Carbon Fiber barrels, are they really that good?

The Big Sleep

The Big Sleep

New member
I've been seeing a lot of ads for carbon fiber barrels and I'm interested.

Anyone have any experience with them?

I've worked with carbon fiber, mostly I like fiberglass, but is this something one could tackle at home?

I'd love to try this out on my sks, just for kicks. I think its a special resin, they also have good heat dissipation .

Any opinions or advice welcome.
 
It's not something you can do at home, if for no other reason than the steel barrel they build the carbon fiber onto is a very thinly turned barrel that wouldn't be available to you.

As I understand it, the carbon fiber part is a continuous thread that is "wrapped" around the barrel kind of like a spool of thread. I'm reasonably sure you would need to apply it with a machine to get the tension and spacing right.
 
Are we all referring to Christensen Arms Carbon Fiber tension barrels?

From their promo stuff nothing compares to their rifle barrels. They are the best barrel you can buy.

Now the question is why are most competition shooters not shooting these barrels?

Back in the late 1990's Remington was offering these barrels on some of the their popular models with a modest price difference of about $900 more than the standard model. They didn't sell well and were quickly discontinued.

With the now popular TV show, Christensen Arms is exploding in popularity. Some people belive everything they see and think nothing else will do.

You too can shoot a mouse at 9 gazillion yards with the precisely matched scope and rifle from Christensen Arms.
 
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Both of these rifles have Carbon Fiber barrels by Magnum Research and both are very accurate....I doubt if it is a "Home Brew" type project though...

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I'm with ColoradoOsprey....when I see them start shwoing up at rifle matches, and winning consistenly, THEN I might consider them.

Until then, they are junk to me.

Sorry if honesty hurts.....
 
I'll start by saying that I have a Christensen custom gun, 260AI on a titanium action, Shilen barrel, Nightforce unimount holding a vx7 2.5-10x45 the whole thing weights in at around 7.5 lbs.
That said, I have had the biggest pain in the a$$ with the gun. First off Christensen managed to ream my chamber .025 too long and sent it back to me that way!! Can you say Case separation!!!
So back it went along with the stock that you could scratch the camo dip paint job off of with your fingernail.
They reset the barrel and repainted the stock to a solid color after 2 attempts at dipping the stock had runs and smears in the Max-1 camo pattern.
3 months later I get my gun back and begin to work up loads. It shoots Nosler BT bullets sub moa, but max AI loads burning 1.5g more powder than a standard 260 rem, have the same velocity as the standard. Maybe I got a "slow" barrel. Needless to say I'm unimpressed.
All the research that I have done on carbon fiber points to a few important things:
Take into consideration that carbon fiber shrinks when heated, steel expands. Whats that gonna do to barrel harmonics? Maybe help, maybe hurt, maybe nothing!
Christensen's method of application is relatively low tech compared to ABS Barrels method. Heat dissipation claims of 372% faster apply to the carbon fiber matrix perfectly applied, not the bonding resin, so control in application is a must for consistency.
All Carbon Barrels now produced can be safely fired without the wrap. Want weight savings? Skip the wrap!

To me its like barrel fluting, does it work for intended purpose? Yes.

Does it do anything that the other barrels cant? No.

I also have 2 other personal friends that have Christensen Guns, out of all 3 of ours, only 1 hasn't taken extensive load development to get it to shoot accurately.
 
Oregunner, I wish I had a nickle for every horror story I've heard about C.A. gun owners that sounded like your experience.
 
I've got a 10-22 a lot like Old Turtle's lower one, same barrel. It shoots pretty well, no complaints. I'm not convinced it shoots as well as a high-quality stainless match barrel, but for its weight, it's amazingly good.

It's designed to make a lightweight barrel that's stiff, not some kind of miracle wrapping that suddenly produces magic accuracy.

Magnum Research now has a line of carbon barreled centerfires, but I don't know anyone that's shot one (yet). If I was intrested in a carbon barrel, I'd contact them.

Magnum Research barrels

$599 each. I'm thinking Magnum Research is pretty good to their customers, since they offered a full money-back policy on every Magnum Research .17HMR rifle made.

I know the liner in my Magnum Research barrel is a pretty nicely finished piece of work, it appears to have been hand-lapped.
 
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Quote:....when I see them start shwoing up at rifle matches, and winning consistenly, THEN I might consider them.

Until then, they are junk to me.


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Nothing in-between, huh? How about if they shoot just as well as your present barrel, cool off faster, and weigh half as much (or less)?
They sell a 26" bull barrel that weighs just over 3 pounds. A 16" stainless bull barrel weighs 3 pounds.
 
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And what about their life expectancy in terms of rounds fired and what is their dropped off point of their accuracy. Then, what is the cost involved? Just askin.
 
I have been working with my buddies Remington that came with the carbon barrel for several years now....it is very picky! We finally found a mild load of H380 and 52gr Sierra HPBT shoots decent. It has been a very difficult rifle for him thus far.

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ON a side note I love the way this rifle handles.
 
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Unless you have some pretty specialized equipment, doing it yourself - without making a mess - is a pipe dream. Resin doesn't dissipate heat....those barrels stay cool on the outside because the heat stays inside, in that thin steel barrel, it doesn't transfer. There's one company that claims to have a special heat dissipating resin....I'm skeptical, but who knows. The only plus I can see with carbon wrapped barrels is they're light.....good for carrying up and down mountains all day but not good for shooting offhand. I wouldn't have one of those things.
 
At one time, we had several float through the shop from customers. I remember one in particular from Christenson that filled my hand full of carbon fibers; just from handling it. Others from the same manufacturer seemed to be sealed a bit better. One fella sent us one in 30-378WBY, that weighed 8 pounds with the scope. It was not fun to shoot.
John
 
I have a custom built AR that wears an ABS carbon fiber wrapped Mike Rock 5R barrel that is very accurate and not picky at all.........if you are looking for an accurate and lightweight barrel check out ABS, you won't be dissapointed.
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