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Cryo is heavily misunderstood. It does not make your rifle more accurate, it makes it more consistent. So say you have shot alot of rounds and the barrel is warping from heat or other stresses, it should remain accurate longer. It will hold the same accuracy, but for longer. High grade metals that are made properly, usually don't benefit as much from cryo treatment. However, there are very few barrel makers that go to that length. We've been using cryo on engine parts for years and are getting all the way up to twice the life of non treated parts. Usually people don't understand how it works, so they look upon it negatively. For instance, if we have parts cryoed in a customers motor, they usually expect it to make the car faster. They whine about how they can't tell a difference until they completely lose faith in it. Then over time, they realize how long their parts have lasted, and how consistent their ET's have remained even when they are making almost back to back runs. The same applys for a barrel. Your first shots will not be any more accurate. Over the time span of one shooting session, accuracy usually degrades slowly. Cryo will slow that process down and keep your rifle accurate longer. Your barrel will also wear slower over time. We outsource for our major machine work and after working on cryoed parts, our machinist told us that we needed to stop bringing in parts that were already cryo treated. This coming from a guy who was a firm believer that cryogenics are a marketing ploy and such. Now he reccomends it to all of his other customers. There is/was a person who worked for Barrett at one time or another. He was around for real scientific testing about the correlation between cryo and and multiple metals. He basically said it will help on majority of barrels except for the high end match barrels. My conclusion is your barrel would probably benefit from it but you have to ask yourself if you persoanlly find it necessary. While I'm a cryo believer, I wouldn't consider it on a firearm as I don't shoot in matches or put myself in a situation to need that consistent of results. |
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In addition to the above, I would note that cryo treating is just the ticket for thin barrels that will be subject to stringing when heated up. Think Mini-14. Also, there is a real potential for helping hammer-forged barrels. Such barrels can have a good deal of stress built-in due to their method of manufacturing. Think StG-58A. |
And AUG barrels. Doesn't Kreiger cryro their barrels before and after machining? |
Yes they do, IIRC their primary reason for this is stress relief, although the reason I have always thought cryo was an advantage is the "extended barrel life" aspects, much the same as the "cryoing parts" comments above. Mike |
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