I recently aquired a Bushmaster M4A3, and am thinking about swapping out the barrel for a Fluted barrel, since I am a little unsure of the benefits of a M4 style barrel.  I know from studies of accurizing rifles that a uniform barrel offers more presicion, and fluting cools better.  Also, the narrow points of the M4 make me concerned about structural integrity, especially during the high heat of rapid shooting.  The difference in wieght between an M4 and a 16" fluted is only .2 pounds.  Let me know if I am making an ignorant mistake by swapping or if I should keep the M4 and why.

The most acurate barrel will be unstepped (instead it will be tapered to the end) and it will NOT BE CHROME LINED.  

The M4 barrel has no benefits other than light weight short length and ability to mount a grenade launcher.

The steps do compromise bbl integrity during volume fire (esspecially with a suppressor).  The bbl on a std M4 will plasticize at about 275-300rds (30rd mag dumps back to back) and will droop noticeably at about 500rds. [b]If you want more info simply call someone knoledgeable like a suppressor manufacturer (SWR or Troy could fill you in Troy has done some destructive testing with M4 barrels during R&D on their CQB SPEC bbls.[/b]

The full auto models are now issued with a heavier barrel to prevent some of these problems. You shouldn't have a problem as long as you fire semi-automatic and if you have an M-16 you probably won't if you stick to burst fire and keep ROF down.  

[b]For:
Volume fire
Greater accuracy
more rapid cooling
the fluted 16in will be a far better idea.[/b]

If you go to the OPS Inc website you might find a pic of an M4 barrel that is purpleish and has a sort of rainbow coloring to it. That is a "cooked" barrel it has been heated to past red hot and probably ruined for accuracy purposes with suppressed volume fire. That's my assumption anyway I could be wrong.
[img]http://opsinc.us/img/product/silencer.223.04.jpg[/img]

My brother saw a SOPMOD style heavy barreled M4 that a SEAL mentioned firing 480rds through in about 6 minutes with an M4 QD attached and it was still black and not "cooked" so it does appear that the heavier conture M4 barrel is fairly resilient.  I don't know if the civy market will ever see one though.  

Is yours a 14.5 or 16 inch ? also is it preban or post ban? Does it have anything on the muzzle? If it is a 14.5 preban 1/9 you should sell it to me and buy your fluted barrel. End of delima.

IPSC_GUY sends