Obviously, the metallurgical specs of the steel must be highly uniform from batch to batch; otherwise it will have more or less spring-back, which would have to be compensated for with new buttons. Obvious, too, is that stress relieving after the barrel is shaped and chambered is extremely important, as it minimizes these tendencies and "relaxes" the steel. Which brings us to cut or "hook" rifling. The major advantage of cutting the grooves rather than hammering or ironing them into the bore is that there is no stress introduced.
According to Houghton, they stress relieve only once, and it's done to H-S's specs by the steel supplier prior to delivery. And yes, we've tried cryo several times. Some of the other advantages for cut rifling is that special twist rates and groove depths present no more of a problem than standard specs.
One can truly have a "custom" barrel using this method. Of course, cut rifling is not without its downside; it is very time-consuming and, therefore, more expensive than buttoning. A barrel is buttoned in about 15 seconds, whereas for an H-S Precision 10X barrel it takes more than two hours just to cut the rifling.
John Krieger is another one of the relatively few to do cut rifling, as does Rocky Mountain Arms. Earlier I mentioned that the other type of cut rifling was the broach method. A broach cuts all the grooves at once and does it in a single pass. Broaches, however, are very expensive-too much so for the independent barrel makers. Only governments can afford to use 'em, and indeed that was the way it was done for wartime production.
To my knowledge, no custom barrel maker uses broaches for rifle barrels, but a few use them for pistol pipes. The latest trend in barrels, beside cryogenic treatment either during the manufacturing stages or as an aftermarket process, is fluting. There's really no controversy about fluting; it works.
Fluting a barrel definitely lightens it, stiffens it and cools it faster because it exposes so much more surface area. Because a certain wall thickness must be maintained for safety reasons, however, a barrel must be of a heavier contour than normal and the flutes can only be so deep. Depending on the length, width and depth of the flutes, the trade-off in terms of weight come close to being a wash. The net result is a thicker barrel than normal, but one that weighs about the same as a thinner, non-fluted one.
How-ever, you still have the advantages that flutes provide. While on the subject of flutes, E. Shaw, Inc. Because the flutes spiral around the outside of the barrel, they are longer for any given barrel length, and therefore lighten it to a greater degree and expose more surface area than a straight-fluted barrel. For the time being, Shaw plans to offer their helical-fluted barrels only in a non-tapered configuration, but hope to perfect the process to include tapered sporter barrels as well.
So what can we conclude from this brief overview of the barrel-making process? Not too much, I'm afraid, other than that there are several ways to make a good barrel. Besides, how good does a barrel have to be? For general hunting, 1 MOA is considered superb accuracy, assuming you can shoot that well under field conditions.
Most of us cannot, yet the average barrel today is capable of that kind of accuracy, given proper bedding and handloading techniques. Competitive shooting is something else again.
Whether it be benchrest, 1,yard, silhouette or position shooting, any accuracy edge, real or imagined, is beyond price. I stress "imagined" because in competition you must believe that you're shooting the best barrel that science and skill are capable of producing.
A competitive shooter will grasp at any straw, including the burning of incense and incantation recitation if he believes it will improve his shooting by one percent. If he believes, for example, that the cryo treatment he had done to his barrel has helped accuracy, it probably will because he'll perform better with that mindset. But again, one has to find comfort in the fact that, regardless of what production methods are employed, today's barrels are far superior to those of just a generation ago.
Whether you're about to touch off the tenth round of a group that might be a new world's record, or a shot on a inch pronghorn standing yards away, that's good to know! Give a Gift Subscriber Services. See All Special Interest Magazines. All RifleShooter subscribers now have digital access to their magazine content. Thanks guys. Lots of opinions at a recent meeting but nobody knew or sure about the source of Remington barrels.
Originally Posted by Horseheadman. Originally Posted by sniper. I can't even imagine the stress in a hammer forged barrel. Then profile it afterwards? Originally Posted by sicero. I purchased one of their first Police Special. The barrel imprssed me so that when groups started opening up I had it rechambered and the barrel shortened 1" at the muzzle and recrowned. The result was as good as new.
Well over rounds through this rifle so far. Some barrels shoot really well and other's not so well. I got a good one. Shilen has been doing most of their 17 cal barrels. The process was perfected by Remington who used the nearby facilities at Hart Barrels for its experiments during the development. In this process, which is the most common in the U. First the bore has to be lubricated. Every barrel maker has their own "secret sauce" or lube and guards its identity fiercely.
A button is a somewhat football shaped carbide tool with the rifling pattern ground in relief into its surface. The button is attached to a rod and is then pulled through the bore. Hart pushes them through instead. As the hard button passes through, the raised rifling pattern on its surface is pressing into the softer surface of the bore and is creating the grooves in a cold forming process. The operation is very fast, and only takes about a minute per barrel.
Thus, button rifled barrels are usually less costly to produce. There are two types of buttons. One is a simple rifling button which works as just described. On the minus side, a simple button will leave burr like feathers on the edge of the lands. However, a combo unit which consists of a rifling button and a finishing button will both press in the lands and smooth their edges in the same pass.
As you might guess, pulling an oversized button through an undersized hole requires great force and creates significant stress in the barrel. If not, all kinds of strange things including splitting down the length of the barrel is possible.
Good info. That's why funny or stupid don't bother me. It took me throwing my worthless knowledge to get an answer. So what is more accurate Just found that remington hammer forges their barrels.
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