Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Do barrels "walk" as they heat up?

Well, what's your take on this?

A good barrel is not going to "walk" that much. If a barrel does walk a lot on you, it is likely "stressed " from the machining process. Any amount of uneven pressure exerted on the barrel, as it warms up from shooting, will also cause your poi to wander.

There are potentially a couple of causes of walking. Commonly, it is a barrel not well stress-relieved. Processes like rotary forging and button rifling for example, may result in quite high residual stresses and, if not properly stress relieved, the heating of the barrel from firing a few rounds can see it move.

Another one is where the way the rifle is bedded or fitted up results in movement due to thermal expansion. As you know, steel expands as it gets hot, and if that expansion is constrained on one side, such as by a barrel screw or other feature pressing against the barrel on one side, that can cause walking. Perhaps the most extreme example of this that I've seen is in teh case of combinations, drillings and the like, where the rifle barrel is soldered to another barrel, and as the rifle barrel heats up it expands on the side away from the joint, but on the side where the joint is it has the combined effects of a heat sink and the rigid joint preventing movement.

They can and will. Depends on the barrel and the bedding. Some will be worse than others, for the reasons mentioned above. For a hunting rifle the first cold bore shot is the money maker.

They certainly can....

My first bolt ws a Ruger M77 7mm RM. When I tried to zero it the POI kept moving up and to the left at 11 o'clock.

That was 1982. Floated the barrel and have not had a problem since. And since then all my bolt rifles get the barrel floated if they don't come that way. They don't walk either, but i don't shoot any until they are uncomfortably hot. Cooler barrels result in longer barrel life.

I have one rifle that tends to walk as it heats up .... I say tend to but really it’s basically guaranteed.

It’s a full length forend and figured wood so the grain is not straight and the forend always contacts the barrel. I’ve tried to correct it a few times to no avail.

On the upside. The walking is pretty predictable if you take quick follow up shots, and if you let the barrel cool it doesn’t walk.

Relieving hidden stresses in barrel steel in the course of machining same is a very real phenomenon. I experimented once with a pristine military Mauser barrel. It was scary accurate in its original configuration- steps and all. I carefully set it up in a 4-jaw chuck, tailstock live center carefully centered and supporting the muzzle end. On slow speed I painstakingly turned the barrel into a svelte taper, eradicating the steps. A work of art when done. Subsequent shooting proved the first shot would go dead nuts where the crosshairs pointed. Second, third, fourth, fifth shots would steadily walk up and to the right with the fifth landing about 8" from the first, every time. I messed with the bedding every which way from Wednesday and nothing helped. Stress relief is a bitch.

Thorough cooling between shots would yield MOA groups but I couldn't live with knowing it's foible, so away it went. I did kill a couple deer with it.

I have some that do, some that don’t.

I’ve had a 700 LTR in 6.8 spc in the back of the safe longer than I should have because it would fairly predictably walk them down and left. Initially a 6x42 Leupold was blamed and found to have been bad, but I’ve never fooled with it since. On the list for this winter.

My father's 99C in 308 does faster and farther than any rifle I've ever seen.
Forgot multi shot groups. And if you want to sight in a new scope or work up a hand load, you better have a lot of time on your hands.

How many rounds before you feel they will walk, midrange say .243?

Osky

You should go back and read peoples posts. You'll see that every barrel is different. Every rifle is different. There are ways to help prevent "walking" of your shots and POI shift. Go back at the beginning and read the posts. It is full of some good insight..

Why, you don't seem to read and comprehend many?

Years ago, I built a 7x57, on a Turk Mauser. I did not buy a premium barrel. I wanted to put one together on the "cheap". So, I bought a Green Mountain bbl from Midway, that was threaded and short chambered. It was on sale for $69.99.

I had the receiver heat treated, cut off the bolt handle and put on a new one. Then I sent it to a guy who Cryo treated it. I put that into an ambi-thumbhole MPI stock I had in my shop, and took it to the range.

Now, it wasn't as cheap as I wanted it to be, but damn! It shoots just as well, or better than any other rifle than I've built since, and with a $70 barrel!

That said, every rifle I own is bedded and free floated. But, if it doesn't shoot, and I'm keeping it, it gets cryo'd.

I need to find a new shop to do it, as my guy retired recently.

Did you try that barrel before cryogenic treatment? Because from a metallurgical point of view cryogenic treatment of rifle barrels is really just snake oil.

If a hot barrel “walks” in a properly assembled and bedded rifle, it’s going in the trash. Time for a rebarrel.

Most will, some don't.

Boy howdy, I had a Weatherby Ultra-lightweight in .30-06, pencil thin barrel. It didn’t walk, it ran! Almost like shooting a single shot, make the first one count.

Thank you BSA.......
Merry Christmas.

Osky