Are there any ill effects with regards to accuracy, from getting a barrel on a hunting rifle fluted after its already been chambered and fitted???

I had this same question and had various different answers - from everthing from "it will make no difference at all" to "it will totally destroy an accurate barrel"

Well, I ended up doing it. It was a custom Encore barrel made by David VanHorn in 25-444AI. I sent it to Mike @ OTT to do the fluting. It turned out GREAT. I re-mounted the scope, bore sighted it and off to the range. I SAW ABSOULTELY NO DIFFERENCE IS ACCURACY. Before the fluting I was getting between .75" - 1" groups at 100 yards and the same .75" - 1" groups after the fluting.

I am sure it depends on how the fluting is done, the quality of the barrel and any number of other variables, but my limited expierence has shown no adverse effects on accuracy.

I hope this helps

Basically the same principle as contouring barrels. If there is stress there it can distort the bore. Usually you have a better chance with cut rifled barrels. I was talking to one of my barrel makers the other day (just put one of his barrels on a 30BR thats shooting in the .1's) he flutes before the final lap and what he told me is he can definately tell the bore changes but as to how accuracy is affected you really can not predict it. Told me he had a customer flute a finished lapped barrel and started winning matches with it too. Would I lap a match grade competition barrel thats a proven shooter? NO. But I do flute barrels and have good results. If done properly on a good stress free barrel no accuracy should be lost.

I have had barrels on 2 rifles fluted. The first was a Remington Mdl 37 .22LR. It was fluted by David Miller and shot better AFTER than before. The second was a Mdl 70 Hvy Varmint .308. It was done by Joe Reed and shot no better after than before. The object of the Mdl 70 was for weight reduction and in this case it was not successful. I carefully benched both rifles before and after with 24x scope and compared groups and so have good evidence of performance. I would have no qualms about having a GOOD smith flute a barrel as far as accurracy but these were both bull barrels and not sporter weight. I have no experience with any other fluted barrels except the one on my Kimber 17Mach2 which is the most accurate out of the box rifle I've ever fired. At 50yds it literally puts them all in one hole.

Nick, with that 30 BR "shooting in the .1's" I expect to see your name in the winners column soon. What twist barrel and what bullets are you shooting?

Its not my rig I smithed it for a customer. Its a Kostyshyn 1-17 barrel and probably BIB bullets.

I just checked the IBS Group Nationals results, very few of the winners agged in the .1's Sounds like your customer has a potential winner..

I really shouldn't have said that. It may or may not agg that low, mid .2s are about average for a benchrest match. The customer told me it shot .1 MOA groups but that doesn't mean every time. However if you can't throw some ones and occasional zero in you won't agg low enough win. Its actually a score gun so it won't be shooting many group matches.