Cryogenics, Barrel Break in, and Accuracy

[ctd12vfan]

Also, turkn8r1, you mentioned threaded brakes in your post. Well, I wanted that however, I could not get them threaded at the time. At some point I will try to get them threaded but right now its not really an option.

I think I've mentioned this already but thanks to the posts here and on another thread I am going to be testing a theory that the clamp on brakes are having and negative affect on the barrel harmonics. I will post my results of the test on this thread once it is done.

 

[turkn8r1]

I'm sorry I didn't really answer your question. My experience with cryo treatment is that it can cause the barrel to shrink ever so slightly 1 or 2 thousanths. It may have resulted in a tight barrel. If you can recover some of the bullets they may show signs of that and if you haven't done it yet you can take some measurements. I look forward to seeing how and where this goes. I have a McGowen barrel and it is sweeeet. Good luck

 

[ctd12vfan]

That is rather interesting and a theory I have not heard about yet. I do think that 1 or 2 thousandths is probably a bit much though, but I could see that in ten thousandths. I will try to check that out.

The reason I doubt its thousandths is, wouldn't that much change cause other serious problems with how the rifle shoots? Such as over pressure, and other similar problems.

 

[elkaholic]

That is rather interesting and a theory I have not heard about yet. I do think that 1 or 2 thousandths is probably a bit much though, but I could see that in ten thousandths. I will try to check that out.

The reason I doubt its thousandths is, wouldn't that much change cause other serious problems with how the rifle shoots? Such as over pressure, and other similar problems.

I would agree with that analogy!.........Rich

 

[turkn8r1]

I meant ten thousenths but if it tightend the newley bored and rifled barrel at all it may have an effect. just something to look at.

 

[ctd12vfan]

I meant ten thousenths but if it tightend the newley bored and rifled barrel at all it may have an effect. just something to look at.

Agreed. Like I said, I had not heard that theory before but I think it is possible, it may be a long shot, but plausible.

I will try and recover some of the rounds but don't hold your breath. The ones I have fond in the past were pretty mangled. If the other theory I am testing doesn't pan out then I will try and set something up to recover a good round.

 

[Garycrow]

The rifle barrels are custom made, not factory. The Axis has a Mcgowen 1:10 and the AR has a White Oak Armament 1:8. Garycrow, you didn't miss it before, I left them out intentionally.

As for the cryo treatment, I understand it is a controversial topic. However, I think that the science behind it is sound. Also, these are an experiment in accuracy. Hindsight being 20/20 I should have mounted and tested these barrels first, that is a correction I am making on the next one.

Mcgowen is a pretty low end custom barrel, some have good luck with them but many seem to not. White Oak Armament used to use some Shilen blanks for their barrels but looking at their website they only say shilen on a few of their barrels, the rest leave it unlabeled which tells me they're cheap no-name blanks. Shilen generally makes good barrels. I don't know if yours is a Shilen or not.

I still maintain that your money would be better spent on top quality barrels. I was around when the cryo fad was going on about 15 years ago and to my mind it proved just that, a fad. I believe krieger cryos their barrels at some point in the manufacturing process but I think they state that it's because it makes the machining easier, not because they've observed any accuracy benefits. Benchrest shooters will do anything to give them a miniscule edge in competition and a lot of them have tried cryo over the years to chase that edge. The fact that the vast majority of them don't cryo anymore tells me that they've found no benefit to it. You say you don't subscribe to the shoot/clean break in method. I do like to do that on new good barrels. My last three barrels have been bartlein 5R's and I've broken them in with the shoot/clean method for the first 10 rounds. All of them have quit copper fouling after 8-9 rounds and do not copper foul at all now. One of my 6.5x47 lapuas had about 200 rounds through it before it's last cleaning and there was absolutely no copper fouling to be found it in when I cleaned it. I don't believe the shoot/clean regime really affects accuracy but I do believe it helps minimize copper fouling, at least I've had good luck with it in mine.

I wish you luck with the cryo though, but I don't think you're going to find it helps anything. For me I feel the best course is the best barrel I can get, carefully broken in.

 

[JMSTactical]

Hi all,

I know this post is old, but just in case this issue is un-resolved, I wanted to jump in here and throw in my 2 cents (which is what it could be worth).
As a manufacturer of muzzle brakes, we have found that sometimes clamp on muzzle brakes will effect accuracy. We never use the clamp on types because they have been problematic in times past (besides watching people shoot them off the ends of their barrels)..

I would recommend you remove the clamp on brakes and re-test if this has not been resolved.

Thanks and have a great day!