Barrel life of a gun

[HandGunner]

My uncle has a 1911 with a MARVEL 22lr kit on it and he has this feeding and jamming problem with it in all I suggested he shoot it more like 300+ rounds see if it will somewhat break in the gun and help it feed and shoot smoother. Then he said he would but that will destroy the barrel. So Im here asking, how long do barrels last? My custom 10/22 Volqurtsen barrel I have shot quite a bit as of fun and rapid shots both lead and copper plated bullets. I would guess in the hundreds of rounds have been through it and the gun still shoots same hole groups out to 50 yards. What would be the life span of my barrel? would lead bullets wear the barrel less and copper more? or since its a simple small 22lr round that it has no real wear to a metal barrel? I can understand larger calibers wearing down barrels but Im looking for more answers on a 22lr but wont mind hearing about larger calibers.

[fr0sty]

It better be a lot more than hundreds of rounds!

[Ufatz]

Clean your .22 once a year and you will be shooting it when your an old man. If your fathers 1911 isn't "broken in" yet it never will be. The jamming and feed problems he is having won't be fixed by shooting it more. Take it to a gunsmith and get it fixed.

Unless you start shooting a rifle with some super-hot, high velocity cartridge you don't have to worry much about shooting out a barrel.

Shoot more-worry less!!

[Brad B]

the thing about .22LR's is that years ago the powders used in the shells were corrosive and if you didn't clean it this could eat at the barrel. this is not a problem today as powders have gotten more advanced. I have a remington nylon66 from 1960 and the barrel on it was fine except I had to have the crown on the barrel redone because it had corroded over the years even with cleanings. the thing that might be causing the fail to feed and the jamming is that your uncle is not running hot enough rounds thru the marvel .22 conversion for it to funtion properly. try running cci mini mags or any of the hotter shells in it and see if that helps the feeding and jamming issue. to burn out a .22 barrel would take 10's of thounsands of rounds through the barrel. the gun needs enough recoil to funtion the slide. if you are running the cheap ammo you won't have enough recoil for the slide to operate correctly thus causing feeding and jamming issues.

[HandGunner]

nope hes shooting cci stingers when it feeds the bullet will jam into the feeding ramp that guides the bullet into the chamber plus sometimes shells wont eject and get stuck in the chamber fired or not

[lichen fox]

You can do one of two things...if you're comfotable with "completely" dismatling the action and giving it a good cleaning you can do that and see if it helps...if not...or, if that doesn't help...like others have said, take it to a gunsmith and have them find the problem and correct it...

[picksbigwagon]

I have looked at these kits for my Tarus 1911, but when you read the fine print of these kits, it makes mention of the feeding ramps and how some kits don't work with some of the ramps or the angle of the feed ramps.....stopped me from getting one at least, hate to shell out a couple of hundred bucks for a 22 kit to find out it doesn't work.

[HandGunner]

ever since I shot the 1911 with the marvel kit i fell in love. Not often do you find a real semi auto action in 22lr that shoots such tight groups at 50 yards almost as good as my custom 10/22 that is able to at times shoot same hole groups at 50 yards. The down side is the feeding issue with this MARVEL Kit we cant even have a full mag loaded. However I did read about a guy on another forum saying he had the same issues until he "broke" in the gun shooting various bulk pack loads like federal and such after 500 rounds or so it started shooting smoother and after more than 500 no real jams just about 3 jams after another 100 shots. In all I guess I'll keep researching this thing and find other answers.