mannlicher swirly barrel

Waldy

Well-Known Member
Hi ,

I have a Steyr Mannlicher classic which I showed to a colleague the other day , he used to work on the tanks in Vickers & is interested in engineering bits of metal working , lathes & the like .
He aked me about the twisted effect on the barrel , does it serve a purpose or is it purley cosmetic , how is it produced ?

Can anyone enlighten me?
 
acording to my local ballistics and such boffin its cold hammer forging for strengh grrrrrr
 
I've got a .243 with this barrel, it looks very pretty and shoots very straight. I'm not an expert on ballistics but one thing that might be attributable to the barrel is that there is very little effect in the zero when the barrel gets hot. In previous rifles I have found this to be a significant problem.
 
Does the spiral turn the opposite way to the barrel rifleing?

If it does, it might make better barrel harmonics for shooting?

Opposite effects and stuff like that....

Would I be correct in thinking that the barrel gets the hammer forged (gives the round barrel an octogen shape) then gets twisted in the final stages.

Just a thought :confused:

TJ
 
As i recall they come out of the hammer forgeing machine like that . They look OK and i suppose it saves time and money grinding them to a round profile.
 
Jagare is correct the spiral is a result of the hammer forging process and while most makers then run the barrel through a lathe to finish and reprofile the barrel, manlicher have decided to make a feature of it.
Some years ago on a visit to the FN factory we were shown the machine for producing barrels for machine guns. A barrel blank of about a foot in length was put in the machine the mandril was hammered through and out came a full length rifled barrel ready for re-profiling and chambering.
Most rifle barrels are made in a similar way, I know that Parker-Hale were, and they had a very good reputation for accuracy value for money wise.
I believe that there is some debate as to whether the stresses imposed in manufacture should be relieved by machining the exterior of the barrel or by some other cryogenic process, no doubt the information is put on the net by various barrel makers.
 
Thanks guys ,
I think that'll satisfy my friend .

Function ,form & cost saving ! Not often you get all three !!!
 
Hammer forging is the cheapest way to mass produce barrels to a reasonable standard hence the reason the military use it.

Dave
 
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