How hot is too hot?

[chopinbloc]

i think some of you are over reacting. any combat type rifle should be able to sustain some pretty high temperatures over a fairly long time without damage. i routinely get the barrel of my ar15s way too hot to touch and have experienced no significant loss in accuracy afterwards. obviously the poi changes while the barrel is hot but even that isn't a huge change. this is not a big deal. by the time the barrel is hot enough to cause damage to the firearm, the heat radiated and conducted throught the handguards will be enough to make shooting very uncomfortable.

 

[DoubleTapDrew]

by the time the barrel is hot enough to cause damage to the firearm, the heat radiated and conducted throught the handguards will be enough to make shooting very uncomfortable.

Thats why we have vertical foregrips and gloves
Just picking up a free floated AR that has been sitting in the sun is very uncomfortable though.
I don't worry about it in military type weapons. If you fire it to the point of damaging the barrel, then smile, pat yourself on the back, and replace the barrel!