Barrel Fluting

[scooters45]

I'm thinking about building a 6.5 06 or a .264 Win Mag. What do you guys think about fluting the barrel? Helical or straight?

Thanks Ted

[Russell D]

Straight fluting is cheaper, but the odds of the flutes indexing right at the 12 o'clock position is not good, but if you can send the reciever with the recoil lug and barrel to the person fluting, they can make sure it lines up. The helical or spiral fluting is what I would prefer for a rifle that uses a barrel nut, because if it doesn't index correctly it doesn't look funny!

[scooters45]

Thanks. I never thought about that. That maybe the reason that ER Shaw using a Savage action doesn't use a barrel nut on thier rifles.

[6mmBR_Shooter]

I like fluting for the look. There are a lot or arguments either way on whether or not it provides any cooling advantage or noticeable weight reduction.

If you like it, do it. I'm not a fan of the helical flutes on barrels, but I can see the argument for that method on the savage barrel. My factory 22-250 barrel is straight fluted and doesn't line up 100% perfectly, but I've never been bothered by that.

[Russell D]

I stopped by the ER Shaw booth at the shot show and the rifles they build look good; I wasnt able to do anything other than look at the exterior, but they are nicely finished and look like a great rifle for the money! I did see that the spiral fluting barrels on display were twisted too fast for my liking, I prefer a spiral flute of about 1:16, many of theirs were 1:8 if I had to guess.

While I have noticed that the barrels do cool off faster when they are fluted, they also get warm and develope mirage faster. I've been asked before if there is any accuracy gain or loss and I haven't noticed either way, but I do not personally own a rifle that has a fluted sproter barrel, which would be most affected positively or negatively from fluting.