Since in general a heavier weight and profile barrel is to be found on more accurate rifles, does anyone know of any successful technique or experimentation to add either (1) an outer fitted sleeve to a standard or sporter weight barrel which improved accuracy or (2) a fitted weight added to the same type barrel at some point (perhaps near the muzzle?) to achieve the same result. It would offer perhaps a less expensive alternative to rebarreling. I know about the Boss system from Browning - is this system effective for other guns and/or is something like this available as an add-on product or DIY project?

[ 06-28-2002, 00:03: Message edited by: sonofagun ]

sonofagun,
I think the shrouded barrel concept now takes form in carbon fiber reinforced barrels.
Butler Creek(I think) had an ad of aluminum tube shrouded steel barrels for Ruger 10/22, the muzzle end of the aluminum outer tube has a threaded cap for tension adjustment for tuning barrel harmonics. Clark Custom offers a barrel shroud for factory Mini-14/30, the shroud basically stiffens the part of barrel that sticks out of the forend. A test was done on a gun magazine and a factory mini-14 group did shrunk from 3 inch-ish to 1 inch-ish.

The BOSS can be added to a rifle that is adapted to fit. I know a guy on my local range who has a BOSS installed on every rifle he has, even on a .22.

Sonofagun:

Greg Tannel [GTR Tooling, Kersey Colorado, (9700 353-6176] had a sleeved thousand yard gun several years ago. The sleeve ran the length of the barrel and "tensioned" the barrel by turning an adjustment at the muzzle. I think he liked the concept. I know that at one time, he also filled the void between sleeve and barrel with a rubber powder of some sorts to dampen barrel vibration and even had bottled Co2 running into the void to provide cooling!

Volquartsen uses the concept [barrel tensioning] in their .22/.22 WMR rifles and claims that it works, to wit, they can get heavy barrel accuracy out of a light [tensioned] barrel. Of course, there are other accuracy benefits to weight, such as holding still on the bags.

Regards,

Jordan

Call me crazy but try this, it will not cost you much. Get a battery clamp, put it on the end of your barrel at the muzzle shoot groups, slowly turn it and see where it shoots best. I Know it sounds crazy but the most it would cost is $3 for the clamp and time at the bench.

ThSimpson

My local gun club once had an "two gun" member competition in which you had to use one rifle and one shotgun to compete in several different shooting sports. For the rifle competition I used a rather lightweight Sako .222. Had to shoot everything from benchrest to offhand at 200 yards. For the latter, I added some forward weight to my Sako by making up a little removeable "hanger" that used lead on the bottom of a piece of wood that made contact only with the forearm. Worked fine and served the purpose.

I've had the same or similar thoughts...Currently working on a "harmonic balancer" (automobile reference) for a couple of my guns...definitely should work "in theory"...Not sure how much it'll help in reality

In the old days, sleeves were commonplace on benchrest and even some varmint rifles that were built on Remington 722 and Model 700 actions. You don't see so much of this today, part of the reason being that a lot of the top shooters are turning to custom benchrest actions such as the Stolle. These actions are very stiff and preclude the need for sleeves.

Darrell Holland has a very intelligent system he calls the "V-Block" that eliminates all action flexing. In this case, the action itself is actually free-floated. It's for use with Model 700 actions.

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Allen,

Can you explain how the V-block works? Does it sort of clamp on the barrel
, then screwed onto the stock?

Pyrotek, with Holland's VeeBlock system, the entire action is free-floated so it won't flex. The barrel has a recoil lug system on it. That's it, basically. It's a very sound concept and it's very nicely made by Darrell Holland.

Here's a website: www.hollandguns.com

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Allen: you're talking about an action sleeve which is different than what I asked about. An action sleeve is mainly on the action; I'm talking about a sleeve only on the barrel. Let's not get off topic.