ISS
Gold $$ Contributor
Research the Wheatstone Bridge, iirc. It is an engineering concept Dan Lilja introduced me to about forty years ago. Fluting was near universal on ancient Greek/Roman buildings. Ditto many large buildings today that have columns/pillars. They did not do it for looks. It vastly expands the surface area, that improves rigidity, and increases cooling surface at the same time. It is known that fluted barrels heat slower over time, over the same diameter unfluted ones.
I was friends for many years with Carl Hildebrandt (sp?) at Savage. One project I did field testing with him involved accuracy testing fluted VS none.
As an aside, ever wonder why factories resisted fluting barrels for so many years? The fluting process, one flute at a time bends/warps the barrel. Rotating it 180-degrees hopefully undoes the bend/warp. The end process was heat treating to even out the flexing. It's been nearly 40 years, as I said, since we did this testing, so memory may be a bit incomplete.
Back to Carl. When H&R folded, Carl convinces Savage's CEO (Ron Coburn?) to go to the sale and buy some tooling. H&R made these neat little 22 revolvers, and like most it had fluted cylinders. They had devised a multi-flute cutting tool that cut all the cylinder flutes at the same speed/hydraulic pressure. Carl takes it back to Savage, does some research, and figures out how to adapt it to cut all the flutes on their target rifles in two passes. Down, and then back. Somehow, I got invited to do some independent field testing. They made four single shot rifles, two each in 22-250 and 220 Swift. 1:8" twist 26" barrels. They fit two barrels to each rifle, and sent me a barrel wrench. I fired fifty rounds thru each of the eight barrels. These barrels were unfluted.
I sent everything back, with a note on most and least accurate barrels. Carl fluted all eight barrels, and sent them back. On average, they averaged 1/4" smaller 5-shot groups at 200 yards; my testing distance. There were three other testers involved, plus the factory testing in their 100yd underground facility. Results were similar, but all the barrels shot better after fluting.
That was 30 years ago, maybe longer, and I did not keep detailed notes for myself. It all went to Carl.
Gain twist barrels had their increased accuracy Golden Era with lead bullets and Schuetzen shooting. Pope, Zischang, Schalk, and a few other believed that their was less distortion starting slower, and speeding up towards the muzzle. They also used 30" barrels.
I was friends for many years with Carl Hildebrandt (sp?) at Savage. One project I did field testing with him involved accuracy testing fluted VS none.
As an aside, ever wonder why factories resisted fluting barrels for so many years? The fluting process, one flute at a time bends/warps the barrel. Rotating it 180-degrees hopefully undoes the bend/warp. The end process was heat treating to even out the flexing. It's been nearly 40 years, as I said, since we did this testing, so memory may be a bit incomplete.
Back to Carl. When H&R folded, Carl convinces Savage's CEO (Ron Coburn?) to go to the sale and buy some tooling. H&R made these neat little 22 revolvers, and like most it had fluted cylinders. They had devised a multi-flute cutting tool that cut all the cylinder flutes at the same speed/hydraulic pressure. Carl takes it back to Savage, does some research, and figures out how to adapt it to cut all the flutes on their target rifles in two passes. Down, and then back. Somehow, I got invited to do some independent field testing. They made four single shot rifles, two each in 22-250 and 220 Swift. 1:8" twist 26" barrels. They fit two barrels to each rifle, and sent me a barrel wrench. I fired fifty rounds thru each of the eight barrels. These barrels were unfluted.
I sent everything back, with a note on most and least accurate barrels. Carl fluted all eight barrels, and sent them back. On average, they averaged 1/4" smaller 5-shot groups at 200 yards; my testing distance. There were three other testers involved, plus the factory testing in their 100yd underground facility. Results were similar, but all the barrels shot better after fluting.
That was 30 years ago, maybe longer, and I did not keep detailed notes for myself. It all went to Carl.
Gain twist barrels had their increased accuracy Golden Era with lead bullets and Schuetzen shooting. Pope, Zischang, Schalk, and a few other believed that their was less distortion starting slower, and speeding up towards the muzzle. They also used 30" barrels.
