Ratchet Rifling

[elkaholic]

Rich,

I thought that the Schnieder polygonal rifing had no sharp edges, if you catch what I mean?

I hadn't heard of ratchet rifling until this thread.

Interesting.

(Still gazing at that 6.5 Sherman cartridge. There's something attractive about it.)

Roy your not as much a turkey as I thought What is REALLY attractive is the performance and the case life. With a 30" barrel, I have NO doubt that you could launch the 140's at 3350 or more. (in the 6.5) Let me know when you're ready for the reamer. I have a hydro former that I can even make a few cases to get you started.
P.S. I'm not sure exactly what you meant by the "sharp edges" but I think the Bartlein does not have radius at the land/groove junction and maybe the Broughton does? Not sure about the others but they share the the trapezoid shape as far as I know?.......Rich

 

[coyotezapper]

I use both 5R and Ratchet Rifled barrels. The 5R I use are cut rifled and are made by Mike Rock. Very good barrel, very long lead time in getting one but worth it. I think that the 5R, 5C and the Schneider are all basically the same, but the rifling is cut at slightly different angles. Obermeyer Barrels owns the proprietary rights to the 5R and it is the original that was designed for the M24 Sniper rifle. The process can be done with button or cut rifle process. I am not sure about the Hammer process, i don't see why not. My Shilen ratchet rifled barrel is a 1-14" twist 6mm barrel chambered in .243 Winchester. This barrel is a treat to shoot and to clean. No other barrel cleans as quickly. I cannot say that it is the rifling that makes it clean up fast as it shoots light bullets. Lighter bullets = less bearing surface = less copper fouling. That being said my 5R barrels clean up just fine with very little copper fouling. Until something better comes along I will probably never go back to conventional rifling.

 

[TracySes23]

They look to be pretty close to the same principal. The Shilen Ratchet Rifled are 4 groove and the Broughton 5C canted is 5 groove. Anyone out there have any personal feedback on either one?

I bought one of the Shilen "Stainless Steel Select/Match barrels" with the Ratchet rifling one & a half years ago. To date I've put 700 rounds thru it from a bench. I've shot enough 3 shot to 5 shot groups (maybe 20 groups) under .25 inches to know this barrel is more capable than I am. It's chambered for the 22-250 with a .250 inch tight necked chamber with a 1-8" twist.
Just to clarify myself, I shoot only bench rest, but I don't consider myself a bench rest shooter. My age & physical condition precludes me from hunting.
I only bought this barrel only to see if my mediocre groups from my factory barrel was all my own bad shooting or not. I was seriously considering selling all of my reloading & shooting gear before I decided to try this barrel. I don't want to tell anyone how bad I was shooting before fit this Shilen barrel to my Savage LRPV left load right eject action mounted in a Savage BR laminated stock.
My average groups are approx. 1/3 the size of of what I was getting from the stock savage barrel.
I believe this barrel is capable of consistent 1/4" - 3/8" groups, but not from me. At least not yet.
I can attest, this barrel is much easier to get clean than my previous barrel.
I love the tight necked chamber also. I use a neck sizing die from Forster with interchangeable bushings. With neck turned cases with a .012" wall thickness, a .246" bushing works the neck very little.
I'm sure other barrel that use a similar type of rifling will likely give similar results.
This new barrel has given me the confidence to spend more money on a Sinclair adjustable front rest & an Edgewood Rear bag. I hope these two items will improve my consistency.

 

[TracySes23]

Welcome to Shilen Rifles, Inc.

From the above address you can double-click on the blue text to see a graphic of Shilen 4-groove Ratchet Rifling. You can see why they're easier to clean.