Bluing guns are achieved by an electrochemical process in which the iron in steel is converted to magnetite, or black oxide. It did not walk its shots even when the barrel got so hot I consciously avoided touching it. Cryo and heat treatment are two different things. Polish a gun barrel & other parts to be blued. The cryogenic treatment of gun barrels is a permanent way to eliminate residual stresses that can affect performance. The improvement lasts the entire life of the gun or rifle. 3. It lasts only a millisecond or so, but it melts your barrel a little bit each time you shoot. Put the gun parts in the bluing solution. The Deep Cryogenic Processor is a dry process, thus no liquid comes in contact with your firearm barrel. Guns such as sniper rifles and tactical rifles shoot with as much as 50% greater accuracy, and 200% longer life. My latest CB&G is a slim .257 Roberts barrel Dan fitted to an FN Mauser commercial action, and it does not “walk” any more than his other barrels – which is not at all. Every time you pull the trigger, you send a 5,000-degree flame streaking up your barrel. The hole is next reamed to the correct bore diameter then rifled, which may or may not reintroduce stresses into the steel, depending on the method. Names like Melonite, Ni-Corr, Black nitride or salt bath nitride are all variations of a surface … Melonite Surface Treatment for Barrels, Bolts, and Actions. You need a stainless steel container big enough to hold the parts you intend to parkerize, a heat source, some means to sandblast your parts, some means to degrease your parts, some sort of oil as a post-treatment protective, and the parkerizing solution … . Cut rifling generally does not stress the barrel, one reason many shooters consider cut-rifled barrels most accurate. Cryogenic barrel treatment utilizes liquid nitrogen to bring the temperature of the gun barrel down to -300°F. Hammer forging rifling is generally claimed to introduce the most stress into barrel steel, since a bunch of mechanical “hammers” quickly pound a drilled steel bar around a rifled mandrel. It does not walk when hot either. The gun barrel is kept at this level for 24 hours to relieve residual stresses created during manufacturing. A cube with 14 atoms, one in each corner and one in the center of each face of the cube, is face-centered cubic (FCC). Rinse off a cleaning solution in the cold water. As a result, quite a few pressure-bedded hunting rifles walk their shots as the barrel gets warm, and the barrel gets blamed. Cryogenic treatment is a one-time, permanent process. Part 2 can be found here. These days many rifles have fluted barrels and holes in their forend. 3. I do not know, but the rifle went down the road. No other kind of hunting burns barrels quicker than intensive prairie dog shooting in summer weather, and I have seen visible signs of throat erosion through my Gradient Lens bore-scope after only 250 rounds of .223 Remington ammunition was fired quickly. Now when most people hear the word cryogenics, they think of freezing bull semen, heads or bodies, but Renee and Adam Weitzel, owners of Badger Cryogenics and Heat Treating, Inc., only freeze inanimate objects. This process introduces some stress into the steel, and this stress must be removed. The bedding was fine, with the epoxy-bedded wood evenly contacting the barrel throughout the forend – but I also tried the temporary free-floating trick, and the rifle shot the same way. This was 20 years ago, back when many prairie dog shooters (including me) used a .223 Remington for shooting out to about 250/300 yards, and a .22-250 for longer shots. Read more: Which is Better? Queching steel while it is hot hardens the steel, but it can also make it brittle, so you … After working up an accurate load, one of John’s tests for prairie dog rifles is shooting at least 10 shots as fast as they can possibly be aimed well, to see if the barrel walks when hot. Both brands have a reputation for superb accuracy, partly because the same hammer-forged barrels are used for each. Shop our vast selection and save! 3. This would obviously seem to stress steel, but as with just about any subject these days, somebody will offer a contrary opinion on the Internet. I then took it on a couple of trips hosted by ammunition factories and after more than five shots the point-of-impact raised and moved left a couple of inches. Dan Lilja is known for making very accurate button-rifled barrels. Well, there are other possible reasons than the barrel itself. If you are doing a slow rust bluing, plug the bore to protect the rifling. Gun Bluing (Black Oxide) Steel bluing, also known as gun bluing, oxidizing and black passivating, is a process by which the metal is given a rust-resistant finish. During the cryogenic treatment of gun barrels and firearms, there is a rearranging of the molecular structure of the barrel’s steel; this creates a more uniform structure throughout. Another potential bedding culprit is the “tip hump” in many factory rifles, a pressure point at the front of the forend channel designed to dampen barrel vibrations. More on Howitzer Barrel Heat Treatment The next area of concern is the howitzer barrel. The improvement lasts the entire life of the gun or rifle. Unlike a vehicle, a gun that’s protected with the right finish retains resale value no matter how many “miles” you’ve got on it. Following this heat treating the barrels are completely stress free.”. But if it is overdone the part losses the tempering. According to more than one review of the new rifle and cartridge, this resulted in subpar accuracy (which today would be considered not just poor but completely unacceptable), with five-shot groups often measuring 2 to 3 inches, and sometimes more. This is why so many successful target shooters quickly fire as many rounds as possible during a certain “wind condition” – obviously not waiting for the barrel to cool between shots. Procedures must be followed religiously or failures will result. Because Moly Bore Paste dries and cures quickly it can be used as a treatment for lubrication and protection of all gun and metal surfaces. Gun Barrels Processed barrels consistently shoot more accurate, clean-up quicker and last longer! You heat and then rapidly quench steel to harden it. Smokey Merkley has taught orienteering, marksmanship, self-defense, fencing, scuba diving and boxing. 1. Basically, any metal can be heat-treated in order to achieve certain goals, but in barrel steel heat treating removes stresses introduced both during the manufacturing of the cylindrical steel bars used to make barrels, and during the rifling process. Unlike a vehicle, a gun that’s protected with the right finish retains resale value no matter how many “miles” you’ve got on it. Allowing the rifle to cool even 10 minutes after each group did not help. 300 Below’s cryogenic treatment acts an extension of the heat treatment process used in manufacturing defense and aerospace components, high-performance motorsports applications, 262,000+ gun barrels, sporting goods, musical instruments. A ceramic engine would require no cooling system and a ceramic gun barrel would melt the receiver and bolt to slag before the barrel failed. The whole point of that longish paragraph is, I suspect a gun barrel is heat treated before the priming and a temperature of 180 degrees applied for a while for instance on a tempered steel is also a heat treatment, it is called an annealing to reduce the brittle. It’s an investment in both personal and financial security, as nothing else on earth can protect you in a moment of danger yet hold its value well into the future. I have visited several barrel factories and talked extensively with other barrelmakers. It’s also the most accurate. Instead, NULAs weigh less because the actions and synthetic stocks are very light, so they can be fitted with standard barrels. Design by Brandon Glenn Graphic Design, Which is Better? Ace trigger-puller Joel Kendrick, a former IBS 600-yard Shooter of the Year, has been working on a MELONITE® nitrocarburizing process for surface-hardening barrels and other gun parts. I have owned about the same number of cut-rifled barrels, both new and rebored, made by Dan Pederson at Classic Barrel & Gunworks, who also does not heat-treat barrels after rifling. There was only a little erosion so I bought the rifle and a few boxes of factory ammunition. His website includes a description of the post-rifling heat-treatment: “When a barrel is button-rifled, no material is removed to create the grooves. Bluing guns are achieved by an electrochemical process in which the iron in steel is converted to magnetite, or black oxide. It may seem criminal to shoot such an accurate hunting rifle fast enough to get the barrel hot, which tends to shorten barrel life, but as Melvin Forbes frequently points out, Douglas makes new barrels every week. I then temporarily free-floated the barrel with a pair of plastic shims placed behind the recoil lug. 2. As the heat passes through the barrel diametrically, temperature rapidly drops as more and more mass is involved with dealing with the rather constant amount of heat (energy). Ours have 24-inch No. So what is heat treating, and how does it affect rifle barrels? In Rifle No. Winchester really free-floated the barrels of post-1964 model 70s, like this Featherweight Classic 7mm-08 Remington, which improved accuracy considerably. It is named after the blue-black appearance of the resulting protective finish. Rather, the steel is cold formed and moved outward. I specifically asked if they are heat-treated at the factory, and the answer was a very definite yes. Other European companies have been hammer-forging their barrels for quite a while. The best handload grouped five rounds into around an inch, shot as fast as I can aim accurately and fire. Instead, it had to cool at least half an hour. He said their barrels all walked because (as he eventually discovered) they were heat-treated after drilling and reaming, before they were button rifled. The rifle then started shooting very well, with no sign of barrel-walking. This New Ultra Light Arms .30-06 is often used for testing scopes, partly because its barrel does not “walk” as it heats up. However, after the first range session, he mentioned being disappointed in the accuracy, since three-shot groups rarely measured less than about 1.5 inches, no matter the load. The comment may well be made by other experts in the field of heat treatment of the howitzer barrel and the breech component parts that there is a serious risk of distortion because of the process temperature necessary, which is generally up to 1000°F (540°C). And it can seriously affect your rifle’s accuracy and its point of impact. Among the most highly regarded are made by Krieger Barrels Inc. Heat, then, is transported by conduction to the rest of the barrel, and as heat penetrates the barrel the temperature of the barrel rises as equilibrium sets in. Bluing is a passivation process in which steel is partially protected against rust using a black oxide coating. A firearm is an investment. 1. Life is too short.) After mounting a reliable scope, I sighted-in with some factory ammunition left over from another project, and the rifle consistently put five shots considerably under an inch. As a metal cools from a liquid state to a solid state, the atoms arrange themselves in a specific, ordered pattern, also known as a crystal structure or crystal lattice structure. 2 contour Douglas barrels with muzzles measuring .600 inch in diameter, yet weigh well under 7 pounds with a typical 12-ounce hunting scope. So far, every company buys long cylindrical bars formed by cold-rolling, which are then stress-relieved at the factory, sometimes twice. (Melvin Forbes, owner of NULA, uses Douglas as his standard brand, partly because Douglas is located in Charles Town, West Virginia, an easy drive from the NULA shop in Morgantown, but also because they shoot well.). John looked skeptical, but I explained “hot stability” is why my NULA .30-06 is my favorite rifle for testing scopes. Finally, I sent the rifle to gunsmith Charlie Sisk for a new Lilja barrel, and when Charlie started to unscrew the old barrel, its threads were so undersized the shank rattled around inside the action. It also generally means the wind will change, and even an erratic 5-mph breeze can result in .75 inch of extra spread at 100 yards. Steel’s structure commonly is cubic. My Featherweight .308’s stock bedding was unaltered, and that is exactly how it initially shot. Everything from an AR-15 to a 700, bull barrel, sniper rifle or .22 will benefit. The benefits range anywhere from 50% to 600% longer life after stress relief and thermal stabilization. Nitriding or Chrome Lining by Smokey Merkley, Light Weighting Automotive Suspension Component Manufacturer Expands Production, Precision Resource Brings Heat Treating In House, Coupling CFD and Oil Quench Hardening Analysis of a Gear Component. 1. In early practice of autofrettage of a gun barrel, the barrel was pressurized hydraulically. Any rifle with a properly heat-treated barrel and good stock bedding should do the same thing – and waiting five minutes (or two, or whatever) between shots often results in larger groups. These can work very well in a stable, precisely made stock, but unfortunately in other stocks the amount of pressure varies and can be especially wimpy in many of today’s injection-molded models. Put the gun parts in the bluing solution. The purpose of any of the briefly described heat-treatment procedures is to improve the surface-wear characteristics of … They are heat treated usually but not hardened like your thinking. These days I shoot a Remington 700 in .204 Ruger at what used to be .22-250 prairie dog ranges, a factory rifle that started off as its VTR with a triangular barrel contour. Shotguns have reduced pattern shift from shot-heating by as much as 11″ after deep cryogenic processing. Heat treatment is performed well above 1000 deg f. 2. John decided to buy a New Ultra Light Arms rifle as a present to himself so he could keep hiking around after deer and elk, despite the hills and mountains becoming increasingly steeper each year. An worker at Watervliet arsenal removes 155mm cannon barrels from an industrial furnace after a heat-treating process has brought them to nearly 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit. 6. I replaced it with a new Remington factory barrel, a stainless sporter purchased for around $100 from an Internet site. The barrel-maker adamantly claimed this was the proper method. The mystery was finally solved one day when talking to a fellow gun writer who had tested more than one rifle from that particular company. While light-contour barrels generally do not shoot as accurately as heavier barrels, if properly heat-treated, light barrels are not more prone to walking. Button-rifling is formed by pushing or pulling a short, very hard button with a mirror image of the desired rifling through the reamed bore, which creates some stress in the barrel steel. Our attention to detail throughout this process eliminates the chance of thermal shock and micro-cracking to your weapon. This eliminates internal stresses, allowing the barrelmaker to drill straight holes. Polish a gun barrel & other parts to be blued. So with all this heat-treating going on, why do some barrels walk? And yes, ridiculously hard is not your goal. This is accomplished by heating the bars to 1,000/1,100 degrees Fahrenheit (exactly how hot depending on the type of steel), then cooled slowly. 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