If you give a man a fish, you feed him for a day. Teach him how to be a fisherman and he’ll always be late for supper
There are two levels at which this question can be answered- With a fish and teaching you to be a fisherman. We’ll start by giving you a fish.
FISH- For a self defense carbine, there is little to no practical difference. Buy whichever of the two barrels is the better value for the money and you’ll make the right choice
LATE FOR SUPPER- For a more in depth answer, you’ll need to go fishing for the facts. The above answer will serve you well and you won’t be wrong if it satisfies you. But, if you want to know the facts, you’ll need to do a search and winnow them out for yourself. Varmint Al’s Webpage is a good place to start because he’s an engineer and actually modeled what happens when a bullet is shoved at supersonic speeds down various barrel profiles. Be warned, the article goes into some technical details, but will give you a good understanding as to how fluting affects weight, stiffness and accuracy. If you don’t have the patience to read the whole thing, here’s a good summation-
CONCLUSION ON BARREL FLUTING…
When comparing two barrels of equal weight, length, and material but one is solid and other is fluted, the fluted barrel will have:
-A larger diameter
-Greater stiffness (depending on how the extra diameter/weight is distributed)
-Vibrate at a higher frequency (depending on how the extra diameter/ weight is distributed)
-Less muzzle sag (depending on how the extra diameter/ weight is distributed)
Fluting a solid barrel will:
-Reduce its weight
-Reduce its stiffness
-Increase its natural frequency of vibration
-Decrease its muzzle sag.
-Reducing the weight of a barrel by fluting makes a stiffer barrel than reducing the weight by decreasing its diameter.
-A shorter barrel of the same section, solid or fluted, will sag less and vibrate at a higher frequency.
Link to the Full Monty- http://varmintal.com/aflut.htm
