Shotguns overheating?

[1911ShooterTJ]

Just out of curiosity, are there any downsides to letting a shotgun barrel get extremely hot? I know that with rifles it can degrade accuracy and shorten barrel life, but is this the case with a shotgun?

I ask simply because while skeet shooting this weekend in Pittsburgh, my barrel started getting quite hot. However it was almost 95 degrees outside, and most of the time when doing this sort of shooting I do it in the fall when it is much cooler.

I would wait for a few minutes between rounds for it to cool a bit as a precaution (or as much as a barrel can cool in the hot sun), so any light you can shed is appreciated. Thanks!

 

[ArmedBear]

A regular .223 barrel can easily and quickly get hot enough to burn your hand with an ugly sizzling sound.

I've never had a shotgun barrel heat up to that temperature. Muzzle velocity is much, much lower, and the material contacting the barrel is plastic, not copper. Also, a shotgun barrel has a lot more surface area exposed to the air, especially in 20 Gauge or larger.

I don't think it matters, if you have a half-decent shotgun. Good shotguns -- even inexpensive working guns like 870s -- are fine for hundreds of thousands of rounds.

 

[1911ShooterTJ]

It wouldn't heat up to the point of sizzling your hand by any means. Just hot to the touch, but not hot enough that you couldn't grab the barrel and hold on.

It's a decent shotgun. It's a Benelli Nova (their pump action). I am quite happy with it in case anyones wondering...

However the urge to splurge on a SBEII just keeps coming around

 

[ArmedBear]

Yeah, but if you get the SBE II, you might not want to heat up the barrel. It might taint the cryogenic treatment or something.

Just put the Nova in a bucket of dry ice, and save a grand or two!

 

[esheato]

Shotgun barrel heat is the least of my concerns while on the skeet/trap field. If the tubes get too hot, I just put on a pair of gloves and continue shooting. Besides, I don't have a choice when it's over 100 degrees outside.

Ed

 

[00-Guy]

Gun barrels overheating? Rifle type hot? Singed fingers?.... Nah!

Gun barrels getting really (really) hot?.... Yeah, it can be a problem. Try shooting a 200 bird event in 95 degree heat. The heat rising (getting those waves off the barrel) can affect your ability to bust the clays. Tricks used by some trapshooters that I know are to wipe the barrel down with a slighty damp towel between rounds (25 shots). Other just wipe over the gun with a dry towel. Dry in this case is the sweat towel they use which might not be dry.

On trapshooters.com, there was a thread a long time ago (> 1 yr) about folks wetting down their barrels by pouring water on them. Too radical for me.

 

[Correia]

I don't think they can throw skeet fast enough for you to damage your shotgun from heat.

3gunners will do upwards of twenty shots in a single string. Even speed loading a tube fed gun, the capacity and the load time really keeps you from barrel melting speeds. I've done about 30 rounds in fifteen seconds before, and that is quick (Saiga w/ big mags) It isn't like dumping a 30 rounder through an AR, and then doing a 2 second reload and doing it again.

 

[ArmedBear]

In all seriousness, I don't think I've had a barrel get any hotter from shooting than it did from just sitting in the July sun. I'd be more concerned about keeping the gun in the shade, than shooting a few boxes through it, if I thought that heat was a real problem.

 

[ArmedBear]

I don't think they can throw skeet fast enough for you to damage your shotgun from heat.

Maybe not skeet, but have you ever been to a 5-stand range when only club members are around and the puller knows everyone there?

One fun thing we do is just hit all the buttons at once, a few times, and everyone just shoots at whatever clays they see. Sounds like the Battle of Britain!

 

[1911ShooterTJ]

Thanks guys. Just wanted to make sure. Sounds like the sun was more of the problem than the shooting

 

[sargenv]

Having practiced reloading and unloading by shooting, for 3 gun events, I've shot my Gold very quickly, 10 rounds at a time, where it was so hot, it was too hot to handle with thin leather gloves. I have the leather gloves due to sometimes firing a 30 round course of fire with a mix of slugs and bird shot. The barrels can get very hot despite the low velocity, 20-25 grains of gunpowder, regardless of burn rate is still burning and is hot enough to burn you if it comes into contact with skin. I have had it where I've licked my finger, touched the barrel of my shotgun quickly and heard the sizzle of the spit (similar to when you check a clothes iron).

However since it is a snoothbore, what accuracy are you losing? The only way you can really wear out a shotshell barrel is to blow it up. Just keep your hands away from it while hot or wear gloves. You may be able to eventually open up a fixed choke shotgun by shooting steel shot through it, but with most guns these days, the chokes are replaceable.

Vince

 

[BozemanMT]

I was shooting a SxS on a sporting clays course in july in the high 90's last year and after about 325 rounds (it was a busy day), all of a sudden I looked down and the piece that regulates the barrels (between them) was loose.
yes, i actually got a new shotgun out of that. The guy said it was a bad solder, but I had shot 4000 plus out of it up until then and it was hot.

So, it is possible

Also, SxS's get really hard to see over when real hot, the heat waves just roll over it.

 

[Correia]

I'm going to offend a lot of traditionalists when I say this, but if you are wearing a Camelbak, just squirt your barrel down. The steam that comes shooting off is a pretty neat effect, and it really freaks out the guys with the pretty guns.

 

[sargenv]

Correia,

I'd probably be more inclined to do that to my Mossy but would think twice about doing it to my Gold ($200 compared to over $1000). That would probably upset some of the guys with rather expensive guns

Vince

 

[9mmMike]

The only trouble that I've had with heat in my 870's was with some of the newer Express barrels that I have. When we shoot at the free range, in the Summer, and get the guns good and warm, some of them would lock up after firing. The chambers on these newer barrels were not finished well and/or just too tight.
A little elbow grease along with some 000 wool on a shotgun jag and a drill fixed all these barrels.
I'd second that Summer heat can really get a shotgun hot. Almost too hot to touch before you even shoot.
Mike

 

[Dave McCracken]

A 25 round flurry takes about 4 minutes at a guess for two shooters.

The barrels on my 870s get too hot to touch. A few minutes in the rack and they're ready for another round.

I've seen no degradation of performance.

Corriea, Trap hot shot Brad Disinger opens his O/U and squirts water in the barrels from a sports bottle to cool things off.

Back when I did 3 gun, oft a COF of 20 rounds fast would leave the barrel too hot to touch. Luckily, I didn't have to. The wood was much easier to handle.

 

[TrapperReady]

I frequently shoot my Browning 425 until it's too hot to touch the barrels. Extended rounds of Crazy Quail or wobble flurry can be a problem. Also, I've played games where my wife and I cover for each other and shoot wobble-flurry against another couple. The shooting goes as fast as you can reload and I've gone through a flat of shells in about 30 minutes.

I've not experienced any degradation of performance... except my own when I get tired and lose concentration.

 

[sm]

I've run shotguns hot.

110* in the shade and who knows what the heat index pushed it up to with 90% humidity. Running 2 man Flurries.

Set the gun bbl onto a block of ice and just sizzled a nice impression of my SX1 bbl.

I've used water from a garden hose, tinkled down them, water from the Igloo cooler, dunked in a water barrel...boy that will get folks head to shake, stick a Citori in a barrel of water..

Neat is, 20* and temps dropping, sleet ice and snow, and shoot the same flurries...you can get one that hot in cold temps...my moustache has ice and frozen, my barrel cooled off quick.

I have also done the same to a 1911, just dunk it and go on...

Only a tool...some just more pretty than others...


--
Larry, need to learn to reload and shoot as fast as you do, a goal in my life is to take some lessons from you.

 

[270Win]

I've shot many, many rounds in one day through various shotguns... enough to make a mini-mirage above the barrel (boy, those vented ribs DO help!)... but even that wasn't enough to sear a hand or anything. Wouldn't encourage testing the theory, but I can't imagine there would be any adverse patterning effects.

 

[Tom Held]

1500 rounds in 3 hours

One of my sons put 1500 rounds through a Beretta Silver Pigeon 20 ga O/U in three hours this past March in Argentina shooting dove. And another 1000 rounds in the afternoon. Barrels got damn hot and burned a hole through his left hand glove but no misfires, not one ejection mishap.

If I remember right he "harvested" 1040 dove in the morning shoot.