Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Gunsmithing Cooling down a barrel with a damp towel

Came across a guy today at the range. After every third shot he would take a towel out of a cooler and run down the barrel. The temps were well over 100 today so things would heat up pretty quick. My solution was to shoot three and change rifles.

A standard 24" #2 contour barrel, would that be advisable? I get that steel barrels are incredibly tough, it just seems like too hot a barrel and too cool a towel... I mean if it were safe for the health of the barrel more ppl would be doing it right?

I've done it myself with wet paper towels with
no adverse effects that I could tell.
Zeroing a scope on a rifle, and not much time
to sit and wait
But then I don't shoot competitively or shoot
over a hundred rounds at a time from one
firearm. I pretty much hunt and my goal is
the first cold shot. Others may have a different
purpose and using a wet rag or towels might
not be a practical solution for them

Flexible ice packs that ER's give out when you sprain or hurt something work a lot better

Before his death, a friend was a big Black Powder Cartridge guy.
Black powder seems to heat barrels faster. He used a squirt bottle with the hose. He would open the breech and squirt some cold water down the barrel and swab the bore.
I carry an aluminum shotgun cleaning rod that I lay in the bore. It helps pull the heat out.
For smaller Calibers, I use a M16 cleaning rod.
Even a patch with solvent will help.

I use a Coleman battery powered air pump made to fill air mattress with an adapter to fir chamber.
Works well if ambient temp is not to high.

Years ago there was a guy in one of the mags that had a contraption to pump water through the barrel for cooling. Seemed to work fine.

For years on hot days I used a wet towel wrapped and hung over the barrel between shots. Barrels were all stainless. Never a problem.

Thanks for the advise folks!!!

@UpThePole I have one of those. Now I have another purpose for it.

I've heard of guys doing that.


I'm way too afraid of warping the barrel to consider it. Just doesn't seem like wetting/cooling 1 spot on a barrel would be a great idea.


Maybe they aren't hot enough to warp...I have no idea.


$800 or so on a good blank and chamber job...I don't care to experiment.

If the rifle will survive being shot in a rain or snowstorm, you're probably fine.

Back when I was shooting Int. trap in Taiwan they had a bucket of water at each station with a ladle. We'd pour water down the barrels to cool them. 1/4 of a million rounds later the barrels are just fine.

Cheap rechargeable air mattress pump $18 on Amazon

Some clear 3/8" hose and you are off to the races

Here's the complete setup:

Try it, you'll like it, just not on your custom blued exhibition rifle. Or any nice blue job. Parked or cerakoted or stainless, who cares!

Wet towels, ice cubes, tube and funnel, even CO2 gas. The only thing you need to worry about is making sure there's no liquid in the bore (incompressible, so other stuff bends) when you shoot again. If you get a barrel hot enough that water will warp it, you've already ruined that pipe.

One guy I shoot with every so often, he's got a SPECIAL RACK so he can pour water down his barrels without much fuss, he just stuffs the hose in the chamber and cracks the valve to the ice chest. Has air, too, a puff and a damp patch of Hoppes 9 and away he goes. Gets decent barrel life and has done more to endanger prairie dogs globally than anyone else.

I have one rifle that is in a special abuse-victim stock that is epoxied and sealed in a massively hogged out barrel channel. I have towel strips that velcro on (sometimes the velcro dot glue gets gooshy) and a spritz bottle of water. Could use rubbing alcohol. A side benefit of the wet/damp strips is less MIRAGE.

But I've never been bashful about hosing down the metal just as long as it's not put away wet. And I never make steam or let things get that toasty. If I can't lay my hand on the barrel, I cool it off.

aluminum rod is the worst thing you can put in a bore!!!!!

I shot with guy that got a used scuba tank, compressed air, hose with fitting at the tip, could cool one in minutes, here in Tx. heat.

Just curious…why not use an aluminum rod as heat sink?

Possibly dissimilar metals can cause corrosion?

Screw it! Why not a garden hose? Throw it in a cheap Azzz kids pool full of ice and beer. Better yet buy a Leopard seal, strap it to his cold azzzzz junk and bang away. 🤡🤡🤡🤡

😂😂😂😂😂😂😂