FLUTED????

H

house

New member
I herd this term a while ago. Some guys were talking about there barrels being fluted? I have seen what they are. Was wondering what does it do to a target barrel?
I have seen heavy target barrels that are fluted? Do they reduce the weight? Make the gun more accurte? please help me.

Thanks
 
house,

Primarily, fluting gives the barrel more surface area for cooling. It looks cool is a cheap second reason. It's really more for "eye-candy" than for anything else. Once one manufacturer comes out with it, they all have to. Understand that perhaps a varmint shooter who caps dozens of dogs or coyotes on a single outing may find that the heavier, fluted barrel may offer him some additional cooling, but not enough to warrant spending the extra money to look cool. For common fodder like deer, moose, bear and such, a standard tapered barrel does just fine and is just as accurate in the right hands. Accuracy is a combination of shooter technique, experience, wind conditions, heat/cold, and the weapon being in prime condition. I know an old guy at the range that I frequent with an old H&R single-shot that outshoots most anybody I know with those fancy custom rifles. It's all about practice, practice, practice.
 
House,
Below is what Shilen's has to say about 'fluting' a barrel. Hope this helps ya'.

Fluting is a service we neither offer nor recommend. If you have a Shilen barrel fluted, the warranty is void. Fluting a barrel can induce unrecoverable stresses that will encourage warping when heated and
can also swell the bore dimensions, causing loose spots in the bore. A solid (un-fluted) barrel is more rigid than a fluted barrel of equal diameter. A fluted barrel is more rigid than a solid barrel of equal weight. All rifle barrels flex when fired. Accuracy requires that they simply flex the same and
return the same each time they are fired, hence the requirement for a pillar bedded action and free floating barrel. The unrecoverable stresses that fluting can induce will cause the barrel to flex
differently or not return from the flexing without cooling down a major amount. This is usually longe than a shooter has to wait for the next shot. The claim of the flutes helping to wick heat away faster is
true, but the benefit of the flutes is not recognizable in this regard until the barrel is already too hot.
 
In the 1970s a bunch of target shooters were in our barrel shop and the subject of fluted barrels came up and the point of the discussion was that they wouldn't shoot well enough for target guns. That was the reason you never saw one on the line. After the discussion broke up I was talking about it with my brother and we decided to make a couple of barrels and flute them at a point in the manufacture that we thought it should be done. We made two and one was given to Harold Broughton of Big Springs TX and I put the other on my brothers gun. To make a long story short Harold won the NBRSA Nationals and Pat won the IBS Nationals and set two worlds records. I will say that while these two barrels were outstanding barrels it was in spite of being fluted and not because of it. After that everyone was fluting barrels and at any point from after they were made to before they were drilled. For my own point of view you couldn't' run fast enough to give me one that some one else had fluted. I once asked an other barrel maker why he fluted barrels and he answered . $2.00 a minute! That was what he made in fluting them.
 
I'm glad to see Dale's and Shilen's comments on fluting. I really like my Bushmaster Shorty carbine; however, I totally dispute Bush's claim that fluting stiffens their barrels. That is to say, if you take an unfluted barrel and flute it, they claim that they're (for $50) stiffening the barrel. I agree with Shilen that the exact opposite is true.
 
Let me jump in with a bit of a Devil's Advocate question, with a specific purpose in mind.

If one were to go for a lightweight rifle for hunting in mountains, say a .308. An 18" or 19" barrel. Buy into the Shilen comment that a fluted barrel is stiffer for a given weight than a solid barrel, so you try the fluted barrel for LESS weight and equal stiffness.

Stress relieve the barrel after machining; possibly the cryogenic technique.

Since this is purely a hunting gun, I would be happy if a quick second shot were within an inch of the first, from a bench rest. I wouldn't be interested in 10-shot groups, and probably not even 5-shot groups.

Does this sound reasonable, toward the lightest possible rifle, with reasonable accuracy?

Regards, Art
 
Art, there's nothing wrong with your thinking, in my not-very-humble opinion. though there is a tradeoff between weight and your ability to hold the rifle steady (unless you are using a bipod, shooting sticks, or an improvised rest).

And a fluted barrel of the same weight as non-fluted *is* going to be stiffer (assuming they both have the same or similar taper profile). An unfluted barrel of the same outside diameter and profile will be stiffer than its fluted twin brother. The key to fluting is it lets you obtain better stiffness/weight ratios. Great for the field hunter, irrelevant for the target shooter. As Gale alluded, fluting a barrel properly requires you to think about what you're doing, and the world is full of people who would rather eat a bowl of goose turds than use their brain at work.

It seems to me that the optimum sequence of machining steps would be;
1) taper and prep the receiver end
2) flute
3) bore
4) rifle (I'm assuming cut rifling here)
5) chamber and trim-to-length
6) hand lap
7) crown
any comments, Gale?
 
Ivanhoe If you are forced to shoot a button barrel then you have 4 and 6 out of the sequence. If You are shooting a button barrel then you are wrong A fluted light weight barrel is only as safe as an unfluted barrel that is the diameter of the fluted barrel at the bottom of the flutes. I have seen several light weight barrels either jug in the flutes or split. I seem to recall that one of the jugged barrels was one of Eds . Probably why he quit! The eye candy was a correct description of fluting and for the life of me I can't figure why anyone would take the chance with one for that cool look!
 
So--what is the difference in accuracy between 2 bushmasters with 16" barrels:
1 non-fluted &
1 the same barrel fluted?
 
The fluted barrel won't be as stiff and there should be some accuracy differences, in favor of the non-fluted barrel. Many AR owners don't shoot for groups, with target scopes, and wouldn't notice the difference in a .5" group and a 1.5" group at 100 yds.
 
Thanks for the responses. For sure, I'm not into eye-candy, but I was wondering about the possibility of saving even a few more ounces than the usual lightweights...

Dunno why, but either these danged mountains are growing taller, or the slopes are getting steeper. And my Old Pet must be getting fat from old age, since it seems heavier than it was some 30 years ago.

Hmmm. Couldn't be me, could it? :)
 
don't know if anyone makes one, but a stainless tube wrapped in glass or carbon fiber would be the lightest and probably stiffest of all .

cmore
 
Cmore the composite barrel is a reality and is not worth a damb. They wrap Graphite epoxy around one but the ones I have seen had the graphite come loose.. Then all you have is a dangerously small steel barrel
 
OK, I confess! I gave in to the darkside once. I have a Briley STC 10/22 with a .920" fluted stainless barrel. To be honest, I like the looks. It shoots great, but I wouldn't like fluted barrels on any of my larger rifles.

Chuck
 
When I start to build up my AR-15 I'm gonna get a fluted barrel... why? It looks cool!!!

function and good looks apeal to me :)

although the price usually doesen't... :(

-Frank the Spank
 
My experience with the fluted vs non-fluted BFI/QP barrels is that the only functional difference is the weight of your wallet afterwards... I have both on otherwise identical semi-auto systems, and both are more accurate than I (error masking). YMMV with either full-auto or sustained fire.
 
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