ShootAndHunt
Member
- Joined
- Dec 5, 2003
- Messages
- 241
Visited Bushmaster website recently and notice that they have the barrel fluting (machining lengthwise grooves into the outer surface of the barrel) option for their AR rifles. They listed three advantages of barrel fluting:
1. increased radiational cooling of the barrel
2. adds to the "stiffness" of the barrel which enhances its accuracy
3. the barrel is lighter after machining removes the steel in those lengthwise grooves.
in conclusion, they said: " A fluted barrel will last longer, shoot straighter, and is considerably lighter than a standard heavy barrel. The accuracy gains would be most noticeable at longer distances or to the competition shooter."
Have no any experience with a fluted barrel, I got the following questions after reading this:
1. Point 3 sounds obvious, but how much weight could the fluting reduce on a AR rifle?
2. Point 1 seems reasonable too, but do these grooves introduce the uneven cooling (just like the octangle barrel)??? (which could bend the barrel slightly and lead to inaccurate shooting).
3. Point 2 is the most confusing, could anyone tell me whether the fluted barrel is really "stiffer" than a unfluted one and hence shoot more accurately???
How many grooves does Bushmaster make on a flutted barrel, are they long enough to be visible ahead of the handguard?
1. increased radiational cooling of the barrel
2. adds to the "stiffness" of the barrel which enhances its accuracy
3. the barrel is lighter after machining removes the steel in those lengthwise grooves.
in conclusion, they said: " A fluted barrel will last longer, shoot straighter, and is considerably lighter than a standard heavy barrel. The accuracy gains would be most noticeable at longer distances or to the competition shooter."
Have no any experience with a fluted barrel, I got the following questions after reading this:
1. Point 3 sounds obvious, but how much weight could the fluting reduce on a AR rifle?
2. Point 1 seems reasonable too, but do these grooves introduce the uneven cooling (just like the octangle barrel)??? (which could bend the barrel slightly and lead to inaccurate shooting).
3. Point 2 is the most confusing, could anyone tell me whether the fluted barrel is really "stiffer" than a unfluted one and hence shoot more accurately???
How many grooves does Bushmaster make on a flutted barrel, are they long enough to be visible ahead of the handguard?