My Barrel Cooler

[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!

 

[Fire Dog]

Here is one I have and it lasts through the day for me… also added a temperature strip to the barrel.
Bit of tubing from an aquarium store with one piece to step down the adaptor to a piece that fits into chamber. No need to make a cut off case or remove the bolt, the vinyl hose is flexible enough to just go around the corner… Yes, all the little pump motors are a bit noisy but the rifle is off the range between events and it is not an issue. Putting it into a small box or bag would quiet it down a bit if noise was a factor for you.

 

[CF Junkie]

Here is mine. I liked it so much that I bought another one. Both from Amazon.

When I shoot with ambient temps above 75 degrees, my pump can handle about 7 cycles of cooling.
Since it takes only 7 rounds to get the barrel temp on my .223 above 115 deg F from cold, my pump runs out of charge just over 60 rounds.
I have been shooting about 100 to 125 rounds per session lately so I needed two.

 

[CF Junkie]

Since you probably are wondering - Airflow is 250 L/min with 0.44PSL pressure. Provides about 25 minutes of running per charge.
My buddy has one that is slightly smaller, but has less air flow.
It is noisy - but is rated as <85dB

 

[Chris Edmondson]

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.

I do the same, small Ryobi clip fan, I already had the batteries:

 

[michaeljp65]

I do the same, small Ryobi clip fan, I already had the batteries:

View attachment 1698538

ive tried those chamber coolers and found them to be to slow to cool. I now use a Milwaukee fan, cools the barrel as im cleaning it.

 

[222Jim]

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

I use the same type/style.....a mattress compressor like you're using. BUT.........use it to "deflate"...... why blow hot chamber air down the barrel? Turn it to "deflate" and it sucks ambient/outside air into the barrel and through the chamber

 

[Chris Edmondson]

A gun bud who races cars convinced me to focus on cooling the outside of the barrel rather than the inside because, in most cases, there's considerably more surface area. Take a 1" diameter .243 bull barrel for example, the outside surface area is over 4 times larger than the bore's surface area. Moving air over the barrel dissipates heat via convection, the rate of convective heat dissipation is directly proportional to the exposed surface area.

That said, a dual fan approach, outside and inside, might be the fastest air cooling approach.

 

[Hipshoot]

I use the same type/style.....a mattress compressor like you're using. BUT.........use it to "deflate"...... why blow hot chamber air down the barrel? Turn it to "deflate" and it sucks ambient/outside air into the barrel and through the chamber

I would think blowing hot air UP would be better as HOT AIR RISES!

Hip

 

[BHP9]

Very simular to mine
View attachment 1351740

My one is similar to this. Works like a dream.