My Barrel Cooler

[TTE]

I will post a pic of my cooler on my next range trip. Moves a lot of air and battery lasts for 3 hours. I live in Florida so need to cool things down during summer range time.

 

[deadidarren]

While searching this forum and others for a decent solution to help cool down my rifle barrels during range sessions, this is what I have came up with. It is a culmination of ideas from others and a few of my own. It consists of temp strips from Grainger, a 12 volt mattress blower from WalMart ($10), some tubing, fittings and a modified case to fit tight in the chamber. It works really well, I can take the temp from 122-135 down to ambient in about 5-7 minutes. It was taking about 20-25 when the gun was vertical in the rack. The next test is to place the blower in a cooler with freezer ice packs.
View attachment 1061641 View attachment 1061644 View attachment 1061645 View attachment 1061646

While searching this forum and others for a decent solution to help cool down my rifle barrels during range sessions, this is what I have came up with. It is a culmination of ideas from others and a few of my own. It consists of temp strips from Grainger, a 12 volt mattress blower from WalMart ($10), some tubing, fittings and a modified case to fit tight in the chamber. It works really well, I can take the temp from 122-135 down to ambient in about 5-7 minutes. It was taking about 20-25 when the gun was vertical in the rack. The next test is to place the blower in a cooler with freezer ice packs.
View attachment 1061641 View attachment 1061644 View attachment 1061645 View attachment 1061646

Very simular to mine

 

[Charlie-NY]

I also use an air mattress inflator and found that it is very effective at keeping barrel temps down. However, the internal battery never made it through a 3hr range session even when used intermittently. To increase battery life, I plug the inflator into my LabRadar battery using a USB Y adaptor. So far, so good.

 

[marchboom]

Some very good ideas here.

I use a small (7"-8") fan to cool the barrel while I'm shooting. Instead of shooting till the barrel gets hot and then stop shooting while it cools down, I just let the fan keep the barrel cool. I place the fan just off the right side (at a 45* angle to the barrel) and aim it so the air hits the receiver/barrel junction and goes forward along the barrel. This also blows away the mirage created by the warm barrel. The fan will last over 10 hrs.

 

[rsbhunter]

I use the "FlexTail'" pump off of Amazon, $19.00 and a piece of tubing . The pump is rechargeable, and I keep a battery pack recharge with me. I have thought about using a soft side cooler with ice packs in it, and run the pump inside it....thinking about hot gluing a lawnmower air filter into the side to take care of the dust/dirt problem...... Kinda like the old cool cans we ran on the race cars....rsbhunter

 

[TrapperBR549]

I use an aquarium pump and tubing from my dad's oxygen tank. There are tapered fittings on the tubes that fit snugly in a wide variety of chambers. I have a jump starter battery pack that will run my labradar and the barrel cooler for several hours.
I tried putting the pump on and ice pack in a small cooler and got quite a bit of condensation in the barrel so I quit using it. Not sure if it hurt anything but it really wasn't necessary.

 

[Dusty Stevens]

I still gotta go with the bore guides- gotta have the bolt out anyway to be clear. The universal one from sinclair with the aluminum tube plugs right onto the hose

 

[P1ZombieKiller]

I still gotta go with the bore guides- gotta have the bolt out anyway to be clear. The universal one from sinclair with the aluminum tube plugs right onto the hose

I am building my own, and this is the way I am going. Pump connected to hose connected to bore guide.

Thats why i bumped this old thread back to life is to see if anyone else is doing anything different or had any lessons learned before i build my DIY cooler

 

[Dusty Stevens]

I am building my own, and this is the way I am going. Pump connected to hose connected to bore guide.

Thats why i bumped this old thread back to life is to see if anyone else is doing anything different or had any lessons learned before i build my DIY cooler

I like an aux fuel pump from autozone, a battery pack of your choice, and an ice chest of water as a reservoir for suction and discharge

 

[P1ZombieKiller]

I am going with no water. I think it is best for me. I carry enough crap as it is. Adding some type of tub with ice water in it just adds more crap to my already over crapped packing regiment.

 

[LotI]

I bought this




Added some fuel line I had in the garage, and the tip from a universal bore guide makes a quick portable cooler.

 

[P1ZombieKiller]

I bought this


View attachment 1352464

Added some fuel line I had in the garage, and the tip from a universal bore guide makes a quick portable cooler.

Thats the one i got.

 

[D Coots]

Old school Amish Green towel from my cooler.......low tech, energy efficient, recyclable......

 

[rwj]

Anyone ever consider pulling/pushing ambient air through a chest filled with dry ice? The CO2 will sublimate and that cold gas can be pumped directly into the bore.

Worked well for many IMSA race teams back in the days of turbochargers when they packed the non-compressed side of the intercoolers with dry ice for qualifying runs!