Home Forums Reloading Varmint Rifles rapid barrel cooling

Yeah, I never would have started using plastic-tipped bullets if it weren't for Kirk's excellent advice. He almost had to twist my arm to get me to try 'em. :-)

Was he trying to get you to USE them...or just BUY them?


Looks like he was in the business!

Never burry you axe behind 400lbs. of bullets...

That's my stock of them, Good thing I told JB about them so he could write more articles...

So THATS why the shortage during the Obama years!!!!

Sham Wow soaked in ice water will help.......along with spare rifle........along with.........

smaller caliber such as the 20-222 pushing a 40 V max with 23/H322 in Lapua brass......... or a.....

20 Practical or 20 Vartarg........

I've moved to a 204 as my primary pd gun and this next season I'll be following the advise of JB and going with a 17 Hornet and 17 fireball.

The .204 is my fave for PDs but it do heat up rapidly!

20-222..........catt's azz...........23/H322 & 40 V max out to 600 yds......

From a price of ammo stand point I usually use a bolt action .22LR for pd's, gun heat does become an issue and with practice you would be amazed how far it can be effective..........

I gots to get me some Wyoming prairie dogs, Montana prairie dogs won't let you get close enough for a 22 LR...

If the barrel gets really hot I usually get up, drink the water, then get another gun.

Its usually not a 22lr....

Take a half dozen rifles,swap them out or use funnel to pour ice water down barrel.

We have cooled with water down the bore since 1987 using 788's, 700's, Sako's all chrome moly, and the finest SS barrels made. We had access to private p. dog towns, the shooting was simply beyond imagination with 650-1200 rounds of center fire being fired per person per day.

Any attempt to air cool a barrel by rotating in 90* heat is a pipe dream. What will work slowly is a mixture of 50/50 water and rubbing alcohol rubbed on the barrel, let the fluid drip off the bottom of the barrel.

Cooling with water is NOT messy at all!

What really works and works well is running water down the bore. You will need a good rod guide that seals off the chamber, and cleaning rod, a jag that will fit the bore tight with the patch, Swab of the size to dry chamber, and an oil can attachment that is about $3 from Wal Mart or a parts store.









Water will NOT warp the barrel as the change in temp is not fast enough.

Also, when you use 4 tight fitting patches to "clean" the barrel, you get the water OUT, and also remove a lot of carbon in the process allowing you to shoot longer strings.

***Few think of this issue, gases that are thousands of degrees proceed the bullet in the bore, and any tiny amount of water is evaporated.



IN this rifle caddy, the rear is higher than the front, tipping the muzzle down. My hunting partner also had a rifle caddy,

We dumped out a box of 50 rounds and fired as fast as we could acquire targets. Some rifles were fired 50 times some were fired up to 300, depending on the caliber, barrels and stocks got hot.

Procedure we used

I like Neil Jones and Lucas bore guides, they seal off the back of the chamber. The bore guide in the picture is a Sinclair.

Insert bore guide in the chamber
insert hose in the back of the bore guide
let water gravity feed down the bore, it will take about 6 oz of water...that is all
pull Oil can adapter off the bore guide when finished running water down the bore
Run 4 dry patched down the bore
Dry the chamber-I use a 45 caliber brush and shot gun patch with lighter fluid on it
insert bolt, go back to shooting
Takes 3 Minutes

A rotation system does not work, you have a lot of down time. We even tried it with 10 guns each with my hunting partner and I.

Load development at the rifle range is very quick when you can cool the barrel this way.

We would push a very light oil patch down the bore when the barrel had been cleaned that night. I never have seen rust in the bore scope.

Good luck

Go further south to Colorado and you can kill them with clubs...like baby seals...

22LR would be my last choice.....shooting a solid 36-40 gr lead bullet...even 75 yds.........too many crawl offs........

If you're gonna shoot 'em with a rimfire......use something more effective......even the little 17M2 is light years ahead or the 22LR...

effective out to 175+ yds with one shot kills......or the bigger HMR or WSM 17.......my Ruger 77/17M2 is always in the truck on p/dog trips..

I've learned that the 20 calibers are where its it in a p/dog patch.....20 Fireball.....Duece 20.......20 Practical........40 V max

Probably because they're stoned and can't move fast.

when you can fry a egg on the barrel its hot,time for another gun that day

Ha, you gotta do some sneeking around and crawling to get them in range here also. But I usually only shoot maybe 100 shots a day at them.

We try the same thing with a bow. A good day will net about 3 prairie dogs...