Am I THE ONLY ONE ?

[mo30284]

I've never been to a competition match, but was wondering if I was the only one. It gets hot here in Mississippi when testing loads I bring a garden sprayer full of ice water. I also bring a tank of air with blower. When my barrel gets hot I spray it down then blow any water out of barrel channel. Then on to the next group. When I get home I take stock off and oil everything. I'm I hurting anything by doing this? When u have limited time u can get a lot of rounds off in a short period of time.


Mo

[abinok]

Nope,
Heres what I do...
http://longrangehunting.com/ubbthreads/s...=true#Post79864

[Bart B]

I don't think barrels heating up all the way to 'too hot to touch' levels should cause any accuracy problems. Or heating up to any amount for that matter. While a round chambered in a hot barrel for longer than 15 or so seconds will have its powder heat up and cause higher muzzle velocity, at 200 yards or less I doubt many folks could tell the difference. However, there's two things I know of that will cause a barrel to bend as it gets hot.

If the barrel wasn't stress relieved properly after shaping and rifling it, they do tend to bend a bit when they get hot. It's usually in the same direction.

And a barrel fit to a receiver that's not faced square to the bore and chamber axis can cause it to bend a bit 'cause the barrel fits tight at only one area around where it butts up against the receiver.

Your only concern should be getting every bit of the water out. If a bit of water stays in the barrel after trying to blow it out, then you may 'ring' the barrel or put a bulge in it as the bullet tries to compress the water drops and they push out on the bore making a small dent all the way around. If it's important to you to cool the barrel, have a cooler full of water with a towel in it. After shooting a string of shots, wrap that towel around the barrel where you can and let it cool down. I wouldn't put any water down the bore to cool it; the risk of ringing the barrel is too much for me. It's your rifle barrel so you get to decide.

[James Jones]

Hey moe , I doubt that your the only guy that has never been to a compition , I know that it can get hard to work up loads down here , I'm sure its the same anywhere else in the summer.
I built a little rig to cool my barrels using some tygon tubing a Nalgyne bottle and one of those chamber plugs , it alows you to flush cool water through your barrel to cool it down without getting your gun all wet. their are several way to cool your gun down at the range.
I've actualy shot several 5 shot strings to where the barrel was pretty warm then set the gun down,in the sun, (as their was zero shade except what our bodies made)and the barrel was hotter than after I shot the groups , it diden't have any affect on accuracy.

I have a BlackStar barrel on a 22-250Ai that I have shot so much out of it that the barrel got hot enough to start making the oil in the stock smell its typicaly a sub 1/2" gun and the groups did start to open up to the 3/4moa range but their were dozens of rounds fired witout cleaning so I'm not gonna blame it all on the heat.

What part of Mississippi are you from

[mo30284]

Thanks for the info fellows!!! JD I'm from Tylertown it's a small town by Mccomb. I live about 7 miles from the Bayou State. Go Tigers!!!!!!!!!!!

[James Jones]

Hey moe , I know where Tylertown is , I killed a huge gobbler up their 2 years ago.
I heard that they were trying to open a 1000yd BR range in Vicksburg , that was last year , have you heard anything about that?

I'm not to far from ya , I'm just south in Slidell,LA. Their arn't any places to shoot around here either , I have to run up to Lumberton to shoot on a lease we belong to they have a long pipeline , other than that we have a small shooting club here with a 200yd range