We have been working on some pretty exciting stuff around here lately, and thought I would give you guys a first peek at one of those things. Carbon fiber barrels have been known to present certain challenges for builders and customers since they were introduced. I’m pretty sure we’ve tried them all at this point with results ranging from excellent to pure crap. No product is perfect, but we see more variance in CF barrels than in any other build component.
One popular product is generally pretty danged good, and has been even better recently, but still has a higher cull rate than most steel barrels and the bores often runout significantly early in the blank(like right where the throat is going to be). And getting one you want in the length and twist rate you need may take some significant time. Another product that we have had great success with in the past, and swore by has been yielding less than optimum results as of recent. Both examples show the ebb and flow of carbon fiber barrel performance as we see it on our end. There are other brands that we have tried, but always ended up back at the original two alluded to earlier for a host of reasons. Neither are cheap!
One of the big issues we see with CF barrels, especially in some of the lesser known versions we have tried is the tendency to exhibit POI shift after the first few rounds. This can be caused by several different factors, but it boils down to stresses residing somewhere in the barrels themselves. Not trying to start a debate on cut vs. button rifling here as I am a fan of both, but buttoning does induce more stress into the blank than cut does by its very nature. Given all of the potential stress inducing steps in turning down and then wrapping a CF barrel, it seems like a good idea to start with a cut rifled tube to begin with. That would eliminate many of the current options if you chose that criteria, but might be a step in the right direction when trying to create a stress free end product. Which brings me here….
While visiting with a friend who owns another company in the industry about our recent CF barrel issues, he divulged that he had been prototyping and testing a CF wrapping process over the last year with great success. We talk weekly, so I gave him some crap about holding out on me, but understand that he wanted it to be “right” before letting the cat out of the bag. Knowing he had total control over the wrapping process solved about ½ the potential issues right off the bat. The other ½ would be sourcing good blanks and figuring out profiles that worked well with the process.
I contacted one of our cut-rifled barrel makers that has been dead-nuts consistent on quality and delivery times to pick his brain and gauge his interest in being involved with this project. That was the best call I could have made. Not only was he on board, but he had some pretty deep involvement with some of the early efforts by a couple of companies in the CF barrel market. He saw what worked, but more importantly what did not. After some back and forth ideas between the 3 of us, specs were drawn up and test barrels were cut and delivered and sent out for carbon fiber. Those barrels were returned to our shop and were immediately chambered last week. I shot the first one earlier today and liked what I saw……a lot. I plan on doing my best to kill them over the next month or so. If they pass the test, they will open up some doors for CF builds moving forward.
The goal was not to build the lightest CF barrel out there, but to build the most stable, most affordable, most consistent CF barrel that can be had in any length and twist rate desired, while being delivered in a reasonable timeframe. If this works out, maybe they can make an appearance in the 2019 TBH special?
Thanks,
Robert
Alamo Precision Rifles
One popular product is generally pretty danged good, and has been even better recently, but still has a higher cull rate than most steel barrels and the bores often runout significantly early in the blank(like right where the throat is going to be). And getting one you want in the length and twist rate you need may take some significant time. Another product that we have had great success with in the past, and swore by has been yielding less than optimum results as of recent. Both examples show the ebb and flow of carbon fiber barrel performance as we see it on our end. There are other brands that we have tried, but always ended up back at the original two alluded to earlier for a host of reasons. Neither are cheap!
One of the big issues we see with CF barrels, especially in some of the lesser known versions we have tried is the tendency to exhibit POI shift after the first few rounds. This can be caused by several different factors, but it boils down to stresses residing somewhere in the barrels themselves. Not trying to start a debate on cut vs. button rifling here as I am a fan of both, but buttoning does induce more stress into the blank than cut does by its very nature. Given all of the potential stress inducing steps in turning down and then wrapping a CF barrel, it seems like a good idea to start with a cut rifled tube to begin with. That would eliminate many of the current options if you chose that criteria, but might be a step in the right direction when trying to create a stress free end product. Which brings me here….
While visiting with a friend who owns another company in the industry about our recent CF barrel issues, he divulged that he had been prototyping and testing a CF wrapping process over the last year with great success. We talk weekly, so I gave him some crap about holding out on me, but understand that he wanted it to be “right” before letting the cat out of the bag. Knowing he had total control over the wrapping process solved about ½ the potential issues right off the bat. The other ½ would be sourcing good blanks and figuring out profiles that worked well with the process.
I contacted one of our cut-rifled barrel makers that has been dead-nuts consistent on quality and delivery times to pick his brain and gauge his interest in being involved with this project. That was the best call I could have made. Not only was he on board, but he had some pretty deep involvement with some of the early efforts by a couple of companies in the CF barrel market. He saw what worked, but more importantly what did not. After some back and forth ideas between the 3 of us, specs were drawn up and test barrels were cut and delivered and sent out for carbon fiber. Those barrels were returned to our shop and were immediately chambered last week. I shot the first one earlier today and liked what I saw……a lot. I plan on doing my best to kill them over the next month or so. If they pass the test, they will open up some doors for CF builds moving forward.
The goal was not to build the lightest CF barrel out there, but to build the most stable, most affordable, most consistent CF barrel that can be had in any length and twist rate desired, while being delivered in a reasonable timeframe. If this works out, maybe they can make an appearance in the 2019 TBH special?
Thanks,
Robert
Alamo Precision Rifles
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