Carbon Wrapped, StraightJacket or Lothar Walther Ultra-light Barrels?

Is the Carbon Wrap hype for real?

  • Yes, it really works

    Votes: 1 6.7%

  • No

    Votes: 3 20.0%

  • I don't know

    Votes: 3 20.0%

  • I don't know but am interested in the technology or similar

    Votes: 8 53.3%
  • Total voters
    15
M

miykael

New member
 
Last edited:
Had two of the ABS barrels on an AR15. We tested them for heat against an M4 barrel and they did appear to run cooler than the M4 barrel. Unfortunately, I was unable to get acceptable accuracy out of either of the ABS barrels and ended up returning them to ABS.
 
I prefer Lothar Walther barrels, and while I haven't used their ultralight barrels yet I wouldn't hesitate to use one. Aluminum sheathed barrels are really popular with the 22 rimfire crowd, and I have high confidence in their ability to translate that into a large centerfire solution.

Jimro
 
I have a 300 WSM with a Rock ABS barrel.

I was initially skeptical, but have found a load that shoots well.

Getting 3030 fps with 175 Berger VLD's and Re 17. I've shot some 1/2" groups at 200 yds with that gun.

I'm waiting on my Straight jacket rifles. I'm curious enough that I sent them a couple. We'll see.
 
Thanks

Thanks for the opinions. dworrel, it would be great if you could post your results on the different barrels you have. It's hard to find good info on these things from real people ;) All the best.
 
I spoke with the folks at Lothar Walthre a year or so ago. They are doing a conventional press-fit aluminum sleeve on one of their premium barrels. I was ready to roll on putting one on a rifle I was building, but the customer balked at the price (pretty spendy installed). I would go with the Lothar Walther Ultralight barrel if I were you.

I tested a Magnum Research wrapped barrel about ten years ago and was not imoressed. Yes, it was light, but accuracy was terrible. They claimed their wrapped barrels exceeded their accuracy expectations, but the best I could get a heavy-barreled 22-250 to shoot was about 2" at 100 yds, nowhere near my accuracy expectations. I talked with the folks at Christensen Arms last year (same rifle build), and they were very confident of their wrapped barrels' accuracy potential. So I'm still kinda up in the air about the accuracy potential of wrapped barrels.
 
Carbon fiber composite is absolutely lousy at conducting heat perpendicular to the fiber. Which is why they seem to be cool, that's because it's an insulator around the (rapidly heating) steel barrel. Hence the accuracy problems.
Also, the claim that the material is so expensive (and that's why they demand a surcharge on the carbon barrels) is nonsense, aircraft grade composites cost about $20 a pound (it's up to you to calculate how much might be wrapped around a barrel).
 
I've never really figured out the rationale behind some of these systems for most shooters.

I spoke with Teludyne a while back about their system, I was interested in getting a lightweight, 20" Savage 7-08 barrel done. I wanted to just send in the barrel- thinking it could be done much cheaper, saving the gunsmithing and stock modifications they include in their pricing. They wouldn't do it, but we talked about their system and he explained to me that the objective was to take a customer's lightweight factory barrel, and sleeve it, removing the issue of shot-stringing when a light barrel heats up.

Nonetheless, I don't quite follow the logic.

A "lightweight", factory contour barrel can be every bit as accurate as a heavy barrel for a few shots until the barrel heats up. So, I cannot see any advantage to a hunter...

A target shooter, typically doesn't care about the weight of a bull or varmint contour barrel, because they're not toting the rifle up a mountain.

While I can why this might be useful to a select few for special applications, I'm must be missing, something....
 
Thanks

Good points, thanks guys. Guess the barrels would come into play for extended shooting with a multi-purpose rifle (i.e. lightweight for hunting but multi-shot for the range).
 
Carbon fiber composite is absolutely lousy at conducting heat perpendicular to the fiber. Which is why they seem to be cool, that's because it's an insulator around the (rapidly heating) steel barrel. Hence the accuracy problems.
Click to expand...

No idea what cause the accuracy problems; but when I tested the ABS barrels, we measured at three points, including the exposed steel gas block. One reason we did this is exactly because I was concerned that the carbon fiber was acting as an insulator and hiding the heat.

However, the ABS barrel stayed cooler than the M4 barrel at all three points and it cooled back down to ambient temperature faster as well. Had the carbon fiber been acting as an insulator, I would have expected the gas block temperature to be higher than the M4, and overall it should have taken longer for the ABS barrel to cool down. Neither of those happened.

Accuracy, however, was unacceptable even by military standards.
 
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