Best ways to deal with barrel heat ?

[Mulliga]

Well, after my paycheck comes in, I'm going to get my first AR-15, and from my friends' AR-15s, I know that they can get awful hot. One guy I know has a 16" bull barrel that gets hot to the touch relatively quickly. I'm going to be getting either an HBAR 20" A2 or a superlight 16" (A1 profile), so I'm guessing my barrel will heat up even quicker.

How do you guys deal with heat? Is it okay to put ice/water on the barrel to cool it down? I'm guessing it'd be all right as long as you wipe the barrel off with some gun oil or CLP after you're done shooting.

 

[BryanP]

I have a 20" A2 HBAR and yes, it does get rather hot. I just aircool it by taking breaks and / or switching to a different rifle or a pistol. It may not be a problem to pour icewater over the barrel but I'd be leery of trying it. Sudden temperature yo-yoing is a Bad Thing for many things and I'd rather not try it with my rifle.

 

[Bartholomew Roberts]

BryanP offers good advice on sudden temperature changes. It can be done; but I wouldn't make a habit of it. If you have to cool it down, best method is to unload it, lock the bolt to the rear with the dust cover open and let it sit for awhile.

The more barrel mass you have; the longer it will take for your barrel to heat up and the better it will handle heat in general. For example, if you fire 100 rounds through an HBAR and 100 rounds through a lightweight, the HBAR will get less hot and will cool down first. However, if you fire until both guns reach a certain temperature (say 300F), it will take many more rounds to get the HBAR to that level; but once there it will take longer to cool down than the lightweight.

The primary way I deal with heat is to keep my hands and arms free of the barrel when shooting extended sessions. Although, I have noticed that since I've added my free-float RAS, the barrel is noticeably more difficult to heat up. My guess is that the RAS offers much better air flow over the barrel compared to the handguards and the aluminium seems to act as a heat sink in drawing some of the heat away from the barrel and distributing it over a larger area (but you'll need the panels or the vertical grips as the RAS gets toasty also).

 

[Jaywalker]

I rack the rifle with the barrel up and the action open. Heat rises, so hot air in the barrel does, too, and that draws fresh air into the receiver, into the barrel and out. I've thought about cobbling together a battery-powered, forced-air fan through a tube to accelerate the natural flow, but I haven't done anything about it, yet.

Jaywalker

 

[Redlg155]

I also just set her aside and shoot something else. Either that or slow down the rate of fire.

I remember shooting my issue M16A1 until the barrel was smoking and the gas tube was cherry red. Fun to do with someone elses gun, but I wouldn't do it with my personal weapon.

Good Shooting
Red

 

[MrMurphy]

Shoot half a dozen mags (slow or rapid), lock the bolt open and reload some mags...... by the time you're done, it should be cooled.


You want to know hot? My dad said in Vietnam occasionally his M60 got so hot the barrel was glowing completely white. I've seen an M4 carbine get this way after about 10 mags full auto during a test in a picture. I wouldn't have wanted to be the shooter!

 

[mattf7184]

I am the genius that used the water on my bull barrel 16" AR.

It did cool the barrel down fast, but I do not recommend doing it often to anyone. It is probably even worse on thicker barrels to do this. You will cool the outside steel at a faster rate than the inside will cool. This will put the inside of your barrel in compression, and the outside of the barrel in tension (which is bad). You can cause small microfractures in your metal which will weaken your barrel and if you do it enough, it could get down into your bore and it wouldnt be good for accuracy and stress fractures in general are not good for strength (meaning your barrel will not be as stiff. hurting accuracy).

Why did I do it this time? Because I am impacient lol
I dont plan on doing it again, but it was neat to see boiling water caused by the barrel and gas blockl

 

[DMK]

I'm going to be getting either an HBAR 20" A2 or a superlight 16" (A1 profile), so I'm guessing my barrel will heat up even quicker.

The lighter A1 and A2 Govt. profile barrels will heat up faster, shooting rapid fire. However, they will also cool quicker. An HBAR will stay hot a bit longer.

The best way to handle the heat is just don't heat the barrel up. Let the rifle cool between every other mag. Bring another rifle or a pistol and shoot that while you wait.

If rapid fire is your thing, make sure to get a chrome lined and chrome chambered barrel (not all chrome lined barrels have chrome chambers). It will help to keep rapid fire from eating up your barrel's throat.

 

[JoeWang]

I have a lightweight Colt 16" and after 5 30-rounders it gets very hot.

Usually 30 minutes or so lets it cool down.

Make sure after lubing the barrel you run a few dry patches down it to clear up any excess oil/grease.

As others said above, bolt back, cover open, let her cool off while you reload.

Cold water should only be a SHTF scenario with a nice gun. If you have a chrome barrel it may cause a shatter.

Or just time your shots. Nothing heats it up more than downing an entire 30-round mag in succession.

 

[Third_Rail]

I wonder how hard it would be to design a shroud to make an AR-15 watercooled?

Probably quite easy. Hmm, tubing like a 1919 and all.

I think I've just found a new project.

 

[Andrew Wyatt]

..... that is the greatest project ever.


you should get a shrike upper, too.

 

[Third_Rail]

Hah! Not in MA, no.

Maybe after I move to VT.

For now, I think all I'm going to do is to try to make a water cooled M1 carbine.

Should be easy, though.

 

[MrMurphy]

Actually the M1917 was watercooled. The M1919 was the "light" aircooled model.

 

[Clark]

I fired 200 rounds of .223 in 3 hours and the barrel never got hot or dirty.
13 gr Blue Dot, 60 gr SP moly.

 

[ocabj]

Time is the key. Take breaks, fire a different gun while the gun cools down.

If all you're concerned about is barrel wear in a gun you use to plink with, then don't sweat it. Barrels wear out. It's a fact of life. You can always buy a new barrel or upper receiver for your AR.

 

[twoblink]

Buy 10 rifles, rotate..

I usually open up the action, have the rifle in an environment with a lot of air around it, and just let it cool naturally... Don't try to do anything other than aircool...

 

[Third_Rail]

Thanks, Murphy.

It looks like I'll be going with a different rifle than the M1 carbine, probably a .223 either an AR or a Mini-14.... and a new barrel to play with. Thinking of a 2 1/4" ID 1/8" wall stainless DOM tube for the waterjacket. I think I'm going to have to do a substantial amount of planning before getting what I need to start.

 

[Jaywalker]

Third_Rail,

The thing I most liked about water-cooled MGs was that the bulk of the water was above the barrel, that is, the barrel stuck out of the bottom of the water "tank." Since hot water rises, as the barrel heated the water around it, the "cooler" water in the water tank continually flowed down around the barrel.

Jaywalker

 

[coolluke01]

"Heat rises, so hot air in the barrel does, too,"
Correction. Hot air rises. Heat will radiate in all directions evenly. The fans a good idea though. Moving air will cool things down much faster. It's the same way that when it's -30 here in MN a 15 mph wind will freeze skin in under a minute!
Being that energy moves from energy to non energy the best way to cool a barrel quickly and safely is to place some ice under the barrel. Don't lay the barrel in the ice! It will cool to quickly and as many mentioned it could cause stress faults in the barrel. Just having the ice a few inches from the barrel will draw the heat from the barrel and will cool it. Since I doubt anyone here only has one gun to shoot though, this is not really a huge issue since we can just let it sit and shoot a different gun for a while.

 

[jmr40]

I don't shoot centerfire rifles more than 3-5 rounds at a time before letting my rifles cool down. I always take several rifles to the range and shoot another while the first one cools. Many times it will be a 22.

Most of the year it only takes 5-10 minutes to be completely cool before firing again. But during the summer months when temps can be over 100 here I often leave my truck running with the AC on and will place rifles in the front seat to cool. If not it could take 1/2 hour or more to cool them enough to shoot again.

 

[Andrew Wyatt]

necropost.

 

[USAF_Vet]

I saw a video on the threads here not too long ago of a full auto M-16 blasting over 1000 rounds. Eventually, the gas tube caught fire but the barrel never had a problem.

During my fire fight in Iraq, I dumped nearly all my 210 rounds at the enemy, and while my M-4 was already hot to the touch (averaged about 115 degrees) and considerably hotter after the shooting stopped, but I never really felt it through my gloves.

With a semi-auto rifle, yes it's gonna get hot, but you'll have hand guards. Doubtful it'll get hot enough to really damage anything.

 

[Ruger GP100 fan]

Since buying my first rifle,a 22-250,and learning later about what a barrel-burner the round is I've become pretty anal about this. I try to add things to my procedures to slow me down at the range. I never use the internal magazine,preferring to load each round by hand and I do frequent dry patch passes with the rod. Every now and then I'll pull the bolt and take a break,perhaps to watch other shooters with their AR "machine guns". I have noticed that the majority of them will shoot a lot of rapid-fire rounds,but take frequent breaks,as well. Also,most groups of those types of gun fans seem to bring several guns and rotate them. I just have a single stage press but it's easy to see why turrets are so popular. I could never load fast enough to feed an AR.

 

[Ignition Override]

I seem to remember somebody taking a small fan, maybe battery-powered, to the range during summer.

The fan was probably to cool the gentleman, but why not for both you and the gun?
When in the outdoors, I jumped in the car once or twice to use the air conditioner on the SKS or Mini 30.

But why use artificial means? Your specific .223 ammo will last longer if switching to a different gun/caliber.