How Rifle Barrels Die
Every time you pull the trigger, you squirt a flame of 3,000 to 5,000 degrees (Estimates vary wildly, but it's pretty damned hot.) up your rifle's barrel. And every time this happens, the barrel melts a little. It's charred an unattractive black, and cracks and fissures develop at the rear end of the rifling where the flame is most intense. Eventually, the rifling is literally melted away and your rifle no longer shoots the way it once did. This seems to happen in…