Cooling a barrel

Look for yourself

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gyyzIex6Elo

Easier to use the existing gas flow from the fired rounds to induce flow around the barrel....



No need for batteries.

I have thought about the possibility of putting a tubular handguard longer than the barrel on an AR for the Lewis cooling effect. JP even makes aluminum radiator fins that would go right with it.

Long handguards are pretty popular on modern-ish ARs. Not for any specific cooling effect, just to keep hands off it and add real estate for more rail area.

I was shooting a Winchester 94 once, then was ready to dog walk. It was still uncomfortably hot in the hand. I opened the action and poured water down the bore, shook it out, then went for my walk.

When I shoot a large cal rifle, M1 Garand for example) I'll run thru 2 clips, 16 rds and let it cool for maybe 20 minutes or so. Shoot something else during this period. When I shot at 1 particular range in Nevada that had no overhead cover their was a guy that came out frequently to check his zero. To cool his barrel he left is truck running with AC on. 3 rds and the rifle went into the truck and another came out. He wanted all to be as close to zero with a cold barrel since when hunting that is what you started out with.

The most efficient portable barrel cooling system I've even seen or used is the Winter Breeze system. I carry this on prairie dog shooting expeditions and a smoking hot barrel is cooled in less than a minute.

A battery powered mattress inflator is what you want.

What Rifle ? There is purpose made stuff out there.

Put rifle in rack, insert metal cleaning rod down barrel, wait a while. The rod will heat sink the barrel to a useful degree.

Somebody on the internet says to use a chilled bore snake.

There is a different blower, bright yellow to serve as an empty chamber indicator for formal target shooting.

Funnel , piece of tube , and some cold water will do it. Pour the water through the breech end. A couple of dry patches and you're good to go.

dullone said:

Look for yourself

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gyyzIex6Elo

Click to expand...

I saw one of these for the first time at my club just the other day. They were being used at a bench rest match.

wont cold water on a hot barrel warp or give stress cracks.

Click to expand...

Perhaps in an extreme situation. I question if sporting grade guns can shoot enough to get that hot, or not without other issues like cook-offs.

The comment reminded me of this, regarding Vickers water cooled machine guns

The weapon had a reputation for great solidity and reliability. Ian V. Hogg, in Weapons & War Machines, describes an action that took place in August 1916, during which the British 100th Company of the Machine Gun Corps fired their ten Vickers guns continuously for twelve hours. Using 100 barrels, they fired a million rounds without a failure. "It was this absolute foolproof reliability which endeared the Vickers to every British soldier who ever fired one."[

Click to expand...

It looks like each barrel essentially fired 10,000 rds in rotation with 9 other barrels per gun.

I've used damp rags on mine a few times in the summer.

I have used CO2 gas, it works great.

ohihunter2014 said:

wont cold water on a hot barrel warp or give stress cracks. I like the air bed pump idea. I have one and there is a small nozzle I could put a tube on and run tube into chamber and blow the air through.

Click to expand...

No....

Damp rags and open the bolt and give it some time to cool off. Bring a cooler with soda and your rags on inside the top of the cooler.

Slow down, shooting is fun, enjoy the time. Take a break, have a cold Mt. dew back from the bench. Watch your friends shoot poorly or well. Do not put your soda on the bench.

My deer hunting rounds I want perfected with a cool/cold bore.

Swanee

I agree with cold water or damp rag.

M

Depends on what you are shooting at.
If you are a hunter or a sniper, you must know where the first cold barrel shot goes. Cold and clean, cold and foul, you must test. Take other guns to shoot or other stuff to do.

If you are a target shooter, you usually get sighters to warm and foul the barrel and get to a stable condition and zero. Then it must stay the same for the rest of the match.
I have shot F class where I have 20 or 30 minutes maximum for 20 shots after sighters. And we usually shoot faster to try to stay at the same wind conditions. So my rifle must shoot well when hot.

When I was in basic training (Army) I shot my M-1 so much
that the barrel glowed red. I kept shooting until told to stop.
A captain was in charge that night and when the night was
finished he chose two of us to shoot up all the ammo so we
wouldn't have to properly stow it. We shot while the rest of
the platoon loaded clips. Really fun stuff.
Zeke

I saw one guy uses air duster for computers. Pretty handy to carry one in shooting bag.

No doubt, barrels don't cool in July and August! Blowing 90 degree air through it can't help much. I just wait, shoot another gun, wait, take some pictures...

Things go better in November and on through spring.

Mark

Sorry, new guy here to the long range rifle world. What kind of volume are we talking about having to fire in a bolt action .223 to need some apparatus to cool the barrel down?