A friend of mine has started using a battery powered pump to air cool his rifle barrel so he could complete shooting groups without overheating the barrel. He uses one of the pumps used to inflate air mattresses and the pump does cool the barrel rather quickly. The cooling is done from inside out but I don't have the knowledge to know if this could cause a problem. What do you think, JB?

Some guys use water, ice, dry ice, so i dont see pumped air as any problem, but im not an expert....

I'm not JB, but I once had delusions of getting filthy rich from sales of a battery-operated, air-pump, barrel-cooling device of my invention. I made a couple of test units, bought a high-$ infrared thermometer, and proceeded to perform lengthy tests on a rifle (Win Model 94) under controlled conditions. As a comparison and to gauge the efficiency of my little cooling device, I also did the same tests using my normal barrel cooling method of opening the action/bolt, placing the rifle in a vertical position and letting Mother Nature's chimney effect cool the barrel.

The results: no to almost no difference between the two methods.

The conclusion: Mother Nature's method was free and worked just as well.

So if you want to cool your barrel, don't lay it horizontally across the top of the shooting bench. Open the bolt and lean the rifle in a vertical position in a semi-open place where the wind can blow away the warm air rising from the muzzle due to the chimney effect.

A word of warning: I tried cool air, i.e., I ran the cooling tube through an ice chest containing ice. The result: water dripping out of the rifle's chamber due to condensation caused by chilled air hitting the warm barrel interior.

Many competition benchrest shooters use a simple device of pumping ice cold water through their barrels using an automotive electric fuel pump, an ice chest, an attachment similar to bore guides in the chamber, and a hose attachment to the muzzle for the return line. The ice water is just recirculated through the barrel, cooled, cleaning patch run through the bore and they're ready to shoot again. I've seen CO2 devices used, as well as canned air as used to blow out electrical devices. None seem to cause any problems.

After contemplating all these I principally use the method described, the chimney effect, unless I'm shooting a string on a hot day. In that case I also use a wet towel over the barrel on the guns with non-wood stocks, and utilize the cooling effect of evaporation. None of these methods create any problems to the barrels though the wet towel requires careful maintenance afterwards.

Likely not an option in Texas, but it do work. In the summer I've just thrown them in a stream.

Yeah, but's it's those cheap Leupolds we're worried about...





Casey

Amazing I've ever killed anything with them. Of course Alaska is pretty tame in comparison to Pencillucky and Illanoise.

During the great p. dog wars(1979-1993)I used water down the barrel, takes less than 30 seconds and 6 oz of water to get a hot barrel dead cool.

4 dry patches down the barrel, dry out the chamber, back to shooting.

Bill Davis suggested this method to me, I can't claim it.

You observed water dripping, but it wasn't because of cool air hitting something hot. It's cool things that sweat when they hit warm, humid air.

Sometimes here you have no choice in the summer but to shoot at temps near 100. I always take at least 2 rifles to the range. When it is really hot I just leave the truck and AC running and place the guns inside to cool while I shoot one of the others.

A bartender's pour spout and a bottle of water are all you need. Pour a couple ounces through, wait one minute with the muzzle down and the bore will be dry. Run a patch if you feel you must.

Forget barrel cooling!

Either the rifle is used hot anyway such as a target rifle or say a high volume pest rifle or its not!

If the rifle is used cold for its first, most important shot, then record where that first shot hits. Record this from a cold barrel that's clean if you clean them or fouled if you don't.

These days I am recording the first shot, shooting two shot groups and setting that rifle aside and shooting another.

What about a blast of nitrogen?
It is inert, and will freeze things pretty quick.

Later....

I use an Aero air mattress pump with flexible tubing attached to the aluminum tube of a bore guide. The chimney effect takes near 40 minutes here in Texas on summer days. The pump takes less than 15 minutes. It greatly increases my shooting time. Once the ambient temperature reaches 95 you are just pushing hot air. But that's the temp your barrel will be during days ride on the atv.

The pump takes 8 C cell batteries. I get batteries free. If I didn't I wouldn't use the pump. It'll eat 8 after two 4 hour shooting sessions.

"During the great p. dog wars(1979-1993)I used water down the barrel, takes less than 30 seconds and 6 oz of water to get a hot barrel dead cool."

Rick Jamison used an old red water bottle, the type women used for personal hygiene, and flushed the barrel. He would hang the bottle from a rafter in his shop and catch the water in a 5 gallon bucket. So, with these two recommnedations, I have a great way to cool the barrel. This will only be used in the Texas Heat; otherwise, the conventional "stove pipe" method has always worked.

Thanks for all of the responses - this is a GREAT forum.

Read that: "Douche Bag"

Not JB...but the simplest method I have used if my vehicle is at the range is to rest the rifle on the seat back and poke the muzzle into a AC vent. About 2 minutes will cool the hottest barrel quickly.....

LC

CO 2 works great and super fast.

Gas bottles might indeed work well - but toting one around while p-dog hunting is just a wee bit impractical. On the other hand, a plastic bar spout weighs less than an ounce and you carry a water bottle anyway. Toss in a Bore Snake and you still are carrying virtually no extra weight.

During the hotter months I always carry a small cooler of drinks with ice. If the barrel gets too hot just invert the rifle (scope on the bottom) and with the muzzle pointing down rub an ice cube up and down the barrel. It melts quickly but cools the barrel quickly as well. With the rifle upside down water just runs off the end of the barrel and doesn�t get under the stock, so I do this for stainless/synthetic or blue/wood. When done, wipe down the barrel with your hand to remove excess water. Any moisture left dries very quickly.

Lots of ways to cool a barrel, depend on how techy you want to get.

I normally end up going to the range with 4-5 rifles. If it's not too hot out (say under 80) I usually sit them in the shade the same way somebody already suggested, with the barrels up and actions open. This sucks cooler air up through the bores.

If it's warmer than 80 I take along a big jug of cold water in some container with a pour-spout, and pour it on the outside of the barrel.

Very simple --- can of compressed air turned upside down. Attach the plastic tube and a 2 to 3 second blast on the inside of the chamber and then a light blast on the outside and you are ready to shoot again. Took longer to type this than it would to do cool down the barrel and chamber area.

I thought about that. But, doing so creates ice and I cannot afford that.

Hmmmmm I never have and have been doing this for at least 10 years and a 200 cans of air.

Is there any problem with cooling the barrel down quickly? Could it warp the barrel or introduce new stresses that would affect acuracy? I have been tempted to flush a little water down the barrel during extended shoots but did not want to mess up the rifle.

I'm another that uses the rechargeable Coleman air mattress pumps and a flexible plastic hose.
I let it run on one gun while I shoot something else.

I've heard, but never tried, that a spray bottle of rubbing alcohol works very well. It won't cool quite as well as water but it has a low latent heat of vaporization so you don't need to worry about it staying liquid like you do with water.

I've never had a problem with water staying liquid on a hot barrel. Then again, I live in Montana.

Savage 10ML-II have dozens of ways to do this. One is a brass rod that fits in the bore. They keep the rod in a PVC pipe full of ice water.

I have a buddy whose solution for most things simple or complicated is "Oh, Pss on it!"

Chimney and second rifle is my favorite.

Jim

Water on the outside of barrel, or poured/squirted down the bore, have both worked for me. I prefer the bore; seems like a) it's cooling it where it really matters most in terms of not damaging your rifle (the throat area), b) it's a more even cooling than pouring it on the outside or using towels, and c), you don't end up worrying later about water below the stock line. I hate taking rifles out of stocks.

I do the same thing. AC cranked on HI will cool a bbl quickly.

+3. Works like a champ.

I also take 2-3 rifles to the range and rotate. Unless its really hot, rotating 3 rifles will allow you to shoot non-stop for a long time.

And to think I run off 22 shots in ten minutes, take a five minute break and do it all over again. All without a worry and no loss of accuracy...

Probably not a good idea to bump into my barrel either.

I don't see a real difference in barrel life from my NTIT and my XC guns...

Let me explain... XC might see 22 shots fired in 12 minutes or so.. plus some rapid fire strings of 10 in 60-70 seconds... with rests between....

My NTIT gun is as many rounds as I can get out in 50 seconds 4 times in a row with maybe 5-10 minutes between strings... for me thats up close to 40 rounds give or take generally....

We dont' wait for cool weather. We practiced in July and August TX heat because nationals were in August.... I have passed out twice after these practices..... it is not cool or cool on the gun. AND in XC moving between yardages the gun is in a case and that keeps it warm.

I'm not saying they are BR guns... but all of mine shoot around .5 moa for gas guns.... the XC better than that. They have similar barrel life...

Jeff

I have used CO 2 (spendy and clunky)
I have run water down the tube (and patched it out)

Strips of old towel. Just get them damp, put on the barrel (nicely free floated) and when the towel is dry, the gun is cool.

I just use pre-64 Model 70's in .257 Roberts, 7X57 and .300 H&H, Oberndorf Sporters in 9.3X62 and custom Remingtons in garish McSwirley stocks chambered for Ackley Improved cartridges.

So, all my rifles are cool, all the time...

Only if you are shooting TSX's, Jim....

You got AC?

Does it cause a problem that the barrel is cool and the scope is hot??????
Jus' wonderin'??????



George

Here in Texas it tends to steam right off in the summertime.

Well, if you go back to that J Burns discussion about scope ring spacing........

On second thought, DON'T !!!!!

I usually shoot mine until it is hot enough to light my Marlboro off of THEN... I set it in an asbestos gunrest on the bench and heat it ever so slightly with a propane torch on one side and apply dry ice to the opposite side so as to equally dist-ribute the cold and the hot. This is very important in these days of global warming. If it shoots to the left, the heat goes on the left, kind of like adjusting you iron sights. This method saves a lot of time in scope adjustment.

Do you reverse this method if in the southern hemisphere?

Jim,
Like you I carry a cooler with ice and a few soft drinks in it when I shoot on a hot day. Also carry a roll of papertowels in my truck. Was fireforming the other day which I normally wait to do when it is colder but I needed to prep some brass.
After a few shots (normally 4 to 5) I soak a paper towel in the ice water in said cooler and then ring it and lay it on the barrel. Usually 3 short leaves folded together and layed out on the barrel will cool it. Sometimes a couple of applications are required. Speed things up dramatically.
Next time I may try your method as it might be quicker. I have had no adverse reaction to this method. Rifle still shoots very accurately and I have been using this method for a long time.

Dave

Vic, Yes I do but is very important that you turn the gun upside down.

This summer I bought a Coleman rechargeable air pump and a length of surgical rubber tubing. The rubber tubing cost near as much as the pump which was about $25 at Wal-mart.

It helps

Alan

A buddy of mine who used to do a lot of prairie dog shooting would rub ice on the barrel (stainless only, of course) to cool it. Oddly, though, he said that inevitably the first shot from the cooled barrel would be off by a considerable margin. After that first shot, it'd go back to shooting where it was supposed to. I have no idea why this happened and neither did he but he assured me that it did.

When I work up a load I make sure the first two shots ALWAYS hit the same spot whether hot, cold or otherwise. If it don't I move onto another load.

The old buffalo hunters on stand, pissed down the bores to cool them off. I'm betting that is why the always shot by themselves!

I think the only intelligent way to do this is open the action and let it cool on its own..and don't get them "that hot" in the first place as that will take the throat out of a good barrel.

Like JB if I'm going out to shoot, I take a number of guns with me, and that way I always have one or two cooling while I shoot a cool one..Shoot a few groups, then switch rifles..All these cooling methods take on the picture of a screwball at work!

It is a little known scientific fact that in the Southern Hemisphere, you turn the rifle upside down to cool.

Something else I forgot....
The little pump bottles at Home Depot/84/Lowes? Pretty handy. I tried a strip of old towel one time with a spray bottle, it was excruciatingly hot and I could only get about 4 or 5 shots before the barrel mirage got ridiculous. So with the towel strip rubber banded on the barrel and the spray bottle handy, I just kept things soaked and had a GREAT time.

Ruger700,
I just take a rag that has been soaked in ice water and place it over the barrel. I would not pour water into the barrel to cool it from the inside. If there is still water inside when the shot goes off, it might damage your barrel.

With my .300 Wby and a very light barrel, the barrel was too hot to touch after three shots. Using the natural chimney effect took 10 minutes to cool. I got an air mattress inflater and four D-cells plus a piece of plastic tubing and could get it about as cool in five minutes.

I found the best solution was to shoot it as little as possible on the range. Practice dry firing or with a .223, which does not get as hot, produces skills which are directly transferrable.

I use the water bottle method, I have a piece of 3/8" ID tubing that I have epoxied into a 2 liter bottle. I take the bolt out, push the tubing in the chamber and lift the bottle above the barrel. Works in just seconds, two dry patches and the barrel is shiny clean and dry, no problems with following rounds.

I've used starting fluid (ether) to cool barrels for years. I buy it by the case to start an old Intertrashinol low compression Diesel tractor. It cools a barrel right down. Just don't breathe it too much.

A bike bottle works, albeit a little messy if you aren't careful.

I bring 4 to 5 rifles to the range and rotate guns every 3 shots. Plus I take a min or 2 and clean my brass after every shot....