Didn't Melvin Forbes credit Cryoing as the reason most of his rifles would shoot so many loads to the same point of impact?
No! Melvin never claimed that, and I have known him since the late 1980s. He did once comment comment to me that cryo made some sense, since like heat-treating it tended to stress-relieve barrels. But he never used it.
Instead he believed the reasons his rifles shot so well were because Douglas used heat to stress-relieve their barrels (as do many button-rifle makers, including Dan Lilja), plus the full-length forend bedding of Melvin's very stiff stocks.
He also thoroughly tested everything he did to confirm his results.
Might also add that all the publicly published articles on cryo-treating I read back when it was all the rage based their conclusions on minor differences in group size, usually on too-few groups.
Have also talked personally with not just John Krieger but other barrel-makers, who concluded cryo made the most difference when done before machining barrels, or at least between certain stages. And yes, they had also done considerable testing.
