Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Keeping your barrel COOL

Since I have my own shooting range on my property I can take my time & not allow my barrel to heat up. Rarely do I take over two shot with out allowing my barrel to cool. I realize using a public range does not allow doing this leisurely approach. . Having worked on sight in days at the local club range there was always some shooters that required extra shooting which resulted in a hot barrel not beneficial to best accuracy. I came up with the idea of using 70% or 90% rubbing alcohol;. You don't want to use your best Scotch or Brandy. Any way a piece of paper towel or a small rag wet with the alcohol rubbed along the length of the barrel will evaporate quickly drawing away the heat. Keep reapplying as the evaporation takes place. In two or three minutes a barrel can be cooled considerably. If you have a blued steel barrel you need to apply some gun lubricant back to the barrel to prevent corrosion. If Stainless your good to go. ."O"Ya . Rubbing alcohol should not be consumed internally. .

This works too

Looks like the stock is over heated on the one on the left?

It’s glowing orange. Or, was that the Salmon one?

I use ice cubes but beware water under action

Have been shooting in 20 degree weather. That really works.

Hesp,

When I first experienced temp. sensitive powders it forced me to do all of my load development in the summer. That would be in the Texas heat & everpresent humidity. I discovered, after trying & considering many ideas, the chimney affect is best if you have no other choice. Secondary, & my first choice, I use a battery powered Air Matress blower. I was able to attach a 3/8” hose that tucks nicely into the chamber. It cuts cooling time by 30 minutes on a +90° day.

I considered wet towels dipped in ice cooled water, dry ice, the blower inside a cooler, alcohol rub down, etc. I did not want to induce any type of condensation inside the barrel. So the batteries are free at work and it is less trouble than the other ideas.

I use the flexible ice packs that ER's give out for injuries.I have a good supply o f them

Stealhead's pic reminds me of watching a guy shooting 5 or 6 different rifles at the range one day. After half a dozen shots, he'd set them, barrel down, in a 5 gallon bucket of water. When one was pulled out to shoot, he'd run a dry patch down the barrel and start shooting.
I use variations of the alcohol and water on a towel to cool things down. I'll also take a can of compressed air or 'computer cleaner' to blow down the barrel and up from the chamber.

CO2 tank from a paintball gun, a valve, and some tubing works awesome to cool barrels down. Leave gun on bench, slide tubing into chamber up to the lands, and open valve slightly. The CO2 will cool a barrel pretty quick.

I’ve also used an air mattress fan like Reloader states above... that works well.

Other times, I’ve set the rifle on the console of the truck, stuck the muzzle against one of the vents, and cranked the A/C for a few minutes.

Dogshooter,
How many range sessions do you get out of that tank?

Depends on how hot it was outside.... but typically several trips. They’re cheap to refill too.

Sure it does. In fact, you tend to have mandated breaks to change targets every 30 minutes or so while people who are slow on the uptake and don't pick up on the fact that there's a cease fire every 30 minutes futz around until everyone is back behind the line before they decide to head down and change their targets. I spend much more time waiting at our range than when I'm shooting on my own.

Anyway, the barrel cooling methods are still good, I may have to try the CO2 trick. I usually bring at least 3 rifles so I can rotate and not get any one of them too hot but when I get down to the last few rounds in a box and want to finish them up so I can reload the lot I do get tempted to speed up the process.

I have been using CO2 for over 10 years. Get a 20 lb tank as a minimum. I have had five friends copy me. All use a regulator except one guy. He runs the line directly off the tank. It takes little time to cool off a barrel to ambient temperature. When you feel the barrel getting close to the same temp as the scope bell quit as the cooling will continue.

I don't use the system all the time but when in a hurry to develop a load nothing works faster.

Our range has targets on tracks so you can swap without going cold. No delays. And you pay by the hour (if there's a wait). I'd like to be able to cool quicker. The air pump sounds like it would help quite a bit.

Those don't work very well at the 500 meter line.

So, does the CO2 not induce condensation?

News I can use.

No, they do not.

When using CO2 no condensation forms on inside or outside of barrel but I suppose it might show up if you cooled for too long . All the Co2 should be used for is to bring the temp back to ambient not the temperature of a cold drink.

A very quick and effective way is to run water across the outside of the barrel. When out range had an electric water fountain I used to do that with the fiberglass stocked rifles. Would point muzzle down as it was done. Then later blew any water residue out of barrel channel. This is in the desert where everything evaporates quickly, not sure how well it would work in damp climates.

A cold damp towel taken from an ice chest can be wrapped around the barrel. .

Was just reading about this tiny fan that fits in the open action. It is slow but better than nothing. http://barrelcool.com/product-category/barrelcool/

Our range has electricity so I bring a fan when it's warm.