Interesting article on fluting.

[Tom D]

http://www.gunsmith.co.nz/FlutingNotes.pdf

saw this on another forum, seems logical... But I'm not a gunsmith...

 

[Woodsmoke]

That was interesting, thank you

'-Any potential reduction in accuracy or performance is not a major concern.

- You just think that fluting looks cute and don’t really care if it affects the accuracy much'

Taking the above statements into account, it makes you wonder why on earth anyone would see a fluted barrel as anything other than a complete liability

 

[bobthedog]

Hi, thanks for showing this article which I found very interesting.Jon

 

[Peter Eaton]

So who was the gunsmith......as only a trained gunsmith who has worked his finger to blisters over several years will be able to give the correct advice. I think there are as many truly trained gunsmith as you can count on one hand in the UK. I served my time as a plumber, 5 years.... but a bloke from the back of some place in Eastern Europe I have never heard of has more recognition than me. My barrel is fluted, by a trained gunsmith, oddly it has never split, nor have the thousands shot at Bisely when I have seen them so hot you cant touch them. Oh and guess what.....I bet the guns in questions were from the States or NZ and never proofed ..hey ho. But the really important part of this article is the mention of snow or debris in the barrel.....hardly surprising the barrel split, nor any mention of the load that was used when it split.

The advice would be.....no matter if your barrel is fluted, sprayed pink with stripes.......use a gunsmith who is actually correctly trained.

If work is done on pressure bearing surfaces ....get it proofed.

Check for blockages , esp if mud or snow is suspected to be an obstruction.

Anything else as regards , accuracy , weight barrel performance is besides the point.

If you have a decent barrel with a safe load it should shoot straight and safe ....ie a heavy barrel as in the document. Why on earth would you flute a light barrel.....it would most likely fail on proofing. Also a decent smith will flute a barrel perfectly straight, even NASA would be proud of the tolerances .....

If you dick around with it, spank the arse off your loads ....don't cry when it goes wrong...

With regards to blockages ''blowing out''......what a shocking statement .......you don't shoot if you suspect a blockage, even water droplets......the mind boggles.

Simples )))

But thanks for posting as interesting read as you say.

 

[brunel-999]

http://www.gunsmith.co.nz/FlutingNotes.pdf

saw this on another forum, seems logical... But I'm not a gunsmith...

Tom,

Thanks for the link, an interesting article.

I was thinking about buying a new barrel for my Mauser M03 in 6.5 mm x 55 Swedish, and I have been offered two second-hand barrels both 17mm dia. and 20" long, one plain for £600, and one fluted for £1100.

I was fairly skeptical about the 'advantages' of a fluted barrel, now I am convinced it is not worth the extra money.

Regards,

John

 

[Ray7756]

I have a Sako 22-250 in stainless with a fluted barrel, it shoots great, if I do my bit, 5 shots in 1 inch bull at 100yds, and I have taken foxes at 300 yd with it, I bought it as I liked the look of it + Sako has a great reputation for accurate guns, as for the pros and cons of fluted barrels, its not something I want to get into, but mine is a very accurate gun and im really happy with it, unless you are shooting at 1000 mt and looking for super extreme accuracy I dont think it makes a difference, and to the normal shooter the gun is normally a lot more accurate than the shooter, so buy what you like the look and feel of and ENJOY your shooting
I also have a 10/22, .22 hornet .308 all non fluted
Cheers
Ray

PS it is a very interesting article

 

[L1A1]

Reading the article he seems to be referring to fluting a barrel after manufacture, rather than a new barrel that has been produced as a fluted barrel.

 

[Peter Eaton]

Reading the article he seems to be referring to fluting a barrel after manufacture, rather than a new barrel that has been produced as a fluted barrel.

I would agree with that. Funnily enough me and a mate were at the shooting show a few years ago and he was asking one of the rifle plumbing firms if they could flute his rifle. The reply was no because out insurers wont allow it. Utter tosh, what they meant was we don't have the knowledge to do this so.

Three years later he had his rifle fluted and proofed......the result. A tiny bit lighter and a wee bit more surface area for heat dissipation. But it looks nice and it his rifle..................oh an fully insured as the work done by a trained smith an proofed.

My rifle was from a Krieger blanks. Stainless and fluted by the smith.....then proofed...looks stunning , folk often ask how did the work and it shoots bullet on bullet....though that zero has nothing to do with the fluting I would guess. I later had my bolt fluted and no it did not need re proofing as no work done to a pressure bearing surface.

Lessons to be learnt are.....only let your rifle fluted by someone who is a trained smith or there are folk who are superb with this kind of work and not smiths by trade. But they will insist your rifle is proofed.....even if screw cut.

Finally a rifle with fluff, moisture . soil or snow in it.....well guess what might be the result ......and yep it will peel back along the flute lines.....path of least resistance...You might also lose a finger or two and get a bolt in your jaw at high speed..

Proof it ...keep is clean....and don't be a fool .....nothing will go wrong.


Just re read the article and utter tosh about cutting fluted barrels.......my gun was 30-06 AI ....I had it chambered to .308.....that meant a fair bit of rear work on the barrel.....it looks stunning. As for chopping the crown end, has anyone had this done and despaired ?


With regards to this comment

(Note: the following rifle was fired with a slight dirt (or snow) obstruction at the muzzle – of which the owner was unaware. The bullet hit the obstruction, but instead of just blowing it out, the barrel pressure built up and failed initially at the flute section, causing the whole barrel to split up along the flute line towards the chamber. If the barrel had been un-fluted, the worst that would have (most likely) occurred would have been a slight bulge at the muzzle, which could have been shortened back an inch or two then re-crowned. This rifle needed a new barrel and a new stock. The manufacturer’s agent refused any warranty in this case.

Anyone care to stick an old jag cloth, mud , a few droplets of water or snow in their barrel and se the result....hmmmm will it ''blow it out''......any videos welcome, tin hats at the ready and nope warranty wont be worth Jack lol....I have also never seen a silencer fitted to rifle except I a few war films, mine has a moderator , it still make a bloody big bang .....and its fitted to a fluted barrel lol.


TOM D........please don't think I'm ''knocking you'' ......really glad you posted this as it is for the most part nonsense my friend.
Though I must complain as I am sat up late with a rather nice brandy
typing this )))

 

[Tom D]

I just posted the article as a discussion point, no offence taken.
I thing from my perspective barrels blowing up is a minor concern, it must be extremely rare. Of more concern is potential accuracy loss as the barrel warms. if the bore is perfectly concentric and the fluting depth is perfectly even then there is no reason why it wont shoot perfectly well, possibly slightly better as it dissipates the heat better. However if either of the above factors are not perfect and therefore the metal between the bore and the fluting is thicker / thinner on one side then the barrel will move in the heat and walk shots...

 

[ejg]

My take... the article is mostly bs.
I don't use a fluted barrel yet but would not be worried using one.
edi

 

[tackb]

a good barrel is a good barrel fluted or not , I wouldn't flute a barrel off my own back , if I wanted to loose weight I'd either look to my own waist or the stock on my rifle first

 

[enfieldspares]

A tiny bit lighter and a wee bit more surface area for heat dissipation.

Actually it's a myth. you would think it would be so...logically...but it isn't. It was tried, radially, on the Hotchkiss Machine gun and longitudinally on the Lewis Machine Gun. It didn't work on either.

And this isn't gunsmith opinion this is research by Enfield Lock that proved it was a myth.

I don't know the whys and wherefores but the work they did went into it in some detail. It's to do with the direct relationship between the fluting, or not, and the thickness of the barrel not any difference in surface area.

So a fluted barrel will cool quicker than a non-fluted barrel that has the same outside diameter as the diameter of the fluted barrel at peak of the flutes because it is, in places, thinner than the non-fluted barrel.

Not because of its increased surface area.

But a fluted will cool slower than a non-fluted barrel that has the same outside diameter as the diameter of the fluted barrel at the trough of the flutes because that that non-fluted barrel is thinner.

This despite its increased surface area. I'll best explain it as it was explained to me.

That it's why octagon barrels cool quicker as they are round barrels with the round bits machined off thus making the barrel thinner than when it was round even though by making it octagonal you have actually reduced the surface area of the barrel.