Bore wear rate on .17 HMR's?

[His lordship.]

I really like shooting my two rifles in .17 HMR.  After about 10-15 rounds I let them cool, while not heating up nearly as bad as my .223 centerfire, they can warm up some.  I clean them after each shooting session, just like my 30-06, and clean them from the action with a push through airgun rod.

As this is a relatively new round and it is metal jacketed, will the barrels on these wear out like a .223, or will they go on and on like a regular .22 rimfire?  I wanted to ask this question 1-2 years ago but had to wait for some of the regular target shooters and prairie dog hunters to give this cartridge a good heavy work out before we could have a better idea on how well the barrels hold up.

My Ruger's barrel on the 77/17 can easily be replaced if it wears out, but my CZ 452 is a screw in, so that would require a gunsmith.  Has anyone shot their .17 HMR to the point wear they needed to replace the barrel yet?

Thanks.

[quickdtoo]

Most 17hmr shooters at RFC will agree that they only clean em when accuracy starts to degrade and that has been my experience, also. I have 4 hmrs and a Mach2, once broke in, they only get cleaned every 150-300 shots depending on the rifle. There are many shooters at RFC that have well over 5000 rounds thru their rifles and no one has yet to see or mention any degraded accuracy from them. In my opinion, with the tiny bore of the hmr, using a cleaning rod too often is more detrimental than just shooting it, particularly for throat wear due to rod flex.

Tim

www.rimfirecentral.com