Life Expectancy for Guardian Barrel

[Gun1]

I know if takes thousands of rounds to wear out a barrel, but eventually it will happen. I just saw a Guardian being cleaned and was very surprised to see that the barrel is actually part of the frame. So this got me thinking that when the barrel is gone so is the entire Guardian. So, I was wondering around what would be the expected barrel life for a Guardian?

[5_shooter]

You will never wear it out. If it's a 380, you'll have enough of the recoil very quickly. They're snappy little buggers.

[bearcatter]

I've never seen any handgun barrel rated less than 10K rounds, and that's the hottest calibers. I'd guess a Guardian to go 20K or more.

5_shooter is right, recoil will keep the round count down. Even with mine being .32, one box per session is enough for me and I divide it between 2 Guardians. With my current situation, I haven't shot one in over a year. I've barely shot anything. .. 

Since the old mower banged up my left index finger nearly a month ago, I can barely rack a slide, but it's slowly improving.

[dinooch]

 I agree they are very snappy but built like a tank. The life expectancy will out live the next person who has my 32acp Guardian after I'm long gone. I shoot 2-3 magazines on occasion just to stay sharp with it. Not a range beater by any means.

[unclenunzie]

I know this is a bit of an older thread, but figured I'd post possibly useful info anyway.  My AF series guardian 32 (bought new in august of 2011 has roughly 3483 rounds through it of a wide range of rounds.  Rifling is about how it always looked to me.  I'm not skilled in photography, this is the best me and my phone camera can do:

[Rick_Jorgenson]

I know this is a bit of an older thread, but figured I'd post possibly useful info anyway.  My AF series guardian 32 (bought new in august of 2011 has roughly 3483 rounds through it of a wide range of rounds.  Rifling is about how it always looked to me.  I'm not skilled in photography, this is the best me and my phone camera can do:

The Lands and Grooves look pretty sharp! I think there is a lot more life left in it. 

[unclenunzie]

Yeah I figure if I wore it out in my lifetime I'll just get modern with the latest pocket version of the Illudium Q-36 Explosive Space Modulator.

[bearcatter]

That's a good picture. A clear shot of rifling is hard to do. My two .32s are AF0xxxx with maybe 400 rounds apiece. Yours looks as good or better.

Illudium Q-36 Explosive Space Modulator. Those are hard to find. You could put in a permanent search on Gun Broker. Surplus Federation phasers are a little bigger, but cheaper. ... 

[Gnigma]

Most barrels get better before you ever have to start worrying that they'll get worse. Most of what wear there is happens close to the chamber. A barrel actually develops a very slight taper that increases its accuracy over time. The amount of wear from lead or copper on stainless steel is not really an issue. In fact, stainless wears so slowly that we used to "firelap" them when I shot silhouettes--- roll soft lead wadcutters in jeweler's rouge and shoot very low power loads, cleaning after at least every 2 or 3 shots. After 30-40 rounds, you could see that the lands were smoother near the chamber, though sometimes it would take a lot more than that, depending on the kind of steel in the barrel. That could tighten your groups from a handgun barrel by several inches at 100 yards. Waiting for the lead and copper to do that naturally would take years of shooting, and many thousands of rounds.

[OV-1D]

  Also don't abuse the poor thing with thousands of rounds in short times . Heat will destroy any gun steel or stainless if over used repeatedly quickly .