life could be as little as 1,000 rounds, maybe less.

Before you gasp in dismay, remind yourself what a 20-round box of factory ammo costs for that boomer. Now multiply that figure by 50, and ask yourself if you are really likely to run 1,000 rounds through that gun anytime soon.

Obviously, handloaders are more likely candidates to wear out a barrel, but as we've discussed, if you force yourself to be honest, you may find you're not shooting nearly as much as you think.

Benchrest and target shooters consider a barrel to be worn out when accuracy begins to fall off measurably and serious competitors may re-barrel a couple of times a year. Some benchrest shooters with whom I've spoken expect to get around 5,000 rounds through a premium barrel before they replace it, but the average shooter could screw that barrel into an action and shoot it for a long time without concern. So if we transfer this standard to the average hunting rifle, barrel life simply isn't an issue unless cleaning is either neglected or performed improperly.

On the other side of that coin, the bore of a .38 revolver fired only with lead bullet target loads is unlikely to show any wear at all after tens of thousands of rounds. In this case the intensity of the ammo becomes a bigger concern. If we have a medium sized revolver chambered for the .357 Magnum, and full-throttle loads are all we shoot in it, looseness becomes inevitable. The bore may be unharmed but other maladies will surface that we'd never see if the gun fired only .38 wadcutter.

Pushed To The Limits

As with any mechanical contraption things can go wrong with guns, but there simply isn't any way to predict what or when. We get lots of questions asking for predictions of how long a gun will last when fed a "steady diet" of maximum loads. I wish I knew but there is one sure thing -- it won't be nearly as long as the same gun shot with middle of the road ammo.