I’m a Layman and compared to Strait fluting, Spiral, Diamond-Spiral, YHM Diamond and KAC Dimpling, Honeycomb seem to be the best in aesthetics and weight savings, what do the great minds here think about it, it’s merits and demerits and are any other company contemplating offering it? because at the moment only Legion Firearms are making them and they don’t make SBR barrels.
Pic used are from warsport-us.net with permission.
machining a cold forged barrel? really?
Edit: since the pictures were added, I just want to say that barrel really does look cool. I’d consider dimpling or fluting a lathe-turned stainless barrel, but not a forged barrel. The whole freakin’ POINT of forging is to put the metal in its final shape with beneficial residual stresses. Cutting on a forged barrel like that defeats the purpose.
If you want a functional rifle, get a CHF barrel in the profile that meets your needs (accuracy against weight mostly), and leave it alone. As attractive as this stuff is, the weight savings is usually minimal, especially for the cost.
Yep. I’ve got an 18" Noveske 308 I had dimpled and while the quality of work is outstanding the weight savings does not at all justify the cost. $250 for a little over half a pound saved.
Now granted I haven’t taken it to any competitions where I lug it around so I may eat my words when that happens
I hadn’t heard of this and since the OP didn’t provide a link I went googling.
http://store.legionfirearms.com/product_p/barrel_18_hex.htm
I’m not sure I understand the benefit to this over traditional fluting. ADCO told me that fluting takes 10 oz. off their 16" WOA barrel.
That honeycomb would be a Huge PITA to clean.
The guys over at Warsport are selling these barrels. I have seen one in person and it was quite accurate. Cleaning shouldn’t be an issue unless one chooses to use a difficult process. That said I’m not sure its benefits outweighs the cost when it priced in the same range as a Noveske barrel.
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Thanks Rob. I was in the same position. How in the world is something like that machined?
personally I’m waiting for Nike swoops or NBA logos.
the resulting loss of accuracy due to harmonics and heating/cooling effects will be a bitch but it gonna look bitchin’…
The Honeycomb supposedly increases barrel stiffness. Make sense considering the strength of the honeycomb in concept though I havent seen any testing to prove it.
I’ll admit, that “Honeycomb” fluting sure looks different compared to traditional straight flutes. I had Adco flute a heavy barrel to shave a bit of weight off and have something a little unique. The weight savings was barely noticeable and the handguard covers the flutes. Had I the chance to have a do over, I’d have just opted for a reprofile instead. Live and learn eh?
Info I gathered from Warsport says that the 16" barrel weighs 1.1lb.
They also said that “The Hexagonal fluting provides superior harmonic balancing due the right angles in the Hex flutes, very low vibration. The hex flute also allows the end user to tune and balance the barrel by simply filling in flutes with a high-temp epoxy filler.”
I’ve handled a stripped barrel and it appears to be high quality. The one I saw being shot was pretty accurate.
That’s pretty light considering a Daniel Defense 14.5" LW is 1lb 6oz. It would be interesting to shoot 2 of the same barrels together. 1 with this hexagonal fluting and 1 without it, to see if there was any accuracy gain at all.
I have no idea how you would get mud out of those hex holes under the rail. Pressure washer I guess.
Until that day,
Darkop
I was thinking even a light coating of rust would be a nightmare to scrub out.
“Shouldn’t” rust since they’re coated
Not addressing you personally, but rather the statement, as it is pretty commonly seen when discussing fluting.
One cannot make an item stronger by removing material.
The statements about strength are in comparison to a barrel of a diameter that would be equal in weight to the fluted barrel.
I have seen zero proof that any fluting design is stronger than the “normal” straight parallel flutes.
It looks cool, and really, that should be enough.
Would barrel stiffness or rigidity and barrel strength be the same or couldn’t they be different? Just asking because I know some materials may be stiffer than others but not necessarily stronger.
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I missed the coating. I had a Bushmaster with a fluted bbls. It never had much more than a light coating if rust occasionally on the bbl. I was sucked I to the increased surface area = quicker cooling of the bbls. They also claimed huge increases in strengh/rigidity…
I personally think it looks awesome! Dimpling does as well IMO. I plan to get my 12" LMT MRP barrel dimpled once I get it. I’m sure it will only save about 6oz or so, but I’m hoping it will help balance the gun out a little better.
I think strong is the wrong word, for a given area the bends and dimples, or flutes, in metal makes it more stiff; and as we know a stiff barrel is more consistent.
