Benefits of fluted barrel
 

Just curious what are the actual benefits of a fluted vs non fluted barrel...thinking of getting a barrel fluted but not sure if its actually worth it
Or not

A slight weight reduction and if you have your rifle fluted it won't look like the other million that came off the shelf.

Looks cool.
Depending on contour can save some weight.

VS

Expense.
Chance of hurt accuracy.

Surface area. Helps to cool but its mostly cosmetic

Looks cool, slightly lighter, slightly better heat dispersion.

I had Ron Smith build me one back when nobody else had one was very cool then, now it just looks like another ordinary gun.

I would like to do my own at work (machine shop) but instead of straight flutes put it in a dividing head with a compond gear train and put spiral flutes in it.

has anyone ever seen this done before?


LS

When that barrel heats up its going to do some crazy deflecting, due to spiral fluting. Only an educated guess. Try a test piece with similar steel, heat it up and see what happens.

Your exactly correct. There are some barrels spiral fluted but there is a opposing spiral that intercect on the barrel. the only way to prevent it from twisting. Think of a tube from wrapping paper on where they seperate. Barrel is just kind of an extreme exaple of same thing.

Spiral fluted barrels have been out for a while now.

I'm always a day late and a dollar short....


Thanks, I haven't seen one yet.

LS

Makes sence.

Do they have a high or low rate of twist generally? I was thinking of maybe half a turn, with 4 flutes on a standard barrel. Thanks.

LS

twistedbarrel.com

I dont think so. Barrels are spiral fluted on the inside i never heard of any problems. Does the barrel unwrap if it expands or does the flute grow with the barrel

Lighter weight for a given diameter.

good grief, another one of these threads where the fudds complain about fluted and spiral fluted barrels not being as good as a regular barrel and then everyone else has to try and explain how the structure of a fluted barrel can be stiffer to the same weight of a non fluted barrel and how it has higher surface area.

Try the search button first next time.

As for spiral fluting, perhaps you should give prarie gunworks a call to let them know their barrels wont work.

:sign0176:

Basic physics dictates that every action has a reaction.
Greater surface area DOES cool faster, but the barrel must also then heat up faster according to physics.
What we do know is that metals of varying thickness heat and cool at different rates so the barrel heats unevenly through out its diameter. How this can be any sort of accuracy enhancement eludes me.

What we are seeing now (under the borescope) as more and more fluted barrels come in for replacement is that the firecracking in the bore is much worse where the material has been removed to create the flutes. This would lead to to believe that accurate barrel life may be diminished.

Frankly the only benefit I see to fluting is that it makes the person doing the fluting richer.

I've owned only unfluted until this year when I got my finnlight. Unless you find your rifle particularly heavy, I'd leave it alone. If it's a shooter you don't want to mess with that! When you want greater accuracy, do you go for a fluted barrel or a bull barrel? hmmmmmmmmm ;)

Show me a fluted barrel and I will show
you an unfluted barrel that is just as good
No difference except the kewl factor
Cat

Leave it as is...not much if anything gained just looks.

the area of a fluted barrel is greater if the radius of the flute cut is smaller than the radius of the barrel. if the radiuses are the same the barrel will have the same area. im sure most flutes have a smaller radius but stiil the area difference would be much smaller than popularly believed and probably insignificant.

I think the record for barrel fluting at our shop was 7 in one day. At least half were spiral fluted. This was 3 or 4 years ago when I had time for such shenanigans.

I did one spiral fluted with steps where the flutes ended near the receiver end. Every pass I would shorten the X value and adjust the A value to coincide thereby leaving the flute shallower nearer the chamber.

CNC mills with a 4th axis are great for fluting.