Carbon fiber wrapped barrels

[Northkill]

Nice Rifle..It should settle in a bit better with a few more rounds. I do like the Barlein barrels.I have not had a Carbon barrel. What brand /model of Bipod is that?

Thank-you. And yes, it should settle in fine...not a rifle for a lot of range shooting.

As to the bipod, it's Kirby's LR Accuracy bipod. A heavy duty F class type. For that use, shooting off bench or prone it works great. It does not have a wide adjustment range for hunting use and its not very light. Its designed for 50 cal class weapon systems - not something I plan to use for hunting.

 

[sp6x6]

At Proof site they have videos of running a string of ten shots i think it is and group.They have one where they shoot group,pull barrel and seriously hit a cinder block,mount back up and holds zero.My rifle is 7#2oz 338NM ,gets used hard,survived this,rifle strapped to roll cage, and held zero.Im ok with it

 

[Justice1327]

Check out Mikes barrel at hell canyon armory. Proably cant go wrong with any of them. Proof has been having some quality issues lately but nothing they didn't take care of as far as I know. My cousin has a 6.5x47 Carbon six and it shoots good.

I have had several makes of CF barrels since 2000. In low volume hunting /target rifles in 308'/7-08...you can expect 4-6K rds of factory ammo w/o any real issue. However, my most recent Proof barrel on a custom action wont shoot better than 1.5" and it is a hunting setup. Gunsmith set it back and used a new JGS reamer 2x. Proof said it is to be expected with factory hunting ammo and because I chose an 1:8.4 twist and they suspect it is overstabilizing them. 120-150gr bullets tested w/ no signs of OS on target at 300 yds. Be interesting to see what they say after they look at it this week

 

[Buster Hemlock]

I have had several makes of CF barrels since 2000. In low volume hunting /target rifles in 308'/7-08...you can expect 4-6K rds of factory ammo w/o any real issue. However, my most recent Proof barrel on a custom action wont shoot better than 1.5" and it is a hunting setup. Gunsmith set it back and used a new JGS reamer 2x. Proof said it is to be expected with factory hunting ammo and because I chose an 1:8.4 twist and they suspect it is overstabilizing them. 120-150gr bullets tested w/ no signs of OS on target at 300 yds. Be interesting to see what they say after they look at it this week

There is a lot of variables here that could be causing your issues, over stability could in fact be the problem with a 8.4 Twist and the light bullets your using. Also what are the specs on your reamer from JGS, I ask since you state your using factory ammo and the freebore of the reamer may not be appropriate. Or maybe you just ended up with a dud barrel, all manufacturers turn a bad one out from time to time. Let us know so we can all learn and also maybe get you pointed in a better direction

 

[KSB209]

There is a lot of variables here that could be causing your issues, over stability could in fact be the problem with a 8.4 Twist and the light bullets your using. Also what are the specs on your reamer from JGS, I ask since you state your using factory ammo and the freebore of the reamer may not be appropriate. Or maybe you just ended up with a dud barrel, all manufacturers turn a bad one out from time to time. Let us know so we can all learn and also maybe get you pointed in a better direction

What do you think about a 308 with a 1:10 twist shooting the 124 grain Hammer Hunters? Don't have the rifle yet but was going to load these for it when I do. Do you think a 124g bullet will work with a 1:10 twist? Or is it unknown until you try? Info on Hammers website says min 1:13 twist for these 124g bullets

 

[Buster Hemlock]

What do you think about a 308 with a 1:10 twist shooting the 124 grain Hammer Hunters? Don't have the rifle yet but was going to load these for it when I do. Do you think a 124g bullet will work with a 1:10 twist? Or is it unknown until you try? Info on Hammers website says min 1:13 twist for these 124g bullets

Unfortunately it's a until you shoot it and see what it shows on paper/on target. According to stability calculators your even more "over stabilized" than @Justice1327. But I've shot plenty of bullets that were "over and under stabilized" and they shot great. Where you can actually see over stabilization is on paper and also under stabilization. They both show up best on paper but they are very different in appearance. And then some barrels will shoot anything it seems and some will shoot things they "shouldn't". In my opinion/experience lighter bullets perform best around where stability calculators show them but heavier bullets seem to need what is stated and/or more. The monos seem to do better with more spin than recommended. It is a lot of physics but precession and nutation along the yaw cycle of the bullet shows if it's over stabilized/as well as the bullet is settling down/going to sleep.

 

[Mc Fraser]

I went with an HCA Heavy Hunter barrel for my 300 PRC built. In my research, I discovered that HCA uses a different technique to wrap the barrels which give the barrel much-needed stiffness. They also use less resin which helps with heat dissipation. I noticed by reading this forum ppl that complain about carbon wrapped barrels heating up fast have Proof barrels. If it's a hunting rifle it doest makes a difference, you only need one shoot, two at the most. HCA uses benchmark barrels, as a mech engineer I could not pass this opportunity. They use different techniques to relieve stress and their manufacturing process is also pretty darn good.
I'm sure there are many other good barrels out there, but not all of them are willing to share technical information, so I had to pass. To me is very important to understand the manufacturing and QC process to make my own decision if the barrel will "shoot lights out" as many other barrel makers like using fancy words to market their products. Unfortunately for them, I specialize in CNC and industrial robots, so when they talk about very tight tolerances they better be ready to back that up. Industrial robots can easily hold tolerances in the range of microns ...
In a nutshell that's how I shop around, I need technical data to draw my own conclusions.

800 yards with factory ammo.

 

[BEEMAN]

What do you think about a 308 with a 1:10 twist shooting the 124 grain Hammer Hunters? Don't have the rifle yet but was going to load these for it when I do. Do you think a 124g bullet will work with a 1:10 twist? Or is it unknown until you try? Info on Hammers website says min 1:13 twist for these 124g bullets

Should work great. Hammers do best when spun fast at high velocity. Guys are shooting the 124 HH out of 300 RUM at 4000 + FPS.

 

[KSB209]

Should work great. Hammers do best when spun fast at high velocity. Guys are shooting the 124 HH out of 300 RUM at 4000 + FPS.

Man….what would that do to a coyote? I won't be able to reach 4K FPS with a 308 but I figure close to 3200'ish

 

[BrentM]

Man….what would that do to a coyote? I won't be able to reach 4K FPS with a 308 but I figure close to 3200'ish

That seems way to be fast for a 308 and solids. Can't get that those speeds out of a 260 and barely doable with a 243 and 105's

 

[Evilsports]

Carbon barrels aren't that new. I had a rifle built a decade ago with a Rock Creek carbon fiber. It sat in my safe until this year.

I was doing cold bore load development and checking temps with a temp gun. I was really surprised to find that the inside of the barrel would only raise a few degrees in temp, even after 5 shot groups.

I think that carbon fiber barrels aren't as bad as some folks think. Mine dissipated the heat much better that I expected.

Cold bore to warm bore POI was basically identical.

 

[Bruce Treloar]

Here's that magic word again CARBON How are these barrels made? Does the resin hardness change as it warms up, very probable. Are the fibers straight , not kinked and run along the tension and compression forces ? How many layers eg 1 layer of 200 gram or 2 layers make 400 gram and 3 layers make 600 gram. What is the resin to reinforce ratio? wouldn't it be nice to have some idea what you are buying, in this case a composite wrapped barrel. To control whip one would think layers of unidirectional running from receiver to muzzle be the major layup

Stocks are another lucky dip. Is it an all carbon stock or a wooden stock with one single layer of carbon to make it look sexy. Both probably shoot well but Having one word Carbon is not sufficient information for a buyer.

Sorry to tack this onto this thread but if you would be interested in a code to better describe composites then I would like to hear from you.

 

[sp6x6]

Had mine 10 + 338NM,shot it today

 

[BrentM]

Here's that magic word again CARBON How are these barrels made? Does the resin hardness change as it warms up, very probable. Are the fibers straight , not kinked and run along the tension and compression forces ? How many layers eg 1 layer of 200 gram or 2 layers make 400 gram and 3 layers make 600 gram. What is the resin to reinforce ratio? wouldn't it be nice to have some idea what you are buying, in this case a composite wrapped barrel. To control whip one would think layers of unidirectional running from receiver to muzzle be the major layup

Stocks are another lucky dip. Is it an all carbon stock or a wooden stock with one single layer of carbon to make it look sexy. Both probably shoot well but Having one word Carbon is not sufficient information for a buyer.

Sorry to tack this onto this thread but if you would be interested in a code to better describe composites then I would like to hear from you.

Seems like a mute point. They've been around a while and seem to preform exceptionally well for most everyone whom uses them. Proven is a just a simple word to describe the outcome. Whether a person chooses to buy in or not is their choice. I've had nothing but excellent results with carbon barrels and see no reason to not continue down the path. I have 5.