While at IWA - Europe's SHOT - I had the opportunity to interview Woody Woodall of Lothar Walther and Jochen Anschutz of Anschutz about barrel manufacturing methods. The video in the link below may be of interest to some of you.
TheFirearmBlog link
While at IWA - Europe's SHOT - I had the opportunity to interview Woody Woodall of Lothar Walther and Jochen Anschutz of Anschutz about barrel manufacturing methods. The video in the link below may be of interest to some of you.
TheFirearmBlog link
Very interesting just along the lines of accuracy. From all of the rifles that I have built / shot, I have never bought into the belief that hammer forging in general created a more accurate barrel. I very much was the guy scooping up many of the barrels that were being cleared out to make room for the hammer forged.
Oh and shot show in Europe. I hate you.
I think the biggest lesson there is each method has to be done correctly, and I think you can't discount any form of barrel making in and of itself. There are some VERY accurate HF barrels floating around so its not the process itself just the lack of upkeep on some of the machines that had led them to a reputation of being less accurate than other methods. From what I understand due to the equipment cost manufacturers can see a cost benefit to stretching the mandrel life out a bit further than it really should because these machines are only available to the largest of manufacturers, and the larger manufacturers have rows of bean counters in cubicles looking for a promotion because they saved the company 500k a year. Just being general and obtuse here but the point remains.
Also with button rifling the care of the metal has to be there because you are basically forcing the bore to form lands and grooves. If you do it wrong you create very high stress points, and when the barrel warms it will warp badly.
FWIW the most consistently accurate barrels coming out of the top shops in the US are cut rifled. This is where the company is not so much worried about efficiency but building a brand name reputation for making accurate barrels. A company like remington is not expected to turn out consistent sub moa shooters, and they even have a custom shop making the guns that count. If a company like Bartlein had the same swing in accuracy an off the shelf remington has they would not stay in business. But they get a premium for their barrels because its a very safe bet a Bartlein barrel will be a stunner. Companies like them, Krieger, ect....they rely on their accuracy reputation not mass production.
If I ever build another precision AR15 it will have a Krieger cut rifled barrel on it.
Pretty interesting interviews. Certainly helped me understand barrels better. Thanks.
Who's the goof-ball interviewer?
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