Range Report Canned Air cooling

[memyselfi]

At the range today, two bays down a guy was firing a ten shot string from DBM feed bolt action, opening the bolt and spraying canned air down the barrel from the breach. At first I didnt notice what he was until another shooter requestd a cold range to set targets. Initialy I thought he was spraying "REM" oil or something in a hot barrel ( I thought odd ). In short he ran three more strings , and I watched as he sprayed down the barrel between each. He left and I asked the other shooters if they saw what he was spraying, too prove that I wasn't seeing things, I got the empty can out of the trash to show them. The other shooters stated, that none have used such a method to rapidly cool a barrel.

So am I late to the party on this or what?

 

[Chiller]

Re: Canned Air cooling

the sudden expansion of the gas will be endothermic process and will cool things off. now as to if that does any good.....that is a different discussion

 

[Awesymoto]

Re: Canned Air cooling

was he holding the can upside down? that would get super cold, super fast. Never heard of this, nor will i be trying it... but interesting.

 

[lessthanfour]

Re: Canned Air cooling

ever stick a warm glass in a sink full of ice water?

 

[hyoslvr]

Re: Canned Air cooling

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: lessthanfour</div><div class="ubbcode-body">ever stick a warm glass in a sink full of ice water? </div></div>
Yeah no shit! Kinda what I was thinking.

 

[PanaDP]

Re: Canned Air cooling

The problem with that idea is that steel, having a high mass, has a high potential to hold heat. Air, even cold air that was until recently compressed, has a low mass and has a quite low potential to hold heat. Simply put, hot steel cools slowly and hot air cools rapidly. This leads to the fact that using air to cool steel is very inefficient. A can of compressed air will run out pretty quickly and will get expensive very fast if you use (or can even carry) enough to really do the job.

 

[Uhlan]

Re: Canned Air cooling

Several older shooters around here are using Coleman airmatress inflators with plastic tubing running out of the exhaust to a nozzle they place in their 7mmRM and 6.5-284 chambers between 2 and 3 shot strings to try to speed up the cooling process and "hopefully" extend throat life. In the summertime the intake has a tube that runs through a cooler jug full of ice.

 

[RStewart]

Re: Canned Air cooling

Some of the folks around here use the same battery powered aereator you use for minnows. Just put the tube in the breech between rounds and let it run.

 

[Greg Langelius *]

Re: Canned Air cooling

Many years back, I believe there was a story in <span style="font-style: italic">Precision Shooting</span> about a barrel cooling system. It may have even involved something similar to a water jacket. Haven't seen or heard much on the subject since.

I have some doubts about forced/accelerated cooling and its possible effects on POI stability.

Greg

 

[TNT]

Re: Canned Air cooling

I would be very careful of any system of force cooling a barrel for potential fatigue or brittle fracture concerns. Especially carbon steel - if you are blowing cold enough air down the barrel to cause appreciable convection cooling, then you are creating some undesirable thermal stresses (thermal gradient from inside barrel being colder - it wants to contract - and outside of barrel being hot - it wants to expand). This puts the barrel under transverse tensile stress, exactly what you don't want. Any defects in a circumferential direction can then propagate, ultimately leading to failure.

All that being said, I doubt the compressed air is really doing enough to cause this much of a gradient or contribute to thermal shock, which could cause a brittle fracture. I still wouldn't do it, though.

 

[FLIGHT762]

Re: Canned Air cooling

A number of years ago, there was a company that was selling a barrel cooling unit that used CO2 in large bottles (small scuba tank sized) to rapidly cool the barrel.

Remember reading a couple of reviews in gun magazines at the time.

 

[longshooter]

Re: Canned Air cooling

I read awhile back of a fellow that used water through the barrel, for quick cooling.

 

[timelinex]

Re: Canned Air cooling

Didn't AI shoot 10,000 rounds or something and cooled the barrel every so often by dipping it in ice water, just to prove how all that doesn't effect the accuracy of their rifles.

 

[B3dlam]

Re: Canned Air cooling

I saw a guy at the range running a high velocity round through a light barreled hunting rifle he had a little compressor pump designed to blow up an air matress I belive as I recall it ran on batteries and was about the size of a softball he had a tube that ran off that which he ran into his barrel with the action open to cool it. Seemed to work pretty well although probably not something I will ever bother with.

 

[nfresquez]

Re: Canned Air cooling

I want to say it was the PGM ultima ratio had a barrel that was finned with a sleeve that covers them and is filled with oil for cooling. I cant seem to find the exact barrel on their site though.

 

[Drake Associates]

Re: Canned Air cooling

Its called the PGM Intervention Barrel. Please see our site www.DRAKEASSOCIATES.us
thanks

 

[nfresquez]

Re: Canned Air cooling

Chris I can't seem to find a pic with the sleeve for the oil cooling. I swear I saw it on your site, maybe the french site?

 

[frankythefly]

Re: Canned Air cooling

I used to see this sort of thing with the 1000yd bench rest crowd in Colorado. The most extreme was liquid nitrogen cooling systems. Most old guys just used a wet rag that came from a cooler filled with dry ice. Anyhow you should take a trip to a 1000yd benchrest match, some pretty crazy riggs and cooling techniques.

 

[Ring]

Re: Canned Air cooling

caned air upside down sprayed as a liquid is -60f "i think"..

u could also use a squeezer bottle and spray rubbing alcohol down the bore

 

[hntbambi]

Re: Canned Air cooling

Shooting in the desert will take forever if you wait for the barrel to cool between groups. I use a towel soaked in ice water to drape over the barrel to suck the heat out. I take a few guns and rotate between guns while they cool down. It works great.