Other than HK & Diemaco(Colt Canada) who makes cold hammer forged barrels for AR's?
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Other than HK & Diemaco(Colt Canada) who makes cold hammer forged barrels for AR's?
Doesn't Lothar Waltham?
HTH,
Sean
Never heard of them.
Lothar Walther uses button rifling.
Their barrels are made with an "in house" steel called LW50... they are very nice barrels, catering to target shooters, prices are really pretty good for what you are getting, a long tube with mathed bolt and extension runs close to 400 beans iirc.
17-4 ya say? :o
Those are the only ones I'm aware of, however, I do know of another company trying to get ramped up for this. Don't expect anything anytime soon, however.Quote:
Originally Posted by VA_Dinger
What exactly are the advantages of a cold hammer forged barrel?
Keeping it to chrome lined barrels, would it be much better than a quality barrel such as the ones made by BCM?
Sorry. For some reason, I thought I'd read that they did hammer forged bbls too.
Here's their site: http://www.lothar-walther.de/html/249.php
No mention of CHF bbls though. I spelled the name wrong too. Sorry for the confusion.
Sean
No, I said "some say" that it is doped 17-4, or a 630 with some stuff added to it.Quote:
Originally Posted by JLM
I dont think it is, at least I am told that it is not a precipitation hardened steel and therefore does not have these issues of overheating that 17-4 does.
LWRC is now making Cold Hammer Forged Barrels. They are also using a new coating process on their steel that is more rugged and more scratch resistant than chrome lining. They make Awesome rifles, their customer service is bar none, but the demand outweighs their supply. Good things come to those who wait.
Noveske
Noveske has some and I will be getting some 16in mid gas systems and some 12.5in barrels.
I'll have to double check but IIRC FN barrels are hammer forged.
KAC's SR15-E3.
my lwrc 6.8 m6a2 srt came with a chf barrel with no chrome lining. and no i dont work for them. i have the 14.5 w/ a p/a flash hider. its one bad motha. i own 4 ar's and its my fav. so far. yes that includes a colt 6920, lmt mrp, and pof.
The ironic thing is that several Fudd rifle companies were using CHF barrels nearly four decades ago. Back in February 1971, "American Rifleman" ran the second of a three-part article by Jac Weller on the construction techniques used by US firearm manufacturers. Remington, Ruger, Weatherby, and Winchester were all cited as using CHF barrels for at least some calibers and models.
According to Roy Weatherby's biography, he was using CHF barrels in his Mark V rifles as early as 1959. (They were made by Sauer at the time.)
I'm not sold on cold hammer forging. I still don't know what effect it has on accuracy and velocity. Those are the two most important metrics, for me.
A friend woke me this morning to tell me that his new SR15E3 is a 3 minute gun.
And I've been told that LW50 is 410 stainless, although I've never talked to them about it.
Just because a company sells a weapon with a hammer forged barrel does not mean the blank was manufactured in house. Keep that in mind.
Good Article on Hammer Forginng.
http://technology.calumet.purdue.edu...20No_%207).htm
That article in Precision Shooting about hammer forged barrels has a part two where they did some accuracy testing. They took some Ruger factory hammer forged barrels and set them up for an AR. They shot under a minute consistently with several types of ammo and some groups were in the half minute range. Not bad for $60 barrel blanks.
IIRC hammer forging is the way they do polygonal rifling. Supposedly slightly more accurate and higher velocities, but that's just what "they" say.
Yeah the blank is only $60, but the machine is $20 million. You have to make A LOT of barrels to make that one come out.
Wow, I thought that was a great article. I knew the basic principle of pounding the blank around a mandrel but never knew what really went into it. Thanks!
-Jesse
Wow. I was under the impression that hammer-forged barrels in general were not very accurate.
Colt Canada, FN, Hk, KAC (for some) and several others do CHF barrels.
They are superior serivce rifle and MG barrels. In my experiences they are not as accurate over distance as SS barrels can be.
The PSG-1 is accurate - but I would suggest nothing a Mk11 or custom barrelled AR10 could not do, and Hk would not charge $8,500 to rebarrel it for your unit...;)
Yes I've found that out too. I've fired 2 different PSG-1s a few hundred rounds through both out to 500 meters in the late 80's at Quantico (that 6x scope leaves a lot to be desired). The PSG-1 is a very dated design now. I agree that the .308 AR platform is just as accurate if not more accurate for a whole lot less money. I too find SS barrels more accurate than most other barrels but have roughly 1/2 the serviceable life as other barrels.
True true -- I was just hassling you - and still bitter over Hk's rebarrel fees from years gone by.
I am going to have to agree with KCS on this one. I just received my rifle I ordered in February. Notwithstanding the long wait, they also shipped me the wrong gun. It was quite frustrating to say the least.
They could sell so many more rifles if they just got their act together.
So what exactly IS the advantage of a CHF bbl???
Also, are you guys saying that Colt Canada (Diemaco) does offer CHF, but COLT USA does not?? (IOW's, the Colt 6920's, etc, sold here in the US do not have CHF, but Canadian/Diemaco bbls do??)
What is the advantage to CHF bbls???
Finally, what about BCM bbls? I assume they do NOT have CH Forging??
More hammer forged barrels are produced in the workd than by any other method. Virtually all pistol barrels are hammer forged. Why? While initial equipment/mandrel/hammer cost is very very high, it is so fast and QC is so easy that in mass production, per unit costs are much much lower than any other manufacturing method.
Besides cost, the hammer-forging process work-hardens the inside barrel creating a harder and tougher barrel without making it much more brittle. A big plus indeed. hammer forging also changes the crystalline structure of entire barrel, making to tougher.
The downside is that, compared to button or cut barrels, induced manufacturing stresses are horrendous, and must be relieved, usually by heat, and sometimes with cryo. failure to properly stress-relieve will hurt accuracy. Always. Most production rifles do not have fully stress-relieved barrels, just partial, to save cost. That's why your Remington barrel "walks" shots as it warms up.
Another downside of hammer forging is that the high equipment costs mean that you are stuck with what the product that the manufacturer is geared up to make, whereas a button or cut-rifling maker can switch tooling easily to make custom barrels easily.
If you own a rifle by Colt, Remington, Winchester, Ruger, Marlin, Sako, Savage, almost any European brand, or a pistol of any brand, you own a hammer-forge barrel. It probably is working fine for you.