This is the most technical topic I’ll offer. From what I understand, this process “evens out” the “grain” of steel, and can have a significant effect on accuracy, particularly on shotgun patterns, Several companies offer this for handgun, shotgun and rifle barrels – Benelli is one maker that offers its shotguns and rifles pre-treated in their product line. Anybody want to add comments or before/after experiences? It makes steel much less subject to warping/bending from heat buildup, which again affects accuracy.
@KURT17 Kurt17 >> I have 2 cryo. barrels. The dip does a few things that can help with accuracy. It relaxes the stress points or nodes in a barrel And helps the barrel have more temperature tolerance due to the fact that When barrels are heat treated they can warp and must be straightened in a barrel straightening chuck. As the barrel heats it tends to revert back to the original position before it was straightened. Supposedly when you buy a match grade barrel it is handpicked from one that did not have to be straightened but you can have it dipped anyway. Generally speaking you will shoot out the throat and have to have it Re-throatedout more than once before the
rifling wears out. Just as important is the barrel crown. When I have my barrels re-throated I prefer to re-crown them myself. It’s also important to keep track of throat erosion because it changes the distance of bullet jump. The first time I had a barrel re-throated
I lost 20,000 of an inch from the throat after 400 rounds fired only to find out that it’s normal and slows with use. I didn’t want to be too long in the tooth, but if your a Accuracy person that’s only the tip of the iceberg, all the things we do for love.PS IF YOU ONLY NEW - or maybe you do. Just keeping em in the ten ring ain’t good enough.
Never heard of this process… is it like Cold Hammer Forged?
What barrel makers are doing this, and is it for a specific type of firearm or use? A quick 30-sec google search yielded a mixed bag of responses.
A gun barrel is put into a liquid nitrogen quench, and held there until the barrel reaches -300 degrees. The process supposedly relieves stress in the steel from manufacturing. Cold Steel uses it for the 4116 steel it uses in their kitchen and other knives to improve edge-holding. If more gunmakers than Benelli use this, they ought to include it in their ads and catalogs. Look up cryogenics for more detailed info. FYI
P.S.: This is not a new process - I first learned about it in the '80s.
@Harvey >>> Roto forging rifling is only one way to put rifling in a barrel. One other method is called button rifling and there are more. The two styles of rifling are
Polygonal also known as micro groove & Ballard. The methods of producing them
Can be different. Generally speaking if you’re going to shoot cast
BULLETS in a rifle or a pistol the rifling should be Ballard. It is not recommended to shoot cast BULLETS with polygonal rifling : ie glock etc.
I assume the process uses liquid nitrogen.
Is there a set rate of controlled warming of the metal?
I have no details, but everything is temp-controlled and timed to relieve stress-risers in the steel.