270 Win - real world feedback on barrel life expectancy

[oafpatroll]

I have a near mint 90's copy of a Winchester Model 70 in 270 Win. It's a lovely old school Mauser '98ish rifle and even with my limited skills I shoot it well enough for government work. I use a combination of jacketed full fat and reduced velocity cast/powder coated loads.

It's coming up on 600 rounds through it and that got me to thinking how long its barrel may have left. I've looked at a number of online sources that suggest 1400ish rounds for accuracy and as much as double that for usefulness.

Given that at least half of the rounds I shoot are sub 2000 fps cast bullet based I'd imagine that it could last a fair bit longer so I'm not after guesses on that element so much as any real world experience on lifespan with jacketed ITO of mileage with original-ish accuracy retained and the end of usefulness for hunting use. Please chime in with any real world experience you have. 

[Treeman]

My .270 was my first real"into" it rifle, my first I am seriously into this shooting thing. The .270 Ruger All Weather was also my start reloading rifle, the one that got me interested in what reloading is and can be, so it felt all the learning curves.
I loaded it as hot as possible and when I learnt better, as hot as advisable for max velocity - 3500 fps or as close as not recommended was often.

I had about 100 Federal cases 150 PMP and same in Winchester, the Federals were on 6 th reload when I put them aside for ? use later, the PMP and Win cases saw about 4 reloads each brand. I would not say that the 2000 shot mark was far away when the barrel would finally not group.
I shot almost exclusively 110 gr GS Customs and 130 Capstans with a reserve of 400 Capstan 150 gr, there were in total about 1200 Capstans and about 600 GS Custom bullets in stock, of which I have about 100 -150 left in stock as loaded.
I did not count my shots, but was able to clearly recall bullet stocks - to this you can add a box of PMP and a box of Hornady bullets - 200 shots.
I shot all the 110 gr and save one box, 130 gr bullets out and then started using the 150 gr bullets for some reason. After the 150 gr that I had reloaded were shot out I reloaded the last box of 130 gr bullets and they would not group, even with same batch propellant. After much load changing I reloaded the 150 gr bullets and it grouped. Did load development, new cases etc still would not group. I had 4 - 5 left over GS Custom reloads lying about and tried them and they grouped.
I made a cast of the chamber and found about 5 mm of the throat was burnt away. I then used the 150 gr bullets till I could not seat them out any further. The throat was eroded over 7 mm at this stage.
So in short 1400 + special reloading = closer to 2000 shots, perhaps 1800.

I had the chamber recut, got home and just carried on shooting, still am, but the days of 1 rifle shoot every week end are past, and the .270 only see's like 80 shots a year now.

[oafpatroll]

Thanks Treeman. That is exactly what I was after. I got mine with exactly 16 rounds of PMP brown box through it and it hasn't seen a 3000fps round in my ownership. Hoping that my relatively anemic jacketed and powderpuff cast bullets will allow it to live usefully well beyond 2000 then given what a regulatory ballache barrel replacement is.