Barrel coolant

[jon lynn]

I saw an advert in one of the gun rags for a spray. After your barrel heats up, just spray it down your barrel to cool it. It was from the makers of the canned air for PC's.......any-hoo............

Couldn't spraying a cold chemicals down a hot .308 barrel cause damage to the barrel or rifleing?

The reason I ask, when I start pulling the trigger here, it would pay to have something like this, because shooting ranges are timmed here (ask Dom), you don't get a whole lot of time to bench it. One of the places I go lets me have a full hour, but all the others in my reigon only let you get 20 minutes a pop, for a price too!

So would this spray be a benifit or a hazzard?

[Dom]

I'm leery Jon, I wouldn't try it, but that's just me.

But they may be talking about spraying the outside of the barrel and not the inside?

I'd probably just go to the range that gives you an hour, either that, or take 2 or 3 rifles for shooting Waidmannsheil, Dom.

[Jack]

Taking 2 or more rifles and alternating might be your best bet, Jon.
When I go to the range, my typical procedure is to set up a large target with several bullseyes on it (home made), take several rifles, and test several rifle/load combos alternately. Like, fire a 5 shot group from one rifle, examine the group thru the spotting scope, record velocity, etc, on a sheet I keep next to me on the bench, then switch rifles.
Repeat
By switching rifles, after 5 or 10 shots, you keep the barrel from getting too hot. And by using a big target paper with several aiming points, no going back and forth after each group.
The one danger of my method of range shooting is that you may be using several different calibers of ammo on a given day. Make DARN sure you put the right ammo in the right rifle . I make it a rule to only have one caliber of ammo on the bench top at a time- when I change rifles, I put the ammo I was using in my range box, and bring out the caliber for the rifle I will be using...and I check several times!
I have draped a wet towel over a hot barrel on hot summer days, when I only had 1 or 2 rifles to test, and not much time. I don't know if that really helped, but it made me think it did

[Rocky Raab]

Plain old water works as well as anything.

When I'm really hotting up a barrel on prairie dogs, I keep a liter bottle of water with a "bartender's spout" installed. I just tip the muzzle down and pour an ounce or two into the chamber with the spout. It'll flash dry if the bore is hot enough, and no harm done.

If any liquid is left, I can always drop a BoreSnake through it.

At the range, I drape a wet towel over the barrel with the bolt open and the muzzle up a bit. The bore will "chimney" cool air in through the breech and the towel will both shade and evaporative cool the exterior.

Unless you shoot it until it's positively glowing, you won't cause any problem with sudden cooling, however it's done.

[Gil Martin]

I suppose a barrel coolant might work. Another option might be to free float the barrel and avoid the need for a coolant product. All the best...
Gil

[BILLY D.]

Jon

A few years ago Rick Jamison done an article in Shooting Times where he used compressed air for barrel cooling. Looked like he used a empty propane tank. There is a company that makes these things. Can't verify that. He simply hooked an air hose up to it. On the air hose was a nozzle like we use for parts cleaning and drying.

Now how much air one of these puppies hold I have no idea.

Best wishes, Bill

[HPBTMTCH]

Yes, when I`m pushed for time, i hook up the air compresser to put air through the bore and as rocky suggested, a wet towl wrapped around the barrel. The air has moisture in it so i always run a dry patch or 2 before i resume shooting. This works pretty fast.

[BILLY D.]

HP

Thanx for the reminder about the water content in compressed air. I forgot about that little addendum. We don't need water droplets in the tube.


Bill

[hnter]

When I was outfittin PD shooters years ago in WY some of the more profilic bullet vflingers brought a small CO2 gas container and ran the gas through their bbs., didn't hurt them. I mentioned that process to a benchrest shooter friend and he said it had been being done like that foe years. It works, so why not?

[Rocky Raab]

Oh sure, release all that greenhouse gas just to cool your barrel. AlGore would have a double coronary, LOL!

Cold gas does work, but it's seven bazillion times more expensive (and heavy!) than a liter bottle of water that'll last for six or seven coolings.

Don't fret the water. It flash evaporates in that hot barrel (that's HOW it cools). If it bothers you, pull a boresnake through afterwards. But it'll come out dry unless you pour the whole liter of water through the barrel. Two or three ounces will do.

[GoodOlBoy]

or ya could silver soder a line of metal scale stickin straight up along the barrel. Just like a computer heat sink. In fact if ya put enough of them on there it won't even get hot.



GoodOlBoy

[Dan in the Delta]

Don't know why some people go to so much trouble to build or buy this or that gadget for barrel cooling when a simple wet (not dripping) rag draped over the barrel will cool it in short order. Been doing this for years and it works great.

[Adam Helmer]

jon,

When we fire guns enough to get the barrels hot at the range, we have a coffee can of water on the firing line. We take out the bolt, put the muzzle into the water and run a patch, on a cleaning rod up and down the barrel, pumping water into the barrel, and let it stand a minute or two. The barrel cools down and we run a dry patch down the bore and then shoot some more.

Buy sprays and suchlike, but water is far cheaper and will absorb barrel heat as described above.

Adam

[Rapier]

This is a trick I learned from the French national silhouette team.

They use ether, to cool their barrels. Squirt it down the bore, carbon gone and ether gets real cold. You can buy ether as starter fluid in the auto parts store.
Ed