Best type of riflings?

konamtbiker

I have been told that Hammer forged riflings are the best for accuracy. Some tell me that Beaded riflings are the best. Some say cut are great also. I'm confused. So what are the best in your opinions? Thanks in advanced.

nononsense

konamtbiker,

It depends on what you intend to use the barrel for and if you need to modify it after production.

I honestly don't think that you're going to get a strong consensus of opinion for one style over another. A good case can be made for nearly any of the rifling forms depending on who and how many you talk to.

Mass quantity production is pretty much the reserve of the Hammer Forged barrels as represented by Remington. They are fast and inexpensive to manufacture. The drawback is that the barrels are massively stressed by the process and you are pretty much stuck with the factory form since any further machining can cause the stresses to unload in strange ways. The twist rate is fixed and unchangeable because it's part of the mandrel.

The short range benchrest folks seem to favor the Button barrels which are capable of demonstrating incredible feats of accuracy. These barrels also contain a significant amount of stress induced by pulling the button through the undersized bore which 'irons' the grooves into the interior of the barrel. The twist rate is built into the button but can be inhanced by computer driven actuators. These are also relatively fast and easy to produce.

The long range benchrest folks seem to favor the Cut Rifles barrels which contain virtually no stress induced problems as a result of the process. Twist rates are infinitely variable in 1/8" increments with some of the newest machines. The twist rates are the most accurate when measured and compared to the others. These take much longer to produce per barrel by comparison.

The least used methods are the broach cut and electro-chemical so they hardly come into the mix.

Best.

miltmchsi

I work at a machine shop for my part time job, we cut rifle barrels there. Obviously I'm biased, but I also shoot my own products. I just took a brand new 26" cut rifled 5 slant 1-12 twist .22-250 to South Dakota shooting Prairie Dogs. It shoots like a laser beam. My cousin, (a guy who shoots once a year when he goes with me) picked it up, and shot like he shoots all year. The cut rifled barrels are expensive, so you have to decide how much you want to pay for accuracy, but my bias says cut rifled barrels are best, backed up by results. When I sighted the new barrel in, I shot a 5 round .421 center to center group at 100 yrds using bulk bullets and a terrible trigger (that I had redone before going to So. Dak.). Good luck