As some of you have come to learn from me, I'm trying to learn how to make my 460 XVR my new best friend. I'm wondering when I'm on the range, how many rounds can I shoot back to back before its time to let it sit and cool abit? Lets assume I'm either firing .45 Long Colt or the Hornaday .460 SST's. Would this make any difference? Should I be waiting any definate length of time even between shots or just between a certain number of rounds? Thanks everyone!

I think it varies by the amount of powder a given round burns, barrel/bore diameter (how thin the walls are) and the temperature. On a hot day my .45-70 barrel will heat up within a few rounds and take a long time to cool down. As the barrel warms up, my groups begin to suffer. When I'm working up loads, I'll shoot one charge, shoot another gun while the barrel cools, then shoot the next charge, etc.

If I know I'm in for a long range session I take a small ice chest and get a bag of ice and when the gun starts getting warm I'll put it in the ice chest while I shoot another gun or check targets, what works real good is have two bags of ice and put the gun between them, in the winter I make a makeshift gun rack out of snow and lay the gun on top of it, kind of redneck but works good. You can also get a tool that uses CO2 cartridges to cool the barrel. The biggest thing with me is with hunting your first shot is always on a cold barrel so I always sight with it cold, I have some guns that will move 2 or three inches when they are hot and others shoot pretty much the same both hot and cold. I also always foul the barrel before a hunt, I never go in the woods with a nice perfectly clean barrel, I generally give the gun a good cleaning right before the season and then run one or two shots through it to foul the barrel and then I run a dry patch through just to take out the larger powder deposits. Probably more information than you were asking for but hope it helps.

When at the range with revolvers I usually don't have to much trouble with barrel heat. I have found that if I shoot a couple targets walk down and see what the results were. Then shoot a few more quality targets. Heat is not an issue. It also keeps the round count down and my shooting skills up. Shooting a couple revolvers at a time keeps the guns alternated and cooler.

I have a SRH in 44 that is my favorite to shoot. One day a buddy and I were just burning up the ammo at the gongs and a rock out at 150 yards. Not thinking much of round count and having fun. The barrel did get a little warm in a hurry. LOL<LOL<LOL