Quote Originally Posted by sharpshooter View Post
There is no science behind an 11 degree crown, or any other crown for that matter. A crown is a crown, as long as it is cut perpendicular to the bore. As for a specific bullet type, that has never been proven.
The fact is, this no more than a trend that stuck. The 11 degree crown came about when a gunsmith cut a crown on a bench rest barrel without knowing that the compound was not square. When the cut was finished, he thought it looked cool, and just left it that way. So, naturally when he goes to the next match he gets questions. After he won the match, he gets more questions so he made up a bullshit story, and now everybody copies him.
The guy that told me that story was Fred Sinclair.
So it doesn't matter to me one way or the other because also have barrels with different styles of crowns that shoot great. With the evidence that I've seen (high speed photographs of the gas escaping a barrel at roughly 11 degrees) and the stories told to me- I still believe it was based on theories and tests. That doesn't mean they came up with the right answer- because as stated lots of ways work.

I do call BS on the story you posted though..... I'm not a great machinist- but even with my limited skill can easily see if cutting 11 degrees off.... so someone skilled enough to build bench rest winning rifles should easily spot it as soon as it started.

But if there's no advantage to it then I don't get why it has stuck around. There's easier crowns to do- and it doesn't offer as much protection as other ways- so it may as well go away.