Engineers, Smart Folk, and Realists. I Need your Help!

[lisagrantb]

Have you ever used a wrench on something stubborn to remove and seen it flex, if so you have distorted the shape but you haven't surpassed it's yield strength of it returned to its normal shape. You can flex any metal but if you don't push it past it's yielding point it will return to its original shape.

 

[Ol' Red]

Have you ever used a wrench on something stubborn to remove and seen it flex, if so you have distorted the shape but you haven't surpassed it's yield strength of it returned to its normal shape. You can flex any metal but if you don't push it past it's yielding point it will return to its original shape.

I did an experiment on that years ago. I used a aluminum lawn chair and my sister in law. The whole thing turned out flawed, because I did not put her in a tub of water to see how much water was displaced first. However the lawn chair did not return to it's original shape.

 

[lisagrantb]

Then you, her or both approached and surpassed the yield strength of that particular grade of aluminum. Good experiment.

 

[Mark37082]

I'm going to have to get a bigger safe, if this turns out to be true. It is already crowded with rifles being vertical.

 

[Teri Anne]

I was told that I shouldn't store my guns on a wall horizontally. This is due to the negative effects/affects (never figured that one out) of gravity pulling down on a barrel over time and warping it. I am on the fence about this, but I am closer to believing it than not. I could go for some metallurgical guys, physimachists, and engineers to settle my brain on this. Thanks! Brad

Ummm...go and take your rifle off of the horizontal rack, grab the barrel, one hand at the muzzle, the other close to the action. It will be like holding a steel bar. Now try your best to try to bend it into a U shape. If you can do that remind me not to meet you in a dark alley unless it's a friendly meeting. OK now that you have not succeeded in bending the barrel, take it to the range and check your zero. The chances are 99.9% that it will not have changed. If you can't bend the barrel then the chances of gravity doing it is pretty much nil.

On the other hand, storing it vertically will let gravity draw the oil you used to lubricate your action and barrel to preserve and keep rust away leech into your beautiful walnut stock is an issue, but hold on...unless you literally pour the oil on your rifle the amount of oil that might make it's way to the wood and soften it to the point it matters, will probably be the granddaughter you left the rifle to's problem in about 50 years if not longer. If that worries you, get a rifle with a synthetic stock. I think that if that rifle was subjected to an acid bath, the metal would be gone but the stock would still be there. I much prefer the beauty of wood, but do acknowledge the advantages of plastic. Still much prefer wood stocks even with their idiosyncrasies. To each their own.

 

[jraulsten]

So, I can hang my rifle horizontally and gravity won't bend it?

Then you, her or both approached and surpassed the yield strength of that particular grade of aluminum. Good experiment.

I'm pretty sure the tensile strength was surpassed in that experiment

 

[FEENIX]

I was told that I shouldn't store my guns on a wall horizontally. This is due to the negative effects/affects (never figured that one out) of gravity pulling down on a barrel over time and warping it. I am on the fence about this, but I am closer to believing it than not. I could go for some metallurgical guys, physimachists, and engineers to settle my brain on this. Thanks! Brad

Lay off the whiskeys! "MY" expert opinion.

Do NOT complicate things unnecessarily.

 

[asd9055]

I did an experiment on that years ago. I used a aluminum lawn chair and my sister in law. The whole thing turned out flawed, because I did not put her in a tub of water to see how much water was displaced first. However the lawn chair did not return to it's original shape.

Yeah, but the laughter I bet was priceless!!!

 

[asd9055]

I did NOT do enigneering calculations, but in your case, if you place your rifle horizontally it will be fine. You have the best case scenario, metal chassis and metal barrel/receiver. I would make sure it is the chassis that is supported on the wall.
In fact, this is the main point, especially with "plastic" stocks. The plastic stocks are more likely to deform, that is why you need to place the support under the fore arm and behind the trigger somewhere, An opinion, not an "Expert Opinion". I have seen palstic stocks deform, when stored improperly.

 

[Frenchie1]

I once drove over both barrels of an old 12 gauge double with an F-150 and I had to completely change my lead on flying critters! A curious feller at a gun show, back in the good ol days, offered me twice what I was asking, which still wasn't much, just because he thought he could straighten them and he loved to tinker. Sorry guys, when I read the OP, this was the first thought that came to into my noggin and hear I am, way off topic.

 

[Veteran]

It won't matter anyway. Everytime you takeem down and shootem the friction from the bullet will auto heat the rifling all the way down the barrel, and the gravitational effects will be erased and the steel molecular structure "reset" as the heat and energy
are dissipated from the explosion in your chamber. Translation: It will all come out in the end. No worries. Daniel Boone couldnta
been wrong.

 

[rogerstv]

Should be a fairly simple math problem for a physics student. I haven't used much physics since I graduated as an engineer in 1992. The deflection will depend on the unsupported length and the weight barrel plus scope, base, rings, etc.

My educated guess is the effect of gravity on any standardly equipped, horizontal, rifle barrel is negligible and not permanent.

If you have or know a high school or college kid taking physics, have them ask their professor for a drawing depicting the forces on a bar. Then apply that information to your situation. I don't recognize the formula in the attached. But, the drawing represents your issue and thus alleviates finding a physics professor. Treat the barrel like a pipe of known diameter and wall thickness.

If you are concerned yet still want to store them horizontally, just flip them on a routine basis.

 

[ButterBean]

SMH i

 

[SixDemonBag]

why... why did I read this.. ???