Can anyone in the States esp. Arizona recommend someone to flute a barrel?

You could try sending it to one of the barrel manufacturers and ponying up the bucks to have them do it if they even would, or you could take it to any good machine shop or fabricator and have them do it. In any event, prepare for a long wait because these places don't like to waste their time on "small" jobs like this. You could try sending it to the custom makers of actions I've seen posting on these pages; maybe they could squeeze it in. Your local gunsmith might have a connection. Or the grandaddy of them all: order an original fluted barrel from Krieger and move into the fast lane.

[ 07-12-2003, 19:53: Message edited by: rootbeer ]

Muzzle

This place specializes in barrel fluting.

Pinaire Gunsmithing
1834 S. Los Alamos
Mesa, AZ 85204
(480) 986-1805

They also do helical bolt fluting.

Thanks Buddy, I'll give em a ring.

I sent my 300 Dakota barrel and action to Pinaire for fluting also.

He did a good job, but it took over a year.

The gunsmith I had sent it to before that, had destroyed my original barrel and taken over 9 months to basically do nothing (I got a new barrel of mediocre quality by threatening to take him to court...that was Kurt's Kustom Firearms in Florida).

Wherever you do send it, try to get in writing when it will be ready.
This seems to be a universally difficult project for 'smiths to finish on time, even though it is a relatively straightforward proposal.

Garrett

Try Dan Pedersen in Prescott, AZ. He is the barrel maker at Wells Sport Store. Here is his number and a link to his site.

928) 445-3655
www.cutrifle.com

Superior Ammo 1-800-67-SUPER will get your barrel fluted rather quickly; they custom make guns too. But they are in So. Dakota.

Thanks to all of you for your help.

Here's my 2$. I would buy a new barrel that is fluted rather than have the original done.
Not rying to kill any ones business but your original barrel might not shoot as well as it does now after fluting. I asume that this is factory barrel, a new barrel from who ever you choose will have better accuracy than the factory.
You need a high flow of coolant when machining to keep the part cool, to much heat to the metal and you will have warping.
I have do admit I do like fluting, but most bench rest shooter's do not have fluting on there barrels. If you want a lite weight gun, buy a sporter, if you want a long range, weight is not going to matter. If your going to take enough shots to heat the barrel, take 2 guns and leave one to cool down while you shoot the other

Muzzle,

You might also want to check out ER Shaw in Pennsylvania. They have a new process for helical fluting that looks nice and they have good prices. I had one barrel done by them and it looks great. they only do barrels of their own manfacture though, not sure if you were looking for a rebarrel job also.
See ER Shaw

Good luck
Paul

Thanks Paul, the barrel on there now is a Shaw. I've had a couple of heart surgeries and I need to lighten it up so I can still lug it around.

Try Skip Otto at Skip's Machine in Grand Junction Co. He has done two barrels for me and i'm very satisfied.

Muzzle, anyone with a mill and a dividing head can do it. It is not a tough job. I was at Trinidad State JC at a metalsmithing class and two of the attendees from Canada fluted their barrels. They were rookies and it probably took them 90 minutes.

BTW, if you are doing this to save weight, it will only be mere ounces. The benefits to fluting are more in anyones mind. Do it because you like the looks of it.

Fluting tends to stiffen a barrel and allows it to cool somewhat faster because the surface area is increased. There is a fantastic site out there that goes quite deeply into fluting and its advantages. Unfortunately, I found it by just fumbling around a week or so ago, and now I can't remember where it is. This site even had it down to how much deflection (weight sag) due to its own weight a fluted barrel will exhibit over one that isn't fluted and how much this deflection will effect the accuracy.

Rootbeer, here we go again. Fluting, DOES NOT STIFFEN A BARREL. In fact it makes it less stiff. Do a search on here, the argument has been kicked around and it is so much bunk. You can not remove metal out where it counts as far as stiffness and make it more stiff. The opposite is true.

Go back to that site and get a bag of it and put it on your garden. It is nothing but fertilizer.

[ 07-29-2003, 19:46: Message edited by: Customstox ]

Virgin Valley in Utah does it. You can find them on any search engine,

I found and interesting article on the Fulton Arms website. When you get to the site, type in barrel fluting in the Google search box. Don't know if this is right or not, but worth reading. Also posters on AR seem to really like Pac-Nor barrels. I notice on their site that they offer fluting...at pretty reasonable prices, at least in my opinion...hope this helps somewhat..