Spiral fluted barrels

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milemaker13

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I've seen a few rifles with spiral fluted barrels and got to wondering- Aside from looking awesome, what are the benefits?
Is there any advantage to spiral vs straight flutes?
There was a .223 bolt gun on the used rack at LGS awhile back that had spirals. I passed at the time, but wonder if its still there.
 
The only advantage of spiral flutes is a lighter barrel than a straight fluted one of the same diameter and length. This is because the spiral flutes are longer and removed more metal. In most cases, the difference is not that much. Spiral flutes might also cool a barrel a tiny bit faster due to more surface are exposed.
 
Yep, a ball milled surface will have more surface area than a flat one, so you might have more area to cool off and as Curator points out the shortest distance is a straight line, so the more you turn the longer the distance/more you increase surface area.

The flip side is that as you increase the surface area you also reduce the mass.

If your idea is to reduce weight, it can be a winner. If it’s ability to deal with heat, could be a negative.

From a machinist view, one can machine things with great precision but we know that only God is perfect, we deal in “tolerance” or +/- perfect. So you take these variables multiply them by the distance we transverse and the number we machine, throw in a little tolerance stack and we see why benchrest barrels don’t have flutes of any kind.
 
I'd never thought about spiral flutes removing more weight, but that sounds reasonable. I'd always considered it for aesthetics. If the goal is to reduce barrel weight with the least negative effects I much prefer fluting vs going to a thinner MT rifle barrel profile.
 
I think their main purpose is cosmetic. They look cool to some people. I like the looks but wouldn't lay out the extra cash for the minimal weight savings and cooling effect they would have over a straight fluted barrel. I'm not ruling out one sometime in the future but it would be strictly for it's cool factor.
 
Can't attest to one being superior over the other or not. Don't shoot enough through them to see the heat dissipation affecting accuracy. For me its more an aesthetic enhancement.

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Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. I think spiral fluted barrels look silly. But to each their own.
 
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