Understanding the Impact of Barrel Contours

Barrel contours play a crucial role in rifle performance, and at Bartlein Barrels, we're here to shed light on the subject. Let's delve into some key questions:

Do Contours Affect Barrel Weight?

Yes, the contour of a barrel does affect its weight. Heavier contours can provide advantages, as we'll explore further.

Do Heavier Contours Improve Performance?

Heavier contours can lead to improved performance by enhancing stability and minimizing the impact of heat-induced barrel wandering during extended shooting sessions.

At Bartlein Barrels, we exclusively employ single-point cut rifling, which eliminates stress induction into the barrel blank. As a result, we emphasize that contour selection is not as critical as it would be for barrels made with alternative methods.

Does Contour Impact Shooting?

Contour can indeed impact shooting. A heavier gun can often deliver better performance, reducing recoil and shooter fatigue. This advantage allows for prolonged shooting sessions with improved accuracy.

However, it's worth noting that lighter-weight contours have demonstrated remarkable performance, sometimes surpassing heavier counterparts. At Bartlein Barrels, we believe that contour selection isn't as critical as commonly perceived.

Should Suppressors Be Used with Any Barrel Contour?

No, suppressors should not be indiscriminately used with any barrel contour. Suppressors can enhance shooting performance when paired with a heavier barrel. Hanging a suppressor on the end of a barrel affects harmonic vibrations, and we recommend avoiding anything smaller than a medium palma contour for optimal results.

Advantages of Single Point Cut Rifling

Bartlein Barrels exclusively utilizes single-point cut rifling, and here's why it matters:

• Reduced Stress: In contrast to button rifling, single-point cut rifling minimizes stress induction into the barrel blank, ensuring consistent performance.
• Thread and Muzzle Consistency: With button rifled barrels, threading the muzzle can result in bore size changes. This is not an issue with single-point cut rifling, maintaining consistency at the muzzle.

Significance of Fluting a Barrel

Fluting a barrel offers several advantages:

• Weight Reduction: Fluting removes material from the barrel without altering the contour, reducing overall weight.
• Enhanced Barrel Cooling: Fluting increases surface area, allowing for better heat dissipation during firing.
• Aesthetic Appeal: Many shooters appreciate the unique look that fluting adds to their barrels.

Questions about Fluting

When considering fluting, it's essential to address some common queries:

• Minimum Depth: Fluting should not be overly deep, as this can lead to harmonic and vibration issues, potentially affecting accuracy.
• Does Fluting Stiffen the Barrel? Fluting may reduce the stiffness of a barrel slightly, depending on how you measure stiffness.

Understanding Rifling Styles

At Bartlein Barrels, we offer various rifling styles, including 4-groove, 5R, and Conventional-5. While the number of grooves doesn't significantly impact accuracy or barrel life, we have received positive feedback from ammunition and bullet manufacturers regarding 5R rifling.

Additional benefits of 5R rifling include improved resistance to bullet failure, thanks to its gentler angle on the lands, which reduces deformation of the bullet jacket during the transition from case to rifling. The odd number of lands also plays a role in minimizing bullet distortion.

However, it's essential to note that short jacket 6mm bullets may not perform optimally with 5R rifling, particularly boat tail bullets, due to their shorter bearing surface.