There is another active thread going with the subject "Effects of Barrel Fluting on Harmonics" which has a lot of replies and some good discussion going. I wanted to change the subject slightly but did not want to hijack the thread so I am starting a similar one here. I did not want to be considered one of the forum bullies. I recently built an AR match rifle in 223 with a scope to shoot mid range conventional (sling) prone matches with. The gun turned out a little heavy for me, when I was younger the weight was an asset but now as a grand senior it has its limits. I was looking for a way to take some of the weight out of the gun and decided to buy a fluted barrel and was interested in the effects of fluting on accuracy so I did some research. I was not trying to improve accuracy but looking for a way to reduce weight without a negative effect on accuracy. The references that I found were not very helpful, some claimed improvement in accuracy and some claimed otherwise. I went ahead with trying the fluted barrel. I now have a statistically significant number of matches with a non fluted barrel which I replaced with a fluted barrel and have started shooting matches with the fluted barrel on the same gun with the same ammo, etc. By the time I shoot out the second barrel I will have enough data to compare but so far I do not see any difference in accuracy.