I was shooting on the range with a friend the other day and we were working on B-8 bullseyes at 25 yards. I was shooting my Glock 17 with an optic, and my friend was shooting his Glock 19, also optic equipped. He is an excellent shooter, but his groups at 25 yards were sucking on this day. It was so bad that at one point he rested his gun on a bench and repeated the exercise, with the same abysmal result. His group was stringing along in weird directions. He was using good factory ammunition, too.
I asked him how many rounds he had put through that gun, and he said somewhere between 80,000 and 100,000. To paraphrase that old movie that we love to quote, "in all the excitement he kind of lost track." I told him to trade guns, he shot mine and I shot his. When he shot my Glock 17, his group tightened up by better than half, whereas mine with his Glock 19 doubled. In other words, the problem followed the gun, not the shooter.
When we did some work at 10 yards with the same guns, the result wasn't bad. He was easily able to hold the 10 ring with most of his shots. The real issue didn't evidence itself until we put some distance between us and the targets.
So, is his barrel worn out? For what he wants to do with that gun, yes. That gun is now shooting 8-9" groups at 25 yards. He wants a gun that will hold the 9 or 10 ring at that distance, so he wants a gun that will shoot around 4" groups or better at that distance. But please understand that this is his situation, and it may not be yours.
I had a rifle that was a good rifle. FN cold hammer forged barrel, chrome lined, excellent parts on it. At some point I was testing out different hand loads and none of them would print better than 3" at 100 yards. It got so frustrating that I bought some match ammo and it also printed 3" at 100 yards. That was my clue that the barrel wouldn't do any better. It was a good barrel, but I know it was tired, having done at least 12,000 rounds, and many of those at a very accelerated firing schedule. I replaced that barrel with a match barrel and it went down to 1" groups at the same ranges with good ammunition.
Not that you need a match barrel for good accuracy. Two other rifles I've built with BCM barrels were both shooting 1-1.5" groups at 100 when those barrels were new.
But back to the original question, when is your barrel worn out? It is worn out when it won't do what you want it to do. My rifle barrel that I swapped out I ended up giving to a friend, because he really didn't want or need a rifle that would shoot better than 3 MOA. For him that barrel was solid and it would probably be good for several thousand more rounds. For him it probably would've been worn out when the bullets would no longer stabilize and they started hitting the target sideways.
If your pistol has 50-60,000 rounds on it, and you're concerned about the ultimate accuracy of it, that may be time to see what it is doing and consider another barrel. If, however, you never shoot that pistol any further than 7, 10, or 15 yards, maybe it won't matter up until the accuracy degrades at those distances.
Rifle barrels are a different animal and will certainly get more wear and tear from high round counts. I've not seen an AR-15 barrel make it more than 15,000 rounds without being pretty ragged, and depending on what you're doing, it could certainly happen before then. For some match barrels, if you want ultimate accuracy, you may end up swapping them out much sooner, especially if you're shooting very hot ammunition. Certain calibers are also well known for burning up barrels. Every situation is different, and yours may fall wildly out of any of the parameters that I've mentioned.
I will just close with this. If your gun isn't doing what you want it to do, accuracy wise, there are several things to try. Firstly, have somebody else shoot it, somebody that you know can shoot well. If their results mirror yours, it is time to try different ammunition. If that doesn't work, a trip to an armorer or gunsmith is likely in order for them to diagnose what is going on, provided that you don't have those skills and tools yourself. If you do, then you'll obviously be able to decide, is it time for new parts, or possibly even a new gun? If you're shooting enough to wear out a barrel, the cost of your ammunition is going to outstrip your parts or gun costs by a huge margin, and if you're shooting that much, you probably want equipment that will perform to your standards.
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As a side note, the only pistol barrel I've tried that I was satisfied with on all fronts is KKM Precision. I know there are a ton of manufacturers of aftermarket barrels out there and I haven't tested them exhaustively, nor do I plan on doing that. I have used KKM in 3 different guns and they've all been accurate and reliable, even when a bit dirty. I have one of their conversion barrels in my old Glock 22 and it has run amazingly well and amazingly accurately. I have absolutely no affiliation with them, aside from being very happy with their product. I have spoken to one of their engineers on the phone at length, and he was super helpful, despite not knowing me from any other individual that would call with questions. I did not identify myself as an industry insider, instructor, or law enforcement. As far as they were concerned, I was just some dude. Not that I was unhappy before, but after that call it certainly cemented my happiness with their product and service.
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