Abstract: To analyze the influence of coating material properties on gun barrel life, applying synthetically the theories of coating shear failure mechanism and fatigue cumulative damage, a life prediction model was proposed based on the theories of coating shearing failure and fatigue cumulative damage. Taking the small caliber gun barrels coated with Cr, Ta and Si<sub<3</sub<N<sub<4</sub< ceramic respectively as study objects and 10-round burst shot firing as the process period, their near-wall temperature field, stress field and barrel life were numerically analyzed based on finite difference method, and the influence of coating properties on barrel life was analyzed. The results show that, the thermal diffusivity, the influence factor <i<η</i< and the cracked <i<L/h</i< ratio of coating are the key properties for barrel life. And the cracked <i<L/h</i< ratio of coating can bring a significant influence on interface shear stress and barrel life, and the coating with larger cracked <i<L/h</i< ratio can reduce the interface shear stress effectively during firing and then improve the barrel life.