A buddy of mine asked me my opinion about helping his Bushmaster 16" heavy barreled CAR HBAR loose some weight.  His idea was to drill several holes using his milling machine (drill press) in an even pattern under the hand guard.

I told him, "Good luck with that".

I guess it would work but if the depth lock on the press was to slip, he's going to have an extra gas vent.

Anyone here try or do anything like this?  I'm a little tempted to try this myself, sounds like a neat way to loose 3-5 ounces at the risk of destroying a good barrel.

Send it to Steve at ADCO for a flute job.

Quoted: Send it to Steve at ADCO for a flute job.

And if I recall, it's really not that expensive either.

Quoted: A buddy of mine asked me my opinion about helping his Bushmaster 16" heavy barreled CAR HBAR loose some weight.  His idea was to drill several holes using his milling machine (drill press) in an even pattern under the hand guard. I told him, "Good luck with that". I guess it would work but if the depth lock on the press was to slip, he's going to have an extra gas vent. Anyone here try or do anything like this?  I'm a little tempted to try this myself, sounds like a neat way to loose 3-5 ounces at the risk of destroying a good barrel.

hmmm ghetto dimpling.   There was a thread here not to long ago about a shot that did it and tit looked awesome.

Ghetto Dimpling


Is that what it's called.  No wonder I could not find it when I searched.


EDIT: I just searched for it - no such luck

Rather than screwing up a perfectly good AR, send it to someone who knows what they are doing like Adco.  Steve worked his magic on my RRA 16" middy HBAR and with the help of a CMMG 0.625" FSB I sent him, reprofiled my barrel to a lightweight design and shortened it to 14.7" w/pinned A2 FH.  That took almost 1½ lbs out of my middy and improved the balance as well.

With his target crown he adds, I was surprised to discover that even at 300 yds, it still has the same excellent accuracy it did before.  As a semi-auto, and with the price of ammo, it doesn't see mag dumps so any barrel heating issues haven't reared their ugly heads.  In addition, it looks better too.

Send it to him and you'll be glad you did.  

Before:



After:



Recently, I've upgraded it to an even lighter version.  I reduced the total weight by 2½ lbs over the original configuration:



And that gave me the excuse to buy another AR:



BRD rules!!!

Well, maybe you could, if you were very careful, turn it down yourself on a grinder.  But, I would go no lighter than a Medium contour.  Also, you must be gradual and patient to have nearly flawless symmetry, otherwise if there is significant imbalance, you could end up with bad barrel harmonics, and the barrel printing really funky patterns after it heats up a little.

Go with Dremel fluting, it's far superior to ghetto dimpling.

Bushmaster Dissy sent to the fat farm!

Quoted: Go with Dremel fluting, it's far superior to ghetto dimpling.

Ok, Dremel fluting it is.  I have heard someone here posted an attempted dremel flute job.  I looked but I can't find it.  We need the power of a "Team Member" to do an archive search, I'm am dying to see the damage

BTW:  I found an old bull barrel for my 10/22 - I'm going to try a "ghetto dimpling".  Either way, I will post pic's, even if I must accept defeat.  I will be using my $35.00 drill press I just picked up at a yard sale, and a new 1/2" drill bit. I'm going to do this Ghetto style !!!

Quoted: Quoted: Go with Dremel fluting, it's far superior to ghetto dimpling. Ok, Dremel fluting it is.  I have heard someone here posted an attempted dremel flute job.  I looked but I can't find it.  We need the power of a "Team Member" to do an archive search, I'm am dying to see the damage

I can't find the original post but this one has this pics a little way down:

www.ar15.com/forums/topic.html?b=3&f=118&t=379937

Quoted: Send it to Steve at ADCO for a flute job.

+100 for ADCO
They can flute or reprofile.

They do excellent work at a good price and fast turnaround.

I can't find the original post but this one has this pics a little way down:

www.ar15.com/forums/topic.html?b=3&f=118&t=379937

Damn, thats funny !!!!  But I bet the guy said it "handles" much better due to the weight loss.  That thing must have lost almost 1/2 an ounce !!!!  I wonder how many cutting wheels he used?

I ghetto dimpled my 10/22 stainless bull barrel !!  It don't look half bad.  I could not leave well enough alone, so I am painting the dimples black, to match the receiver.  The paint alone will make it shoot better.

Ok, here is my "Ghetto Dimpled" 16" Clerke stainless bull barrel for my 10/22.


http://i353.photobucket.com/albums/r382/4a15/DSC03265.jpg
http://i353.photobucket.com/albums/r382/4a15/DSC03264.jpg

EDIT:  Ok, what did I do wrong (first attempt to post photo's)?  Ya got to cut and paste, how do you set it up so you just need to click on it?  Photo quality is better than I thought, I should have cleaned the barrel before taking the pic's - you can see the dust in the dimples.

LOL that actually looks pretty cool, would be very unique on an AR thats for sure !

Out of curiosity, did you weigh it first? What's it weigh now that it is "ghetto dimpled"?

Quoted: Ok, here is my "Ghetto Dimpled" 16" Clerke stainless bull barrel for my 10/22. http://i353.photobucket.com/albums/r382/4a15/DSC03265.jpg http://i353.photobucket.com/albums/r382/4a15/DSC03264.jpg EDIT:  Ok, what did I do wrong (first attempt to post photo's)?  Ya got to cut and paste, how do you set it up so you just need to click on it?  Photo quality is better than I thought, I should have cleaned the barrel before taking the pic's - you can see the dust in the dimples.

Click on the picture icon (third from the right) then paste the url into the popup.




That actually looks pretty cool, how long did it take you?  I'd go so far as to say that ghetto dimpling is actually superior to dremel fluting.

emrg3 - Thanks!

Not sure how long it took, maby 4 hours messing with it a little at a time.  It was sort of a rushed job, just to see how it would look.

I wrapped it in masking tape, marked up a pattern where I wanted the holes, started with an 1/8" bit in the press and worked my way to 1/2".  Don't forget to set the depth gauge!!  Sorry, I did not weigh the barrel before.  Now I've got to research what the weight was.  But it now feels like it weighs about the same as the factory 18" barrel - it had a noticable weight loss.  I wonder what the post office will think if I walk in and ask him to weigh it?

I painted the whole barrel in gloss black.  Then I used sanding cloth to sand the paint off, leaving the paint in the dimples.

I should have taken more time on marking the pattern and the starter holes.  If you look carefully you can see how some of the holes (Ghetto dimples) are a little closer to each other.  Looks better from about 2 feet away.

The real test will be if it can still shoot 1/2" @ 50.  Or, it might blow up.

Forget "Dremel Fluting".  You want "Ghetto Fluting", which uses a cut off saw !!!!

Hey, nice job on the .22 bbl...but I'd resist the urge to do the AR...
ADCO is the plan there; they turned down an HBar (to Gummint profile) for me, did a wonderful job, and had it back quickly.
The difference in handling is hard to express adequately, but I always felt like I was going to fall over forwards shooting the HBar offhand.  The damn thing weighed almost as much as an M-14.
Moon

Quoted: Hey, nice job on the .22 bbl...but I'd resist the urge to do the AR... ADCO is the plan there; they turned down an HBar (to Gummint profile) for me, did a wonderful job, and had it back quickly. The difference in handling is hard to express adequately, but I always felt like I was going to fall over forwards shooting the HBar offhand.  The damn thing weighed almost as much as an M-14. Moon

Oh yea, I paid too much for the AR to do it myself.  Some of the dimples are offset.  If that happened to the AR, I would be a little upset.

I've got the post-ban HBAR.  I'm thinking of having it cut down (total of 16"), threaded, flash hider perm attached and giving it a diet.

Finally figured out what that reminded me of; one of those Russian burp guns, or the Brit Sterling with the perfed barrel shroud.
Back in a more innocent time, guys made wooden replicas in their shop class.
Moon

I also thought it looked like an old shrouded machine gun barrel.  Right up close you can see all the defects, but a few feet away it looks really good.

EDIT:  I've looked but can't find the factory specs that tell the weight of this barrel, I really wish I took the time to weigh it first.  I really want to know how efective this type of diet was.  Time to ask the 22lr guys.