What type of Rifling is the best?

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Beak50

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I've heard and read about the different kinds of rifling,Button,Hammer forged,Cut rifling.What makes the most accurate barrel?Or are they all about equal in that department?Or is it basically a matter of personal choice?
 
Boy is this a can of worms. This is a question to which there will never be a single answer. Everybody has their beliefs, experiences, preferences and biases. IMHO, it is more dependent on the quality of the individual barrel than the process by which it was created. Some folks just do it better than others, for myriad reasons.
 
The 3 types i am familiar with is button, cold hammer forged and single point cut.

Button is very common with the AR barrels that i buy. Accuracy can vary greatly depending on the manufacturer. However i have 2 stainless button barrels that are more accurate than i am. Just under 1 MOA. I dont use any high power optics. So, i think they would be better if i had good optics.

Cold Hammer Forged is less common than button but more common than cut. The barrel is hammer forged around the rifling mandrel. I have no experience with these barres. However there are many good reviews out there. I believe Daniel Defense uses this process. PSA offers some, but i am not sure who the manufacturer is.

Single Point Cut is less common but usually a more consistant process which is better for accuracy. It is used by Krieger and a few other high end barrel makers. Google the Camp Perry champs. See what type barrels they have. I read that a lot of Camp Perry shooters use this type.

I am sure the experts will be around soon to blow wholes thru my amature info. But i do believe that manufacturer has everything to do with it.
 
I use a benchmark barrel on my bench gun. Not sure what type of rifling it has and honestly I'm so sure that it matters. I think what matters more is that the production process is tightly controlled in terms of tolerances and that any of the methods can produce excellent barrels if they are carried out with proper technique.
 
Best for what purpose?

Ultimate accuracy is generally best with single point cut. But it costs the most and is only intermediate for durability.

Button is cheapest, least durable, but good enough for most purposes.

Hammer forging provides the greatest durability and is close to button in low cost. Some people claim it causes accuracy issues, but FN Herstal makes sub-MOA barrels with hammer forging by the 1000's - most of them are even chrome-lined too. So done right, it is a wonderful process, and probably the best all-around for anything that can settle for 0.75 MOA accuracy.

There is also broach cut, a mostly obsolete process still used by DSA. It is a cut technique but all parts are cut at once. Done right it's not far off from single point cut in its characteristics. But hammer forging is better in pretty much all ways.

The only reason you don't see more hammer forged barrels is because the forging machine costs over $250,000 so it's limited to larger, high volume manufacturers.

When I read the title I thought this was going to be a question about number of grooves, 5R design, polygonal, ratchet, etc.
 
can_of_wormscopy.jpg

Hammer forging is the cheapest and fastest way to make a rifle barrel, companies like Ruger who need barrels in bulk use this method.

Button rifling is an older method that has proven itself over the years. It provides normally better than average accuracy.

Single point is the slowest and most difficult method but done properly results in the highest quality barrel.

Here is a good explanation of all methods...

http://firearmsid.com/feature articles/rifledbarrelmanuf/barrelmanufacture.htm
 
Beak50 said:
What type of Rifling is the best?

Beak50 said:
What makes the most accurate barrel?

So by "best" you mean "most accurate". Accuracy is the ability to hit what you're aiming at and I have no doubt that single-point cut-rifling is the "best" way to make a barrel. There is no debate based on my personal experience with the Krieger barrels I own combined with the numerous world and national records set with single-point cut-rifled barrels in disciplines where precision and accuracy are the objectives.

Another benefit of single-point cut-rifled barrels is precision. I've found that the POA/POI is the same clean vs. dirty or hot vs. cold which isn't the case for many button, broached or hammer forged barrels.
 
The type that is well done. Any type can be very good as long as it is done right.
 
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