Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Looks like my barrel idea has worked! Check this out

I'm not much of a writer, but there is alot of things to say in this post. I'm going to try and keep it from getting too scattered! I hope you all enjoy reading about my project.

First off, my background includes being a Navy Machinist(MR), then a graduate from The Colorado School Of Trades for gunsmithing back in 1999. I'm 52 and medically retired now, so I have alot of time to think about stuff and try to keep busy.

I really like Tikka Rifles, and wanted to take one to the "next level", even though all that I have owned have shot nice and tight right out of the box!

I started with a stainless T3X chambered in 243 Win. I decided on a Mesa Precision Altitude stock(from the classifieds), added a Mountain Tactical trigger guard, MT trigger spring, then started looking for a barrel.

I wanted to go with a Proof, or other carbon wrapped barrel to keep the weight down. As most of you know, they are about $850 and I didn't want to spend that much on one barrel. That's when the gears started turning. I decided to make my own lightweight, "bull" barrel.

Why not do three, and make it a switch barrel? So, I bought a new take off 6.5 CM, and a CTR barrel in 308 win. I ended up leaving the 308 barrel alone, so my project started with the other two.

I decided to use 6061 T6 Aluminum for my barrel sleeves, because it would act as a heat sink, drawing heat away from the inner SS barrel, and cooling it very quickly. So, I turned my barrels to 1/2 inch diameter and had my aluminum round stock drilled .020 over. Here is what they looked like after being turned on the lathe.






And here is what a turned barrel looks like in the barrel channel





More coming

So, now my barrels were turned, and I got my aluminum back from the deep hole drilling outfit and I was ready to put them together. I used JB Weld, and added atomized aluminum while mixing(to help with the heat transfer). There is .020 of free space, between the inner barrel and outer sleeve to fill with epoxy. I let them cure for a couple days then started measuring to cut the contours. Here is the 243 win barrel, next to the unaltered CTR barrel right after contouring.



And here is how it fit in the stock! It's one full inch at the muzzle.



I couldn't wait to try it out. I had three rounds of federal Fusion 95 grains. First three went just shy of an inch!

Then, I did the same thing to the CM. I installed and headspace the barrel with index marks. And was ready to take it to the range.



The barrel was clean and I started from left to right on the target. It tightened up quickly and printed a nice clover leaf on the third spot!

I still need to bead blast and engrave these. I'll probably cerakote them as well. But here is the setup. The 6.5 is 24 in, 243 is 22, and the CTR 308 is 20. Now, I need to get all of this weighed, but the 24 inch 6.5 bbl, feels about the same as the 20 inch CTR bbl.



Little closer

Very cool. Nicely done.

The barrel channel is full now!




Hope you fellow rifle loonies like it! Let me know what you think.

Very nice work. Thanks for the pictures!

Thanks! I'm hoping to get some accurate weights this weekend. If I had to guess, with that 24 inch 6.5 bbl, its right around 8pounds. Can't imagine how much it would be with a steel barrel of that size!

Great custom work.....thanks for sharing.

Inspiring work! Nicely done.

Laymans question - how straight does the barrel stay after removing all the material for the aluminum shroud? Curious if you needed any special support to do it

I remember Lothar Walther offered barrels like this 10+ years ago.. but it seems they never started mass producing them.

Maybe flute the Aluminium to increase surface area even more?


The Aluminium at least transfers heat, while CF is a poor conductor.

Very cool!

Please keep us appraised on final weights etc.


Northman interesting ideas on the fluting.

How did you get the epoxy to distribute evenly between the steel and the aluminum?

To keep it straight, it takes some time. Small cuts with lots of coolent and supported by a steady rest. I did the barrel 1/2 at a time.

I'm already looking into this.😁 I think that 6 flutes about .25 wide would do the trick

I literally coated the inner barrel with epoxy and a butter knife. Then, put a grape sized blob inside the sleeve, and slowly pushed it through. It was a bit messy, but cleaned up nicely. Then I put the barrel between centers and spun it at 1000 rpm for about an hour.

Nice work, (lotsa), so what was the resulting weight comparison?

Very nice, impressive work! I like that stock, what is it?

Thanks,
It's a Mesa Precision Altitude

I'll try to get a good scale this weekend

I wish I’d added those skills to my life - fascinates me to this day. Nice work - keep us posted on your progress

Thanks, will do!

I'm still looking for a new take off, SS 22-250 barrel from a T3X. I'd love to add that to this rifle.

Neat project. 😊

I'm curious what the goal was? Hard to better the accuracy of a Tikka out of the box, and they are not what I would call heavy to begin with. Seems like a lot of effort to shave a few ounces if that was the goal...

Nice work. It’s obvious you spent some tim thinking about each step, based on your answers to some of the questions asked. Spinning the assembly to distribute epoxy was a good idea.

I think the flutes are good next step.

I remember seeing barrels for Ruger 10/22’s and a couple of 22 pistols that were aluminum sleeves over steel, even fluted. I don’t remember who made them though.

I really wanted to see if I could really do something different. The aluminum acts like a big heat sink, and should really aid in barrel cool off. Also, I wanted a large diameter barrel, without the weight. I got that too. No flies on a factory Tikka, as I own a few of them. But now, I have a large diameter switch barrel, that doesn't weigh a ton. Not to mention, it's pretty cool!

Tactical innovations made them, I think. I've never seen one for a center-fire rifle though.

That's a pretty nifty project. Nice work!

10.4. That is one problem with carbon, I've read conflicting reports on whether it traps heat or aids in cooling. The only thing that would worry me is the JB weld. Epoxy gets soft when heated. Not sure what other options there are though.

Yes, that’s them. I don’t think I’ve ever seen it on a centefire either.

Cool thread.

It nice to see someone playing outside the box.

Kudos!

Bingo. Carbon fiber does not conduct heat very well. They use either atomized aluminum, or tungsten to their epoxy to help with cooling. But if they added too much, you wouldn't be able to see the fibers.

As for JB, it's good to 500 degrees. I don't think I'll ever get it that hot. But, as a fail safe, the muzzle is threaded. If the epoxy were to ever fail, the sleeve would not be allowed to move due to being held together by a tightened nut, ie, brake, cap, or suppressor.

That’s a neat project you’re playing with.
Congratulations on it shooting as well as it does. Please keep us updated on your next tweaks.

Thanks! Will do for sure!

Wow. That's very cool. I don't suppose I could piggyback this thread to let everybody know I too am quite handy. Why, just yesterday I bolted an MDT chassis to a T3 223 barreled action.

😁

High temp loc-tite might be a good choice but the clearance has to be much less. Also, there can be an issue getting the pieces together before the adhesive sets up. I have sleeved barrels using both acra glass and loc-tite and the epoxy is much more forgiving and gives you time to work. GD

Did you stress relive them after turning them down

If not, how did you mange to take off so much material without introducing new stresses?

Small cuts, with the correct speeds and feeds. Plenty of coolant, and control any chatter.

I thought about having these cryod, but I really took my time cutting these without producing much heat. Most of my heat left with the chip.

I thought about acraglas gel, but wasn't sure how it would handle expansion and contraction, as it's pretty brittle. How did yours turn out? Did you sleeve a center-fire, or rimfire?