Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Gunsmithing Barrel Fluting ?'s

I have a CZ527 varminter in 17 Rem. I am thinking of having the barrel fluted to reduce some weight. Does/can fluting mess up the steel (stress it) and throw off accuracy? and about how much weight can I reduce on my 24" barrel? It's .700" at the muzzle.

Someone just started a post on this subject up in custom rifles

Coyotejunki, I don't think you dare flute the hammer forged barrel on your CZ. I just short chambered another 204 and cut the barrel down to 19". I would rather cut a couple inches off your 17 than flute. 2" off your barrel would be maybe 2 & 1/2 oz reduction. I hope to crono the short barrel this week. Kenny

FWIW,
Shilen says you void the warranty by fluting, as do some other button-rifled barrel makers. AFAIK, the cut-rifled folks don't seem to mind it.

If weight saving is the primary goal, I would prefer to simply turn the barrel down. Turning .050" off the full length is probably equivalent to six .125"x1/4" flutes from a weight reduction standpoint. I've fluted quite a few barrels but don't really like it. Complex shapes are more likely to cause distortion of the bore. Fow what it's worth (maybe not much), I consider flutes to be mostly cosmetic. GD

The button rifled barrels tend to warp if fluted. The cut rifled
barreled rifles don't. It has to do with stresses in the metal.
For example, HS Precision cut-rifles its barrels, and their fluted
barrels offer a 1/2 MOA guarantee with the correct load. My super-light HS 7mm-08 easily does this w/o problems. I've had bad results in the the past with fluting button rifled barrels. Mine
"wandered" and were inconsistent, defying load development.
No surprise some makers will void the warranty. I'd go with cutting down the barrel and a professional crown job.

I have a fluted Broughton and it shoots like a house afire