Keeping your barrel cool…

[MagnumManiac]

Magnum, we did not use cold water, just regular room temp water, stored in the truck.

I have never run a liquid inside the bore to cool it, I don't think is conducive to good bore health. If I were to run something in the bore, it would ONLY be an alcohol, like isopropyl or metho. With my same 12 volt setup, I tried Shellite, but was worried about it catching fire, so only tried it once, it worked just as well as isopropyl does.

Cheers.

 

[DoneNOut]

They have barrel cooling fans, but I don't cool the barrel, just shoot it hot. Gives information about the barrel...and I'm too impatient to wait 10 minutes between shots...but it's only been in the 90°s here. And why I like the 308 win shoot them 25 rds on a hot day without stopping, heat waves of the barrel and the smell of burning steel tell ya to stop, cause ya can't make out the target, and the temperature insensitive Varget will blow primers if you haven't fired the round sitting in the hot chamber in 5 seconds. And the barrel will still be reasonablely accurate after 8000 rds. Actually tested 100 yd accuracy after every thousand rds the .1s to .3s. 3 shot groups averaged .2" after 7000 rds same exact load, for LR out to 1400yds.
Just Install a new barrel and go at it again...and I have actually repurposed that firecracked 8000 rd barrel and chambering for an AR wildcat...cutting out much of the bad area, near the chamber ...some will remain...but plenty accurate for testing. Also take your 9mm pistol to the range while waiting for the barrel to cool, when ya hit 1080 rds per minute, on a hot day... So ya don't waste precious time, doing nothing.

oh yea I only shoot near a volcano and dip my barrels in the magma every 3 rounds and when the barrel is bending then I shoot around corners and then when the barrels are done I have a lūʻau hog roast with the barrels and the hot lead from the rounds I shot that cook the hog in the ground for 12hrs and then...

 

[MagnumManiac]

As others have sad, and I am a firm believer in this also…work up your loads in the heat of summer so you don't receive any nasty surprises while hunting like I did 30+ years ago. I found an awesome load in my 25-06 using RE22 and 100g Speer Hot Cor, printed 3/8" groups all day long at 200, I was stoked with that outcome…in 10°C weather!
Following summer went pig shooting and the very first shot, in 40°C weather, locked the bolt solid, no amount of pulling would open the bolt. Back at camp later that day, I hammered the bolt open, then hammered it to the rear, the case was fully fused to the bolt face of my custom Ruger M77 MK II, when I got it off the bolt using pliers, the primer was in 2 pieces and the anvil was FLATTENED.
Checked everything and there were no signs of damage, no gas had leaked past the bolt, so was good to go…that was the last time I worked up loads in Winter.

Cheers.

 

[3chester]

As others have sad, and I am a firm believer in this also…work up your loads in the heat of summer so you don't receive any nasty surprises while hunting like I did 30+ years ago. I found an awesome load in my 25-06 using RE22 and 100g Speer Hot Cor, printed 3/8" groups all day long at 200, I was stoked with that outcome…in 10°C weather!
Following summer went pig shooting and the very first shot, in 40°C weather, locked the bolt solid, no amount of pulling would open the bolt. Back at camp later that day, I hammered the bolt open, then hammered it to the rear, the case was fully fused to the bolt face of my custom Ruger M77 MK II, when I got it off the bolt using pliers, the primer was in 2 pieces and the anvil was FLATTENED.
Checked everything and there were no signs of damage, no gas had leaked past the bolt, so was good to go…that was the last time I worked up loads in Winter.

Cheers.

Not always that much going on in the Winter, usually still going out to reload and practice. Just have never seen that type a thing happen, tho, good to know. "printed 3/8" groups all day long at 200", like a Sturgill Simpson song, I've got Sea Stories, They're all true

 

[Matt_C]

Anything you do to cool it with towels or whatever, try to stand the gun vertical so the barrel will act as a chimney pulling the heat out of it. At least that help a good bit and worked for me here in Texas when I tested it.

 

[DoneNOut]

Anything you do to cool it with towels or whatever, try to stand the gun vertical so the barrel will act as a chimney pulling the heat out of it. At least that help a good bit and worked for me here in Texas when I tested it.

I also find pointing the barrel to the sky with rifle in the shade cools much faster than the rifle orientated horizontal like on a bipod or bags. I don't know the physamachist law for this, but I think it's a real thermodynamics thing.

This was covered already in the thread.

 

[LVJ76]

I use a damp towel kept in a cooler. Low tech, but effective.

Been doing this for over 3 decades, and it's very effective. I shoot NRA High Power Silhouette and a fellow shooter is a Metallurgical Engineer, he has also used this method, I asked him once if there would be any damage to the barrel, his answer was NO, otherwise I wouldn't be doing it also.

 

[LVJ76]

I also don't see 115° ambient hot-air cooling a barrel, I might be wrong, some of you using those air pumps might know better.

 

[Turkeytider]

I also don't see 115° ambient hot-air cooling a barrel, I might be wrong, some of you using those air pumps might know better.

I love to shoot, but 115? No thanks. 90 some odd with Georgia humidity is bad enough.

 

[Varmint Hunter]

Fortunately, I don't shoot in the extreme heat that some of you guys are experiencing. However, I have far too much money invested in custom barrels to shoot them hot.

I use a cordless mattress inflator from Amazon and a flexible hose from Ace Hardware. The hose is like a surgical tube but larger in diameter. I took a .223 case with the primer pocket drilled out and use it on the end of the hose that slips into the chamber. One size fits all. It's fast & easy to insert the case/tube into the chamber without lifting the little pump.

I blow air down the barrel briefly between every shot to slow the progression of heat build up. As soon as the barrel gets warm to the touch, it gets put into the vertical rifle rack to fully cool. The pump battery lasts a few hours with conservative use. However, if you plug it into an accessory battery, it will last almost indefinitely.

 

[Sobewan]

Go down to the local hardware store and rent one these tunnel boring beasts and set yourself up with a nice subterrain range in the privacy of your very own yard! Should keep you nice and cool all summer. Or you can go look for some abandoned mine or train tunnel if you're on a tight budget.

 

[memtb]

View attachment 484238
Go down to the local hardware store and rent one these tunnel boring beasts and set yourself up with a nice subterrain range in the privacy of your very own yard! Should keep you nice and cool all summer. Or you can go look for some abandoned mine or train tunnel if you're on a tight budget.

I fired my fisrt 60 rounds in a 100 yard underground range in Glenrock, Wy. It started in the basement of a close friend of the gunsmith that built my rifle.

A small shooting cubical (the bench was located here) was connected to the basement via a soundproofed door, accessed from the basement reloading room. The shooter's cubical was connected to a 100 yard long 6 feet in diameter galvanized culvert, ending in another cubicle. This was the "target room", in which there was a target system using a roll of freezer paper as the supply roll, and a take-up spool driver by a rotisserie motor….connected to a controller on the shooting bench a series of targets were put on the freezer paper. A small camera was on the ceiling of this room, focused on the targets. The camera went to a small television at the shooting bench.

You would shoot a group, circling your hits on the tv with a grease pen as your fired them. After shooting a group, you would wipe off the tv screen, advance the targets via the motor, until the next target was aligned for the shooter!

A pretty sweet set-up, if the winds blowing at Mach 1 or it's below zero outside! memtb

 

[Straight Shooter]

The best blower by far is the $39 ryobi from Home Depot with piece of tubing. But at 117 degrees you would want to suck air from ice chest or blow thru a copper tube buried in ice I would think. Also napa sells a plastic hose and fitting that fits on 2 liter soda bottle. Works perfect for pouring water down chamber thru barrel then patch dry. .

What is the vertical board for?

 

[Bob Wright]

Keep it just a bit cooler than this. Good to go.