hy, guy's, Could someone please explain to me what is a Button barrel(savage) is this a process in which savage make's there barrel? Also heard remington used this type of barrel , eon"s ago. Thank"s guy's: Rick.
Posts: 224 | Location: ontario,canada | Registered: 14 July 2002
A button rifled barrel, is a barrel which had a carbide button with the reverse image of the rifling pulled through the barrel steel to make it's rifling. Used by Hart, Pac-Nor, Douglas etc.
The other types of rifling are cut rifling, which the rifling is actually cut into the barrel vs. pressed as in the button rifling method.
The third rifling method is hammer, where the barrel is placed over a reverse image of the rifling and it is literally beat with hammers to form the rifling, I believe Ruger uses this method. It's not used by many companies because of the cost of the equipment. I think a couple of other large manufacturers use it, but can't think of them off the top of my head right now.
Most all of the large rifle manufacturers use hammer forging because it's the cheapest way to make barrels in bulk. It's also the poorest way to make a barrel. The equipment is expensive but it pays for itself over it's lifespan. Button rifling is used by the majority of the top barrel makers while a few cut their rifling. Savage is the only major manufacturer that uses buttoned barrels and it's one of the reasons they shoot so well. I believe weatherby uses a buttoned barrel made by Kreiger on some of their rifles.
I find it funny that sako advertises their "cold hammer forged barrels" like it's supposed to be a good thing that they use the cheapest barrels they can get. More false advertising.
Krieger barrels are cut. Barrels on standard rifles by Remington and Winchester are hammered as are those of Steyr and H-K. In fact Remington's equipment was originally provided by Steyr. Properly done and inspected hammered barrels are as good as any. An example of good ones would be the match barrels on the Winchester Palma rifles and the Steyr match rifles. An example of poorly done ones would be about 30% of the Remington barrels it seems. Most hammered barrels are remarkably stress free. Whether this is due to treatment afterwards or if the barrel comes out of the operation hot enough to stress relieve on it's own I can't say. The stainless barrels used on Remington 40x rifles are button rifled in the custom shop. I have recently seen some barrels from a maker who has traditionally provided button rifled barrels which appeared to have been broached but I can't say for sure that this was the case. Regards, Bill.
Not all Kreiger barrels are cut. They make a line of buttoned barrels called the criterion or something like that which goes on the weatherby rifles. Their mainstay is still their cut barrels but they make some buttoned ones also.
In the button process the barrel is actually elongated. This puts the metal under alot of stress but that is relieved by reaming and contouring and fluting too I would think.
leo, reaming, contouring, and fluting do nothing to releive the stresses. That is done by heat-treating the barrel after it is buttoned. All fluting is for is appearance and weight reduction.
