The features provide users with alerts for general maintenance, cleaning and prevention of gas port and
barrel erosion.
Problems arose with the new rifle almost immediately, most attributable to the Cordite, which produced severe muzzle blast, flashy overheating, metal fouling, recoil and
barrel erosion.
During the first decade of the new millennium ballistic scientists from the various powder companies proved that the primary cause of
barrel erosion was indeed due to the belching fire and brimstone that was expelled from the case and down the barrel but this erosion to the throat is not a mechanical process, it is in point of fact the result of the chemical reaction that is directly related to the extremely high pressures and heat to which the steel is exposed.
Loved by the wildcatting community, and gaining steam among hunters who appreciate high performance at low cost in components, recoil, and
barrel erosion, the .280 AI is an outstanding choke for American big game.
Setting aside minor inconveniences such as pressure,
barrel erosion and portability of the platform, experimenters have come pretty close.
A bore scope will also reveal
barrel erosion long before it can be detected otherwise.
A new
barrel erosion indicator gauge, NSN 1005-01-535-5576, now makes it possible to safely extend barrel life up to 50,000 rounds per barrel or 300,000 rounds per set of six barrels.
It requires a very large action and burns prodigious amounts of powder, accelerating throat and
barrel erosion, and it's a heavy kicker.
An entire chapter is devoted to the manufacture of barrels, the
barrel erosion problem and the development of the Stellite barrel liner.
So what is the real deal about
barrel erosion? Well, I can't yet claim to have fired as many rounds through WSSM rifles as I have through other smallbore centerfires, but I have fired several hundred rounds of all commercial loadings of all three WSSM calibers through a variety of WSSM rifles from Winchester, Browning and Ed Brown Custom, as well as an equivalent number of handloads.