How hot is too hot?

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S_O_Laban

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Today I was out with my son and several of his friends and we were bump firing my nephews AR15. (My nephew is in Iraq, and asked me to keep it warm for him:).)
Another shooting buddy of mine, ruined 2 new Shileen barrels last year hunting prairie dogs by getting the barrels too hot. To the naked eye they looked ok, but under the scrutiny of a bore scope, spider cracking had already started.

How hot is too hot? and how can you tell?
 
How hot is too hot? and how can you tell?
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A) When your rounds start impacting 2 ft from the muzzle.

B) When you can read your map on a moonless night, without using your flashlight.

C) When your friends refer to you as "that glow on the horizon..."

D) When you no longer need "the happy switch".

E) When you watch two TV chefs go head-to-head, in the vain hope of seeing a cook-off.

F) When your carry piece needs a water jacket.

G) When the sand in front of your firing position is a sheet of glass.

H) When you can put your hand over your eyes and still see your metacarpals.

I) When you can no longer remove your eye protection without surgery.

J) When the Feds confiscate your 1911 for being a short-barrelled shotgun.

Until you score 3 or more on this chart, keep shooting -- your work here is not done...;)
 
When you can no longer handle the trigger because it's leaving first and second degree burns on your finger, it's time to stop.
 
This one I have actually seen:

Too hot is when all the other guys on the firing line start putting thier noses in the air, asking each other "what's that smell", and then start inspecting thier guns...
 
I have actually fired my Browning Hi-Power so much that the frame and trigger got hot - I actually got a blister from the trigger! Didn't think about damaging the gun at the time though.
 
My first thought from the title was: If she is that good looking, what you are complaining about? I don't think there is such a thing unless you think in terms of whether she will give you the time of day or not.
 
It's too hot if you can't breifly hold a finger to the barrel? does it depend on which type of gun? Like parkerized or blued, HBAR or light, etc?
With my Rem. 700 hunting rifle I stop shooting if it gets hot enough I can't lay my hand on the barrel for a few seconds. With my AR-15 last summer I shot a couple of 30rd. mags rapid fire, and bumped a couple (about 4 total). I picked up a handful of brass and set it on my tailgate near the AR and the underside of my wrist came too close to the barrel for about 1 second. I still have the scar from that 2" long blister (looks like I tried to slit my wrist)!
 
Too hot is when all the other guys on the firing line start putting thier noses in the air, asking each other "what's that smell", and then start inspecting thier guns...
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I generally go and shoot alone, but more than once, I have sniffed the air, and wondered what that odd smell was. I really hope I didn't ruin my AR or AK, as I really had fun with those suckers.

if you cant briefly, willingly , hold a finger on the bbl, it is too hot.
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I have made both the AK and AR barrels so hot they radiated so much heat to make it uncomfortable for my hands to be near them. Well, you live and learn. I guess next range trip there will be less going nuts, and more slow aimed shots.
 
Strings, lighting a smoke reminded me of this.

WHen I was much newer to rifles, I made the wood on my AK smoke a bit. THAT is how hot I ran that thing once. That poor rifle probably hates me good now. Oh well, it is a funny story about learning, at least I did it with a cheap gun.
 
I actually did light a cigarette off the barrel of a .50cal Ma Deuce one time.

I have no good explanation for why I did this, when I had a perfectly good Zippo in my pocket. Just seemed like something John Wayne would do, I guess - and if anyone was ever worthy of emulation, it was The Duke.
 
I have actually fired my Browning Hi-Power so much that the frame and trigger got hot - I actually got a blister from the trigger! Didn't think about damaging the gun at the time though.
Click to expand...

That is common among the P7M8 crowd.

You can make a P7 too hot to hold with only 50 cartridges.
 
From FM 23-8. Rates of Fire (these can be maintained without danger to the firer, or damage to the weapon.)

Semiautomatic (rounds per minute)
1minute 40 rounds
2min.................40
5min.................30
10min...............20
15min...............20
20min...............20
30(or more).......15

That's rounds per minute times the time. EX, 30min x 15rpm = 450 rounds in one half hour. This applies to USGI M-14 rifles. I would guess it would also cover M1a rifles built with USGI parts. Of couse this doesn't apply to a match rifle.
 
2 Mags

60 rapid rounds fired thru my AK is all it takes for the bbl to get too hot to touch.

Then I stop for 10-15 min leaving the brrech open to hope it cools a bit. But yeah, overheating seems to happen every range trip.
 
I have an M16A1 and have run mags through it on full auto as fast as I can change them without damaging the gun. One of the characteristics of the M16 (and most box magazine fed machineguns) is that the time it takes to change magazines is enough to prevent overheating. You should not be able to damage an AR by overheating it with semi-automatic firing. On the other hand, the temperature of the barrel will have a significant impact on accuracy.

Shilen barrels are custom barrels, not mil spec, so damaging one of them is obviously possible. They are contoured (tapored) and designed for extreme accuracy, selling upwards of $400 each (not including gunsmithing charges).
 
Oh. No WONDER the 1911 gets so hot during my typical 300-round course of fire...
*BA-BA-BA-BA-BA-BA-BA-BANG!!! Click. (reload and repeat through two more mags, change target and do it all over again until six boxes of FMJ are gone)*
 
While going to NCO school, I was assigned to an M-60 with a green beanie during a night exercise. We had 4 -250rd cans of blanks and after dark we tied them all together. When the bad guys came out of the woods, he stood up and did his best John Wayne. Burned through all 1000rds. Barrel went from black to yellow and even after it cooled it was still kind of a grey color, heh, heh, heh.
 
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