I have a hard time trying to make up my mind. I have to order a barrel for my new project and cande decide on the profile and If I should flute the barrel.
The rifle will be in 300 WBY mag. (Yes I know some will call it an old prehistoric cartridge, but who cares.)

The alternatives are a 4# shilen with no flutes or a 5# Shilen with flutes. The barrel lenght will be 26 inches.

Does any one know how much the difference would be between the barrels in an unfluted condition?

Don't be shy!!

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Doug Humbarger
NRA Life member

I don't consider #4 or #5 to be heavy. I like rifles with some weight.

Bear Claw, I had one walter Lohtar barrel and it were 110% junk. The twist were changing thru the bore. The bore finish looked like it were made with a grand P'a harvester. The bore were not straight either.

I hate Walter Lothar since that day, Sorry to all of you who likes them.

I have special feelings about flutes. I have rifles of both kinds.

Keep posting your thoughts

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Doug Humbarger
NRA Life member

I have to say like the the other gents�here, stay avay from the flutes. I don�t mind the look on a rifle with flutes though.
The flutes don�t make up for a lot of weigth on a sporter barrel, in my opinion lots of people have them for the looks on a hunting rifle...........

It saves some weigth on a heavy target or benchrest barrel, but not that mutch. In my opinion the wallet notice a bigger change that the scales

Good luck with your project JOHAN!! Ho is doing the gunsmithing on your rifle here in Sweden?

Stefan.

I can see some point in this if you want the lightest available barrel, but not so much when, as you say, you have an alternative weight available to use instead. Not many people realise how little weight is actually shifted by fluting. By my calculations twenty inches of six-groove fluting, semicircular in cross-section and 1/8in. across, should remove six or seven ounces of metal relative to the same diameter unfluted, and much less relative to the same stiffness. The Steyr Scout, which I personally consider an effective but unlovable rifle, would about half those figures. A lot of fluting, too, is much shallower than semicircular.

The other advantage claimed is faster heat loss to the atmosphere. This might be true in certain very limited applications, but I don't think the ordinarily used hunting rifle is among them. For one thing, the temperature of the barrel's outer surface is only an indirect guide to how much bore erosion you are suffering. Heat can only get into the barrel during the extremely brief travel of the bullet down the bore, which means that all the heat a barrel receives per shot, enough to warm it slightly, was at one time concentrated in a paper-thin layer of steel. This layer was once very hot indeed, and erosion is mainly due to microscopic cracking caused by the difference in temperature between this and the bulk of the barrel. Different patterns of firing are far more important than anything we can do to the outer surface of the barrel.

I think really well-done fluting is far less harmful than inferior work, which seems likely as more and more people get in on the act. It certainly gives more chance for something to go wrong, and there are pitfalls even if the metal is perfectly concentric. Doug Shilen and no doubt other barrelmakers recommend against fluting, and often regard it as voiding their guarantee. the main reason is that it can cause assymmetrical liberation of built-in stresses. Barrels have been known to become very slightly hexagonal in the bore, with six-groove fluting, which interacts quite excessively interesting with the spiral of the rifling.

I'd guess cryogenic stress relief to be much more useful than with other barrels, and the chances of trouble are probably greater with button-rifling than cut, and extreme with hammer-forged. The ideal sequence would be to drill and profile the bar before fluting, flute it, then ream it into a true cylinder and finally cut-rifle. That more or less demands you have it done by a barrelmaker.

I have made up my mind. The barrel will be a #5 Shilen from Border with no cooling devices as flutes. Border can deliver the barrel faster if I order without flutees.

If the Rifle get heavy I have too pump some more Iron at the Gym.

The larger profile would make the rifle easier to shoot and perhaps get better accuracy.

Cheers
JOHAN

quote:

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Originally posted by JOHAN:
Dear Riflenuts

I have made up my mind. The barrel will be a #5 Shilen from Border with no cooling devices as flutes. Border can deliver the barrel faster if I order without flutees.

If the Rifle get heavy I have too pump some more Iron at the Gym.

The larger profile would make the rifle easier to shoot and perhaps get better accuracy.

Cheers
JOHAN

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For some years I have pondered sleeving all but the chamber of a barrel with an aluminum tube. Greater crossectional area, less weight and natural heatsink. Anyone seen this tried?

Wally

I think the Dan Wesson line of revolvers does something along these lines with their barrels, but I am not sure.

You could always try out one of the Christenson Arms graphite/carbon fiber wrapped barrels.

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I know the next rifle will be perfect.......

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Andr�