Sat Jan 09, 2010 8:30 am
Rifle Barrels
A rifle barrel is, in most of the cases, a long 16-30 inches, tapering, tube that is made of steel with fairly thick walls. It usually starts as a steel bar, which is afterwards drilled and reamed to the so-called "bore diameter" of the cartridge for which it is to be chambered. The “groove diameter“ is the distance across the grooves and it varies depending on the rifle’s caliber. The outside part of the rifle’s barrel is tapered by turning it down to the desired contour. This will lighten the barrel by dropping the excess metal surfaces. The tapered barrels have a larger diameter at the chamber in comparison with the muzzle, this is because when a cartridge is fired, the highest pressure is at the chamber end. Some of the barrels are called “bull barrels“ due to the fact that they aren’t tapered at all.
The materials used for barrels are steel alloys that are called nickel steel, chrome-molybdenum steel, stainless steel or ordinance steel. The material used greatly depends on the demands of the cartridge for which they are chambered. In order to improve the service life, the barrels for high velocity cartridges are made from harder and tougher steel in comparison with the barrels made for low pressure cartridges.
The rifling process purpose is to give the bullet more stability in order to increase its accuracy - the process is called spin stabilizing. An interesting fact regarding the spin of the bullets is that almost all American rifle barrels spin the bullets to the right while the British barrels spin the bullets to the left. Regarding the rate of twist which is expressed as one turn in so many inches ( example: 1 in 10” ), this is designed in order to stabilize the range of bullets that are normally used in a particular type of caliber. At a high velocity it will take less twist to stabilize a bullet in comparison with a low velocity situation. At the exact same velocity in the same caliber, longer bullets will impose faster twist rates than shorter bullets that have the same weight. The heavier the bullet is, the faster the twist rates are imposed and the lighter the bullets are, the slower the twist rates will be.
A rifle barrel is commonly described to as either light, medium or heavy – this reflects the thickness of the steel that is surrounding the bore. A great way to lighten a rifle is to remove the excess metal - this will allow the hunter to carry the rifle around easier especially when travelling great distances or at a fast pace. The heavy barrels usually take longer to heat up and as a consequence they maintain a good accuracy for more shots. They also resist outside bending forces in comparison with lighter barrels. All things considered, heavy barrels are in most cases more accurate than the lighter barrels. The medium weight barrels were made as a compromise between performance and portability and most of the rifles have medium contour barrels which in many cases are enough for almost all hunting purposes.
The length of a rifle barrel has a direct impact on the velocity that is obtained from the cartridge for which it is chambered. In terms of ballistics, longer is usually better but for handling, maneuvering and carrying purposes, shorter is recommended that is why a compromise between these two is required.
All things considered many aspects must be taken in consideration when choosing the most suitable rifle barrel but with a little bit of documentation and patience any problem can be resolved without having to pay a small fortune for this.
The materials used for barrels are steel alloys that are called nickel steel, chrome-molybdenum steel, stainless steel or ordinance steel. The material used greatly depends on the demands of the cartridge for which they are chambered. In order to improve the service life, the barrels for high velocity cartridges are made from harder and tougher steel in comparison with the barrels made for low pressure cartridges.
The rifling process purpose is to give the bullet more stability in order to increase its accuracy - the process is called spin stabilizing. An interesting fact regarding the spin of the bullets is that almost all American rifle barrels spin the bullets to the right while the British barrels spin the bullets to the left. Regarding the rate of twist which is expressed as one turn in so many inches ( example: 1 in 10” ), this is designed in order to stabilize the range of bullets that are normally used in a particular type of caliber. At a high velocity it will take less twist to stabilize a bullet in comparison with a low velocity situation. At the exact same velocity in the same caliber, longer bullets will impose faster twist rates than shorter bullets that have the same weight. The heavier the bullet is, the faster the twist rates are imposed and the lighter the bullets are, the slower the twist rates will be.
A rifle barrel is commonly described to as either light, medium or heavy – this reflects the thickness of the steel that is surrounding the bore. A great way to lighten a rifle is to remove the excess metal - this will allow the hunter to carry the rifle around easier especially when travelling great distances or at a fast pace. The heavy barrels usually take longer to heat up and as a consequence they maintain a good accuracy for more shots. They also resist outside bending forces in comparison with lighter barrels. All things considered, heavy barrels are in most cases more accurate than the lighter barrels. The medium weight barrels were made as a compromise between performance and portability and most of the rifles have medium contour barrels which in many cases are enough for almost all hunting purposes.
The length of a rifle barrel has a direct impact on the velocity that is obtained from the cartridge for which it is chambered. In terms of ballistics, longer is usually better but for handling, maneuvering and carrying purposes, shorter is recommended that is why a compromise between these two is required.
All things considered many aspects must be taken in consideration when choosing the most suitable rifle barrel but with a little bit of documentation and patience any problem can be resolved without having to pay a small fortune for this.
