factory fluting...just for interest...:-)

Rembo

Rembo

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Which barrel is lighter?

Both are stainless factory 24" 30-06's in Rem 700 recievers....

barrels001.jpg


looks are decieving....the unfluted barrel is lighter by one ounce....seems Remington uses a bigger barrel for thier fluted sporters.....it's .062" bigger at the recoil lug and .082" bigger where the flutes begin nearest the reciever. They are both .640"ish at the muzzle.....and both will be twisted out tomorrow....:)
 
I have a LSS Rem 700 Mountain Rifle Laminated stainless in 30-06. Could I install a fluted barrel without widening the laminated stalk channel. I see the Rem 700 CDL has a fluted barrel model. Just A thought. I like the looks of those flutes. COOL factor not kill factor.
Tikka.
 
Cool is the truth. Fluting doesn't really do much in the way of reducing weight, or not as much as most guys think. And it certainly doesn't help add ridgidity to a barrel, that's just stupid. Carve out the center of a 2x4 and it won't become stronger. What fluting does is increase the surface area on a barrel and expose more metal. The more metal exposed, the faster it will cool. Just like fins on an electric motor housing, but I suppose it does look cool as well. Oh yeah, :) :) :) :D
 
I've heard this batted about more than once... here's my $.02's worth... :popCorn:

Pros - looks cool!

- in theory it should cool faster due to a greater surface area although in actual practice I'm not convinced this would provide a meaningful difference from an unfluted barrel in most applications.

- in theory it should be more rigid, ribbing on steel does add rigidity. Once again though I'm not convinced this would make a meaningful difference in this application.

- lowers the weight of the rifle, hmmm depends on the barrel weight you start with.

Cons - pain in the a$$ to keep clean when you hunt with it.
 
Come on guys, were talking a steel tube, not an I-beam.

You have a light weight sporter barrel, traditionaly used on lightweight rifles and add fluting. Your taking away metal from an already thin barrel. Straight lines carved out of the tube will not add ridgidity. Welding more metal on for the length of the barrel will of course add rigidity.
 
im highly skeptical of any 'enhanced cooling properties'. the flutes are too shallow, too widely spaced. the increase in surface area is not significant enough to make a worthwhile difference.

now if the barrel was finned like a heat sink, or had a finned aluminum shroud, OK. but all this 'greatly enhanced cooling ability' is just marketing BS IMO.

what id really like to see statistics of is how accurate factory fluted barrels are compared to unfluted, on average.
IE: take a bunch of factory fluted Remingtons and the same number of unfluted, shoot some groups out of the box under controlled conditions and measure the average group size. i have this nagging suspicion that fluting is just one more machining operation on a barrel that has the potential of introducing flaws/variances and can potentially reduce accuracy if anything.

either way if the gun i want is fluted, id probably still buy it - but im not going to rush out and spend an extra $200 for a fluted model if i can get an unfluted one.
 
If you have two barrels,one unfluted,and one larger in diameter and fluted,and both weigh the same,the larger diameter fluted barrel will be stiffer.
 
manbearpig said:
what id really like to see statistics of is how accurate factory fluted barrels are compared to unfluted, on average.
IE: take a bunch of factory fluted Remingtons and the same number of unfluted, shoot some groups out of the box under controlled conditions and measure the average group size.
Click to expand...

we went one step further on this a couple yeas ago. We had three stainless barrels, one was a Gaillard in 284 Win, one a King in 223, the other a King in 358 Win. All had been installed for one to three years and all shot well. After fluting they shot as well as before fluting.
 
Rembo said:
we went one step further on this a couple yeas ago. We had three stainless barrels, one was a Gaillard in 284 Win, one a King in 223, the other a King in 358 Win. All had been installed for one to three years and all shot well. After fluting they shot as well as before fluting.
Click to expand...

We did this also with my brothers model seven Saum, shot it before fluting, send it away to get fluted and shot it after, the accuracy remained unchanged.:)
 
manbearpig said:
what id really like to see statistics of is how accurate factory fluted barrels are compared to unfluted, on average.
IE: take a bunch of factory fluted Remingtons and the same number of unfluted, shoot some groups out of the box under controlled conditions and measure the average group size.
Click to expand...

Rembo said:
we went one step further on this a couple yeas ago. We had three stainless barrels, one was a Gaillard in 284 Win, one a King in 223, the other a King in 358 Win. All had been installed for one to three years and all shot well. After fluting they shot as well as before fluting.
Click to expand...


Rembo's idea makes more sense to me...to many variables the other way. Different rifles, different barrels etc. Do it with factory barrels if it turns you on, but with the quality of factory barrels of late there probably won't be much difference. The fact of the matter is, most rifles have the potential to group better than the person behind the trigger.
 
but you guys had these done by professional premium barrel makers, most of whom even state that if done precisely fluting should not hurt accuracy -- and that a barrel is accurate despite fluting, not because of it.

im more concerned about factory barrels, especially ones manufactured in other countries or on budget rifles. i dont think id hesitate to buy a fluted barrel from a premium barrel manufacturer that knows his stuff... but some factory gun manufacturers cant even center their bores in the barrel, so trusting them with extra machining operations gives me the willies :)

its really the manufacturers marketing claims that fluting will make it more accurate that make me :rolleyes:
:)
 
its really the manufacturers marketing claims that fluting will make it more accurate that make me
Click to expand...

I would not believe that fluting a barrel would increase accuracy,however,I have found my heavier contour barrels to be less fussy as to what loads they shoot accurately.As such,I go with a fluted barrel to have the heavier contour with the same weight.So in a way,the fluted barrels have been more consistently accurate for me,not because they are fluted,but because they are a heavier contour.
 
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