Im always thinking of ways to lighten up my M16 and was wondering about fluted barrels.

Some people say they are good for full auto because they dissipate heat faster, but have also ready by removing material they heat up quicker and cause the barrel to wear out quicker.

Thoughts?

On M16, I say 'nay'. Fluted barrel on M16 doesn't look right.


On F/A AR I say 'yay'. ARs are meant to be tinkered with, and the weirder and more tacticool it looks, the better. I saw a guy with an AR where the barrel flutes twisted and wrapped around the barrel, and the barrel had a bright blue hue to it. That thing was awesome.


 

How much weight can you seriously save with flutes?

Probably no more than an oz or two on a 10.5" barrel.

My current DD 10.3" barrel is covered by the KMR rail so it would be hard to notice the flutes. It does add a bit of style but I'm more concerned about weight reduction and wanted to make sure it didn't effect function of the rifle. I'm not aware of any mil spec rifles that use fluted barrels, but then again militaries are usually concerned about price.

Why not

All this talk of thompsons around here.....I want to see a ribbed barrel on a FA AR ;)
Weight savings and heat dissipation....win win

M16 or AR, what the hell is the difference , if they are both used in a full auto application?  I use three Bushmaster 14.5" HBAR fluted barrels for my Valkyrie Armaments Belt fed conversion in a MGI quick change upper with my DIAS.  Why, because it is my understanding that the mass of a heavy barrel pulls the heat from the bore.  The fluting increases surface area (the interface with the air) by 180% compared to the surface area of a standard HBAR barrel.  

It is also my understanding that a light weight profile barrel and sustained full auto fire works against each other.  The warmer most metals gets, the softer that metal tends to get.  So as the temperature of the barrel gets higher, the more each round passing through the bore tends to wear the bore.  With the lower mass of a light weight barrel, the temperature of that barrel tends to rise more per round of use than a heavy profile barrel.  There is also the issue of the coefficient of heat expansion between the steel barrel and the chrome lining of the barrel.  As the barrel temperature rises, the difference in the difference of heat expansion could cause the fracture of the chrome lining.  I would think that would be a very bad thing.

This is a personal choice.  I'm not concerned about function over appearance.  I don't care if the AR based machinegun looks like a classic military machinegun.  I think the function of the rotation of the three chrome lined HBAR fluted barrels  in a beltfed SAW type application works better in my collector application.  The cost of the heavy fluted barrels as very close to the cost of a standard light weight or HBAR barrel.  So I choose to use fluted HBAR barrels.  YMMV.

Scott

RDIAS/M16/AR platform is the bees' knees of machine guns. So many options. So much fun.

Is there a right answer? Campfire debates.

No flutes for me.

I think your money on flutes would be better spent on a higher quality barrel and short of Knights and some of their "made by aliens" looking golf ball dimbled barrels, to the best of my knowledge  I have never seen DD, LMT, Colt, or FN make factory fluted short  AR/15/M16 barrels.

I guess you could always take a top tier barrel and have it fluted, but I honestly don't think the flutes are really going to extend barrel life by any meaningful degree.  You could probably come close to buying a second barrel for the cost to custom flute and repark an existing barrel.

That said, if you want flutes to save a couple ounces here or there I can certainly think of worse ways to spend a couple hundred bucks.

I have never seen any solid tests that showed a fluted barrel cooling down faster. Machine guns are certainly unique but in the semi world I have yet to read anything solid that would make me recommend them

 
Its only money dude.


Get want you think you want. It you like it = Win.


If not sell it...

Fluting makes so little difference in practical cooling as to be irrelevant. It does however cost a lot, plus creates both mechanical and uneven temperature stresses in the barrel. I do not recommend them for any practical application, but particularly not for something that would potentially be subject to extreme use as an MG barrel may well be.

So that's a NO.

Hit the gym and build your guns! Lol your m16 is a investment/toy. I say if you like it do it! Not like its a permanent change.