I recently bought a Ballistic advantage heavy 20" premium profile barrel and man.. That thing is heavy. 55 oz or 3 lbs. My AR-10 is already pretty heavy with the barrel I have on now. ( maybe I should hit the gym) What's everyone's opinion of fluted barrels? I went down the rabbit hole on this and read tons of negative things on them. One being that Accuracy International did testing a few years back that concluded fluted barrels suffer from POI shift due to irregular heat dissipation? Just wondering if they're actually worth considering? In some cases it's very small weight savings like .5 of a lb of from heavy profile barrel.
- Thread starter _Will_
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I have shot lots of rifles with straight and spiral flutes. The flutes cut off weight, first and foremost. Many barrels can lose an entire pound of weight. For barrels that get ammunition tuned to them, flutes have never caused a problem. I am a big fan of fluted barrels for the weight savings, especially on general purpose and hunting rifles.
Fluting is also about heat dissipation. Barrels cool by radiating heat and the more surface area an object has, the more it radiates heat. So aggressive fluting can speed up heat transfer, but not by a whole lot. It all feels a lot more cosmetic more than anything else.
Word is the heat dissipation increase is so small, it is almost myth. I cannot recall where I read of a test and it really did not decrease cool time. A barrel would have to have fins, like an air cooled engine for there to be a real surface area increase of significance.
I used to have barrels fluted on my builds as I liked the bling factor. You will hear many theories on it. I have not had any barrels fluted in quite a few years. With the cost of barrels and having to ship them back and forth a barrel blank gets very costly. If I want to lose weight I go with a smaller contour.
Ive had a few fluted barrels over the years and have never had poi shift issues when they heat up. I still have 2 fluted gas gun barrels that shoot really well.
I’d “assume” you could have issues if the fluting was done after heat treat on a button rifled or hammer forged barrel.
I’d “assume” you could have issues if the fluting was done after heat treat on a button rifled or hammer forged barrel.
personally I would put the money towards a better barrel instead of investing in a BA barrel. Also, if the flutes are not cut properly, it can mess up the barrel.
All else being equal, barrels of similar weights will generally perform similarly in terms of thermal stability - but fluting is a costly machining step. You're seeing a lot more "modern" profile barrels like the Criterion Core, BA Hanson, Triarc Track, Noveske Afghan, LaRue PredatAR, and so on that skip the flutes but offer good overall performance in a reasonably lightweight profile.
Rather than paying to machine an existing barrel, I would buy one with the profile/weight you want (flutes or not).
Rather than paying to machine an existing barrel, I would buy one with the profile/weight you want (flutes or not).
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