barrel cooling

nemesisenforcer

how long should one let the barrel cool between shots/strings when shooting a .30-06 or 7mm Rem mag?

Is there a good way to speed up the process?

Nurse Debbie

Depends on the barrel. A heave barrel will heat up much slower as opposed to a tapered barrel. A fluted heave barrel will disperse heart quicker that a non-fluted barrel. As far as speeding up the process, it is not to smart to rapidly cool off a barrel of any design. It is best to have several rifles on hand to give other rifles time to cool down on their own without any help from you.

nononsense

nemesisenforcer,

Some of the timing will depend on the ambient air temperature. Cooler weather lets the barrel cool faster and hotter weather makes it seem like forever and sometimes not at all. It also depends on how long your shot strings are and the energy of the powder. Double base powders often generate more heat than some of the single base powders and Ball powders.

If I'm shooting say 5-shot strings and I have some shade available, I might wait 10 or 15 minutes between strings. I take several rifles though and spend the time working with them while I wait for one to cool. I just rotate the next rifle in and keep going. By the time I get to the 4th or 5th rifle the first one is as cool as it needs to be. I can be reloading also with my range set up which will eat up up plenty of time between strings.

Cleaning a warm or hot barrel is a practical use of down time since the barrel will clean more easily when warm. The cleaning chemistry often can help with the cooling process. If you're really in a hurry, as most of us have been while surrounded by ferocious, charging prairie dogs, there are little funnel designs that will allow you to pour cold water down the barrel which will take the heat right out after a few ounces. Sometimes it's just enough to get you back into the fray before the next charge is mounted by those scurrilous dogs...

If you're in an even bigger hurry and money is no object, liquids like rubbing alcohol will do a super quick job of cooling but the expense can be significant when compared to other methods. I have kept an old cotton towel in my cooler when waging war against the ravaging hordes. As the ice melts the towel absorbs the cold water which I wring out and then lay the towel across the barrel for some fast cooling.

Good Luck!

Best.

yoshmyster

What Nurse Debbie stated is text book. Here's the thing I never understood. A heavy fluted barrel will cool faster than non-fluted even though a non-fluted barrel has more metal. Now I could understand if it were finned like barrel of a Tommy Gun would cool a barrel but a few barrel length flutes cool faster I'll never understand.

nononsense

I suggest that the textbook being touted has been used to mislead many of the shooting public. A solid study of physics combined with some simple testing will set the record straight. And yes, I understand surface area and radiation, all those good ideas. But when used in conjunction with rifle barrels, the gain is insignificant. We ran some extensive tests and our data is confirmed. The greatest use for fluting is look and the impression, that's all. It does add additional money to the pockets of barrel makers and rifle builders which is always a good thing [;)].

Best.

mogley98

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-3841601481482400014

Tailgunner1954

Now, a nice piece of 3" diameter aluminum about 6" long, with radial fins, heat shrunk over the throat area (25% behind the case mouth, 75% ahead of it) will provide a good amount of cooling (and be ugly as hell).

A water jacket (with flowing water) is still the best barrel cooler, but again ugly as well as being heavy.

The big problems with the "barrel flute cooling" idea are 1) the increase in surface area is fairly small 2) the hottest zone (throat area) is not normally fluted 3) the thermo-differential between the barrel and the air is (in real terms) quite small, at less than 100 degrees F.

Wet rag over the chamber area, cool/cold air ducted down the inside of the barrel, low vapor pressure liquid down/over the barrel are probably the best of the "cooling" methods available to most shooters.

MVP

Set the rifle in the rack with barrel pointed up and action open.
The hot air rising in the barrel leaves the muzzle and draws cooler air into the chamber.

I have ran into a guy at our local range who was doing a lot of experimenting with an apperatus that he hooked up and was blowing some kind of cold vapor throught the hot barrels to speed cooling. I dont know if he ever made it past experimentation stages.

gunnut505

A few years back, there was an article about how some gun writer was experimenting with a CO2 tank for rapidly cooling the barrels of the guns he was testing. Apparently, he shot a few to heat it up, then shot a 2-second blast of CO2 down the bore and measured the temp drop every 10 seconds until it was back to ambient temp.
I wondered at the time I read the article whether there was a chance of metal fatigue, but the writer never mentioned it, or even seemed aware of that possibility.
I never shot a barrel to get it hot; I only try to put 'em where I point 'em.

Colt Super

quote:Originally posted by MVP
Set the rifle in the rack with barrel pointed up and action open.
The hot air rising in the barrel leaves the muzzle and draws cooler air into the chamber.

I have ran into a guy at our local range who was doing a lot of experimenting with an apperatus that he hooked up and was blowing some kind of cold vapor throught the hot barrels to speed cooling. I dont know if he ever made it past experimentation stages.


This is the method I have always used.

I just don't like the idea of forced cooling.

Seems like it should have some negative effect.

Doug

givette

Nemesis: I bring several rifles to the range. I tinker with rifle #2 when rifle #1 gets too hot. And #3, when #2 heats up, etc.

Constant tinkering/having fun!

And when all is said and done, rifle #1 is cooled down, and ready to go again! Neat concept, huh?

Best, Joe