I am like Winmag on this one. "WHY"
I have looked into this process and see absolutely no benefit as far as accuracy.
Turning a barrel down and wrapping it with carbon fiber can only reduce the weight with a
large contour and by going to a smaller contour you can do the same thing without risking
the precision of a barrel.
The most accurate barrel is a perfictly true contour or strait cylinder that is dimensionally
identical in thickness at any point from the bore. Any thing that you do to the outside of
a barrel risk changing these dimensions and the uniform stiffness of a homogeneous barrel
material.
At one time fluting a barrel effected accuracy greatly because of poor machining practice,
but now it is not as much of a risk because of the better equiptment and quality control.
But I still have to reject a few barrels that have been fluted poorly and have excessive
run out center to center.
Some of these barrels have a reputation for shooting well. But the risk of getting a stinker
are greater if anything is done to the barrel so the risk are just not worth the cost and
looks just to have something different.
In my opinion when it comes to accuracy of a barrel "Less is more".
If you notice . Most of the barrels with this treatment are small bores where recoil velocities
are mild and barrel harmonics are minimal. This makes uniformity's less important than in
hard kicking rifles. On the larger bore rifles heat is a problem because it acts like an insulator
and feels cool on the outside but can be over heated on the inside to the point of ruining a
good barrel from overheating the bore.
This is just my opinion and by no means should it prevent you from buying one if you
want one . It is just my opinion and belief If I were ask to build a rifle with 1/4 MOA
capabilities I would not use a wrapped barrel or one that had a "Special" treatment just
for looks.
J E CUSTOM
JE,
You aren't following the engineering.
A carbon wrapped barrel dissipates heat faster than a solid steel barrel,
A carbon wrapped barrel is stiffer than a solid steel barrel, and,
A carbon wrapped barrel is lighter than a steel barrel.
Since the carbon wrapped barrel is stiffer than a solid steel barrel, barrel harmonics are minimized relative a steel barrel, meaning more loads will shoot well and most loads will shoot better than with a steel barrel.
This is the ONLY process shown where lighter (almost always) means better accuracy.
Your claim that, "The most accurate barrel is a perfictly true contour or strait cylinder that is dimensionally
identical in thickness at any point from the bore." is wrong. There is no engineering principles to support such a claim.
• The most accurate barrel
for a given weight would have a relatively thin barrel with large reinforcements on 3 sides to get maximum stiffness for a given weight. Since this is impractical to manufacture & would be EXTREMELY expensive to machine, I never expect to see such a rifle. (This would have immense surface area to radiate heat.)
•The most practical version of this would have a barrel that is thicker in its middle to add stiffness, thicker near the chamber to control the explosion, and tapered towards the muzzle where added material would not appreciable help with stiffness. In practical shape this would mean a bull barrel with taper towards the muzzle. Although this is correct from an engineering standpoint, such a barrel is ugly. Since buyers don't buy ugly guns I don't expect to see many of these.
• The most accurate barrel would be drilled into a massive steel billet with 20 or 30 tons of mass to absorb heat and resist flexing as a load is fired and would have water lines running through it to carry away excess heat. As this is absurd, the bull-barrel is the closest most of us will come to seeing such a weapon.
• Carbon wrapping adds the stiffness and heat dissipation of the gusseted barrel without metal ribs protruding on 3 sides and does so in a light-weight form.
Your statement that, "On the larger bore rifles heat is a problem because it (presumably referring to carbon fiber) acts like an insulator and feels cool on the outside but can be over heated on the inside to the point of ruining a good barrel from overheating the bore." is simply WRONG. Carbon fiber conducts heat away from the hot center of a barrel
faster than steel. (Steel is not a very good conductor of heat &
many things conduct it faster.)
There is a valid reason carbon fiber barrels are rarely seen on guns with immense recoil. That reason is inertia. A heavy barrel simply kicks less fast upon pulling the trigger so felt recoil is less. For this reason few .378 Weatherby or .500 BMG rifles will be produced by Christenson Arms. (Any sane person would want a .50 BMG to weigh
at least 25 pounds.)