Barrel Question

P

pyscodog

Active member
I was looking at after market barrels. There are 5R groove, 6 groove and 3 groove. Can you explain the basic difference and which of the three are the most accurate and why? Which barrel offers the longest barrel life, ease of cleaning and maybe the purpose of the three different bore grooves.
This might answer alot of questions for the new person building a custom rifle in which barrel will serve him best.
 
Let me keep it simple.
Get a high quality barrel with the proper twist for the bullets you will use.
Brux, Bartlein, Broughton, Krieger, and some others are high quality barrels.
99% of the time they are more capable than the shooter.
longest life is more dependent of the case/bore ratio and the types of shooting you are doing.
 
Originally Posted By: xphunterLet me keep it simple.
Get a high quality barrel with the proper twist for the bullets you will use.
Brux, Bartlein, Broughton, Krieger, and some others are high quality barrels.
99% of the time they are more capable than the shooter.
longest life is more dependent of the case/bore ratio and the types of shooting you are doing.

This pretty well sums it up. Only thing I'd add, and I think it's more or less what Ernie was saying, is there's no "black magic" or voodoo special barrels out there. A top quality barrel manufacture, is a top quality barrel, period. Barrels will always have very slight differences, even with in the same manufacture, but that's it.

The number of grooves a barrel has and its benefit/s is more specific to the cartridge and bullet you plan on using for that barrel and in some chamberings a specific number of grooves has shown to sometimes be a better combo.

As for 5R or canted rifling, they often show a little extra velocity but it's typically very minimal.

Which configuration cleans the easiest, I'd bet if you asked ten different people you'll likely get ten different answers. It's been my experience that any of the top shelf barrels I've used all seem to be similar and how easy they clean up was more dependent on the cartridge, powder, and bullet/s I was using in that particular barrel.

Best advice I ever got with regard to barrels was to not get all wrapped up in the marketing and if a particular barrel manufacture was making big claims to have some revolutionary design or characteristics, that should be the one I avoid the most.
 
My first customs were built with Shilen and then Rockcreek, Krieger and then Bartlein. I use multiples of each of these and honestly there is really no difference as stated above. I don't chase velocity so I could not tell you that 5R barrels are faster and if barrel break in was done properly they all clean up the same. I recently had a conversation with Greg Tannel - Gre'tan Rifles about barrels and he pretty much had the same view, they all make great barrels with an occasional dud. The only barrel that has caused me problems was a 6MM 1-14 twist Ratchet Rifled Shilen that would not gas seal properly with 55-58 grain bullets. I now shoot 64-65 grain FB bullets with longer bearing surfaces and they shoot lights out. Shilen still offers this barrel but some makers like Krieger quit offering a 5R type barrel for 6MM 1-14 twist because of this problem.

If you look at the different shooting disciplines they tend to follow who is winning and what they use. For example Shilen used to be top dog in benchrest because everyone wanted what Tony Boyer used. Not sure now what is the dominant barrel in benchrest today but I would guess it is the one that the top dogs are winning with. PRS is now dominated by Bartlein but that could change if someone started winning with say a Benchmark or Muller.

I don't think there is a wrong choice among the top barrel makers.
 
Originally Posted By: pyscodogI was looking at after market barrels. There are 5R groove, 6 groove and 3 groove. Can you explain the basic difference and which of the three are the most accurate and why? Which barrel offers the longest barrel life, ease of cleaning and maybe the purpose of the three different bore grooves.
This might answer a lot of questions for the new person building a custom rifle in which barrel will serve him best.

I have owned/barreled them all, every configuration of rifling and just about every brand over the years. I can say with confidence that if there was one particular "best" rifling type then you wouldn't have any trouble knowing what is was...because that is all they would make!!!
Many shooters claim that 5R, which is just rifling with angled sides, cleans easier...but what I see is that smeared copper is tough to get out and it don't care if the rifling is 5R or not.
One of the best shooting most accurate rifles I ever had was polygonal rifled, but that was one barrel.
Barrels with an odd number of grooves will not have them opposed and it is believed there is less bullet distortion, but I think you would really have to be using thin jacketed bullets to be affected...4 and 6 groove just shoots way too good for me to believe there is a problem here.
I would recommend that you use single point cut rifling for a light weight or "mountain" contour barrel because this method tends to impart the least amount of stress in the manufacturing process. Button rifling is like a snake swallowing an egg and it can impart stress causing a featherweight barrel to "walk" more as it heats up.
You will not see tooling marks in Lilja, Bartlein, Pac-Nor Super Match, Shilen Select, Hart, X-Caliber or Krieger. I always see light tool marks in Douglas, Hawk Hills, Pac-Nor, Shilen, and Rock Creek, but that don't seem to ever stop them from shooting fantastic.
Right now, one of the best deals for the money has to be X-Caliber.
 
Originally Posted By: msincOriginally Posted By: pyscodogI was looking at after market barrels. There are 5R groove, 6 groove and 3 groove. Can you explain the basic difference and which of the three are the most accurate and why? Which barrel offers the longest barrel life, ease of cleaning and maybe the purpose of the three different bore grooves.
This might answer a lot of questions for the new person building a custom rifle in which barrel will serve him best.

I have owned/barreled them all, every configuration of rifling and just about every brand over the years. I can say with confidence that if there was one particular "best" rifling type then you wouldn't have any trouble knowing what is was...because that is all they would make!!!
Many shooters claim that 5R, which is just rifling with angled sides, cleans easier...but what I see is that smeared copper is tough to get out and it don't care if the rifling is 5R or not.
One of the best shooting most accurate rifles I ever had was polygonal rifled, but that was one barrel.
Barrels with an odd number of grooves will not have them opposed and it is believed there is less bullet distortion, but I think you would really have to be using thin jacketed bullets to be affected...4 and 6 groove just shoots way too good for me to believe there is a problem here.
I would recommend that you use single point cut rifling for a light weight or "mountain" contour barrel because this method tends to impart the least amount of stress in the manufacturing process. Button rifling is like a snake swallowing an egg and it can impart stress causing a featherweight barrel to "walk" more as it heats up.
You will not see tooling marks in Lilja, Bartlein, Pac-Nor Super Match, Shilen Select, Hart, X-Caliber or Krieger. I always see light tool marks in Douglas, Hawk Hills, Pac-Nor, Shilen, and Rock Creek, but that don't seem to ever stop them from shooting fantastic.
Right now, one of the best deals for the money has to be X-Caliber.

Excellent point on the lightweight or mountain contour!!
 
Originally Posted By: coyotezapperOriginally Posted By: msincOriginally Posted By: pyscodogI was looking at after market barrels. There are 5R groove, 6 groove and 3 groove. Can you explain the basic difference and which of the three are the most accurate and why? Which barrel offers the longest barrel life, ease of cleaning and maybe the purpose of the three different bore grooves.
This might answer a lot of questions for the new person building a custom rifle in which barrel will serve him best.

I have owned/barreled them all, every configuration of rifling and just about every brand over the years. I can say with confidence that if there was one particular "best" rifling type then you wouldn't have any trouble knowing what is was...because that is all they would make!!!
Many shooters claim that 5R, which is just rifling with angled sides, cleans easier...but what I see is that smeared copper is tough to get out and it don't care if the rifling is 5R or not.
One of the best shooting most accurate rifles I ever had was polygonal rifled, but that was one barrel.
Barrels with an odd number of grooves will not have them opposed and it is believed there is less bullet distortion, but I think you would really have to be using thin jacketed bullets to be affected...4 and 6 groove just shoots way too good for me to believe there is a problem here.
I would recommend that you use single point cut rifling for a light weight or "mountain" contour barrel because this method tends to impart the least amount of stress in the manufacturing process. Button rifling is like a snake swallowing an egg and it can impart stress causing a featherweight barrel to "walk" more as it heats up.
You will not see tooling marks in Lilja, Bartlein, Pac-Nor Super Match, Shilen Select, Hart, X-Caliber or Krieger. I always see light tool marks in Douglas, Hawk Hills, Pac-Nor, Shilen, and Rock Creek, but that don't seem to ever stop them from shooting fantastic.
Right now, one of the best deals for the money has to be X-Caliber.

Excellent point on the lightweight or mountain contour!!

Thank you sir, it is very kind of you to say so.
 


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