I know its been asked before, it comes up alot with precision shooters and thats clearly not what im talking about.
This isnt so much an is it good or is it bad question, rather a do you do it question.

I recently watched people run so much ammo through their beltfeds i can only assume they where ruining barrels over the coarse of a weekend...or maybe not since accuracy is no issue.

I've got 3 barrels. One new one and two that have been used extensively.Alot of time i just waiting for them to cool, lately it seems like i do to much waiting and not enough shooting.

At the last shoot i was impatient because i wanted to use my tracers but didn't want so dark I couldnt work on my gun if i had issues.

i heated up the 3 barrels and poured 8 oz of water on two of them, then shot off the rest of my tracers.
It was 1200 rounds in about 3 min.

I doubt the barrels ever got over 600f, im sure if you cherry red them it wouldn't be good and cooling them would be even worse. My thinking is rapid cooling will do less damage then not cooling and just shooting more.

i dont regret doing it and am thinking about using it as a standard practice on this setup, probibly not on my new stuff...or atleast not until my new stuff is old stuff.



So do any of you do it the quick and easy way?

I do it all the time with my M16.

1) Im not worried about sub moa accuracy so don't care if it causes minor damage to the barrel
2) AR15 barrels are dirt cheap

My thoughts exactly.
My beltfed barrels arnt cheap at 580 to 1000 apiece
But they are so thick, and accuracy is not a big deal.

The two used barrels i have dont owe me a thing, so i cant see worrying  about it.

I have done it for all sorts of firearms.

Interestingly in the era of water-cooled machineguns, the French M1914 strip-fed stood out as being air-cooled. As such, the military actually recommended that one of the AGs sponge down the barrel with water during sustained fire.

Do you think once you prime that setup with water siphon and convection circulate the water without a pump?

I have no interest in a water jacket personally, if i had a 1919 maybe.

I am cautious about doing it but have done it. Its bad metalurgically for it, but most machinegun barrels are made of the best type of stuff to handle extreme temp changes. If you do use water try to add it as evenly as possible so it doesn't permanently bend the barrel a little in one direction. Thicker barrels less important.  I wouldn't dip it in a bucket but sponging or some light spraying I have done before.

That french mg that they were instructed to sponge with water had a large solid metal heat sink over the chamber area. I'ld guess they watered that so it'ld cool the barrel relatively evenly.

Done it to m16 barrels. Dumped cans in water as well as snow. Dump my 23e barrels in water after belt dumps.

Stick the 22 cans in water when the kids are shooting.

Ive done everthing youre not supposed to do with barrels- cans.

Guess what, all the naysayers are wrong. Ive seen people nearly cry when i throw barrels in mud puddles.

I read posts about meturgy and how cooling with water doesn't do it evenly and can damage chrome lining..
I dont buy it, barrels dont heat up evenly so how could cooling be worse than heating.

I appreciate everyone chiming in.

I like you. I'm probably not to your extreme but I hate the "dear god a scratch" types.

ive posted before but i do this a lot



That barrel has been extremely abused.  It has been in the water more times than I can remember.

it also is a smoothbore

Ya thats probably a longer belt that I've ever shot...
How many rounds you have on the barrel?that shit ammo will eat them up quick.
Two of my barrels  probibly have 30k each on them and they still look pretty good.
I have a 7" upper with probably more rounds on it.. it needs replacement. First one I've worn out.

I've lost count but I would guess at least 20k on that barrel. Its been shot out for awhile because of all the belt dumps. I have other barrels that get shot, then rotated out I keep them relatively cool and try not to abuse them.

I've been shooting the sgammo with the hard 5,45 primers. I got 10k of it and there is not much left-had to rework the firing pin to get 100%.

Ive shot out 4-5 barrels on different rifles. The worst thing you can do it get them really hot and keep shooting. You can destroy a barrel in 30 minutes if you wanted to.

if your barrel is so hot that pouring water on it will cause damage, it was probably already damaged before the water touched it.   I think the key is to use water before it gets ridiculously hot.

This is pretty much the best answer... if want want to do 600 rd belts you might want to dedicate one barrel for abuse and just be reasonable with the rest

I will say this was my first shoot where I cooled barrels without worry.
I may have cracked some muzzle devices based on some photos. Ill be doing a visual inspection tommarow.
I also had some  external rust from the last Waterpark....all in all it was better than not cooling them.

post pics, i want to see that

I inspected it yesterday, it didnt crack. i thought the thin part at the end of the "birdcage" broke.
There was just crap on it.

As I recall Ron of Battlefield Las Vegas MG range stating, it's the heat cycling that really shuts down guns. Obviously getting barrels too hot can warp them, but the heat cycling is what's really hard on guns otherwise. Better to cool off hot barrels throughout the shooting session than wait until the end to dunk them.