[WhoKnowsWho]

Do any of you have a temp guage and measured the temp of the barrel? I was wondering exactly how hot these things get. 'Cause I know I could have cooked eggs on my AR-15 barrel after a few rounds.

[Navy joe]

Nope, never done it. I don't think it is possible to overheat a pistol barrel, I've put a lot of rounds through many pistols very quickly, I just think that there isn't as much powder and a lot of it is still burning when it leaves the barrel.

With my heavy barrelled AR I shoot 60 and set it aside with the bolt open to cool. If I felt like abusing it a little it could go a lot more than that and then I'd just pour wter down and over the barrel. If your handguards melt, that may be what's known as a clue.

I guess if you were curious you could go to a welding supply store and get some Templstiks. They are a crayon type marker that melt at specific heat ranges.

[10-Ring]

I've never thought about measuring the actual temp of my P7M8 barrel...other than too hot to touch! Would be nice to know tho!

[WhoKnowsWho]

I know my RC Car engines can get up to around 300 F, someone has to have a temp guage?!

[huaco]

The high tech way would be to get an infrared thermometer that you just point at or in the barrel and get a reading. A low tech way would be to get a meat thermometer and stick it in the barrel. Both should cover an appropriate range of temperature.

[blades67]

Gun barrels get hot, damn hot! And you can quote me on that.:D

[Navy joe]

I repeat, Temp-l-stik. Yeah I have access to IR thermometers, the good ones are also 400 bucks.

[Monkeyleg]

I've seen some benchrest shooters use a stick-on color strip that changes with the barrel temp. While I never competed in benchrest, I've come to believe that barrel temp in a long gun definitely affects point of aim.

The flip side of all this is shooting full-auto. Once, after taking a couple of clients out to shoot hundreds of rounds through my Thompson, I made the mistake of touching the fins on the barrel to see if it was still hot. For the next week I told people that the burnt lines on my hand were "grill marks" that I got at a picnic.