30 December 2006, 03:46
brass thieffluting
I have a 26" varmint barrelled .308, and it"s a bit on the heavy side to carry for any length of time. I"d forgotten how heavy it was, as I was using a lighter rifle for a while, and had just used the .308 again yesterday.
If I was to have the barrel fluted, how much weight should I expect to loose off it? I don"t want to get rid of the rifle as it shoots pretty good and I bought it new and would"nt get my money back out of it(it"s a CZ American)
I bedded it and let the trigger way off, and it shoots as well as the 7x scope will allow.
Is it worth having it fluted, and maybe lopping 1" of the barrel? If I just carry it around for a while I might get used to it again!
good shooting
30 December 2006, 03:52
vapodogquote:
Is it worth having it fluted, and maybe lopping 1" of the barrel?
IMO no...a shortened and fluted heavy barrel is still a heavy barrel.
30 December 2006, 03:54
djpaintlesI'd bet you would loose more weight by cutting the barrel back to 22" than you would by fluting. You also wouldn't induce any funky stresses into the barrel like fluting sometimes can. You won't loose all that much velocity with a 22" 308 and the rifle will be handier. If you were concerned you could try 24" first.........................DJ
30 December 2006, 04:52
zimbabweHad a heavy barrel Mdl 70 in 308 and it was just too heavy for walk around coyote hunting here in So. Az. Had Joe Reed flute it for me. He did a terrific job and the gun actually shot better groups AFTER fluting. However while I didn't actually weigh it to see what the change was it was not apparent to the feel of the gun. Still far too heavy. Finally traded it as it was just too heavy.
30 December 2006, 05:07
GatogordoI hate to get scientific, but you can approximate the wt loss fairly easily by assuming a cylinder of steel ( I dunno the sp. gravity, but that should be easy to look up) the diameter and length of the flute cut, divided by 2 or, if you multiply the wt of one mythical "cylinder" by the number of cuts and then divide by 2 you'd have a reasonable approximation of the wt lost. I seriously doubt it will be enough for the cost and results desired.
I'd probably consider rebarreling first.