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Posted: 2/13/2013 2:54:36 PM EDT
| I really need help in trying to decide if fluting a Noveske Afghan(14.5 SS) is really worth it. I understand the primary purpose of fluting is to reduce the weight and faster cooling of the barrel but is it a noticeable difference? It's primarily a HD/range toy that averages between 500-1000 rnds a year. Any and all insight will be appreciated. TIA |
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Quoted:
I really need help in trying to decide if fluting a Noveske Afghan(14.5 SS) is really worth it. I understand the primary purpose of fluting is to reduce the weight and faster cooling of the barrel but is it a noticeable difference? It's primarily a HD/range toy that averages between 500-1000 rnds a year. Any and all insight will be appreciated. TIA fluting a barrel will not add rigitity, it will make it LESS rigid. If you remove material it will be less rigid. The reason fluted barrels are considered more rigid, is that if you have two barrels that are of equal weight, the fluted barrel will be more rigid because it is making better use of its mass. Take a steel ibeam for example. IF you started with a solid bar of metal and machined it into an ibeam design. It would not be more rigid than it started off. It would be less rigid. But if you had two pieces of metal that each weighed 20 pounds, one in a solid bar and one in an ibeam, the ibeam design would be much stronger. A fluted barrel has less mass and than a solid barrel, so it will heat up quicker but it will dissipate the heat a little bit faster. Probably not very noticeable on either account The only 2 reasons to flute a barrel are for weight savings and for style points |
I think there's other issues if you need to lighten a 14.5" barrel. 
I wouldn't mess with it. I recently took off an 18" stainless hbar and installed a lightweight 20. Took a solid 11 oz off and balances worlds better now. I toyed with the idea of re profiling but decided it was about the same cost for a new (economy friendly) barrel. |
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