is a modular barrel possible?

[WindstormSCR]

As someone who has chambered hundreds of barrels, i do not agree with his (ACE) system. Im not saying its wrong, im not saying i dont like it (its genious actually), however i disagree with a few points.

The single biggest issues i have is the claim of the first inch being the straightest. Another claim is we can not accurately measure past it, and he examples a short finger indicator.

if he can not measure past the first inch, how can he claim the rest is not as straight ? Theres 3 distinct different methods for dialling the bore of a barrel (or in this case measuring the bore of a barrel). Its misleading.

interesting idea. Id be worried about carbon build up in the join. Stacking surfaces always will introduce error. Some may be +0.02mm and the other is -0.02mm, so it appears to be "perfect", however is not. You need a huge sample set.

Pretty much my reaction to it. If setting up a piece of stock (in this case the blank) and a reamer was so difficult then in other industries things like air bearings, radio frequency generators, and interference fit pins simply would not exist. To say nothing of optical scientific instruments or rifle scopes.

On the subject of the thread, yes it is quite possible to do, but compared to the current methods of manufacturing it would be cost prohibitive. While people might like the idea of it, very few are actually willing to pay 3x or more than the price of a normally manufactured barrel.

One of the biggest problems you run into with such a design is keeping an 11 degree crown on each section (see elsewhere for why that is so critical and has become standard) and finding timing/lockup methods that are easy to clean of fouling so that you don’t get gradual mistiming or offset from buildup

 

[357Max]

Modular as in stacking rifled barrel sections would be a hard pass for me. Even if that worked well I don't see any benefit worth the trouble.

Modular chambers with a long free bore make a lot more sense. Opens up a ton of opportunity for materials & machining processes.

Remember the Dan Wesson modular/interchangeable barrel pistol kits? That was pretty forward thinking at the time & it made a lot of sense especially for the SuperMags. I still have the new replacement barrel that shipped with mine.

 

[iceng]

I used to own a switch barrel revolver dan wesson. Never ahould have sold it.

 

[Ledzep]

Just because you can doesn't mean you should.... But it works.

Lasered the twist rate on the outside of the barrel, chopped and threaded both ends then timed it so the helix lined back up.

Poi shifts obviously, and you get 18fps per inch velocity boost. As long as everything is tight it acts just like a normal barrel.

To do it in individual interchangeable sections would require a bit more work, and may still run into issues with bore/groove dimensions... Possible but this was a science experiment, not really anything practical IMO.

ETA: Best bet would be to gun drill the pieces, cut the threads, screw them together, key them to lock index, then ream, rifle & lap the sections. Section lengths have to be a multiple of the twist rate divided by the number of grooves, and you'd have to come up with some sort of universal method for indexing it all...

Again, totally possible, but it's going to end up costing more than it's worth to manufacture.

 

[Ledzep]

As an aside-- that barrel was also "shot out", but because it was 1.20" straight, I cut the chamber & muzzle threads off, flipped it around and chambered the fresh rifling on the "old" muzzle end. It shot fine. Got 4000 rounds the first time, curious to see what I get in reverse

 

[Makinchips208]

As an aside-- that barrel was also "shot out", but because it was 1.20" straight, I cut the chamber & muzzle threads off, flipped it around and chambered the fresh rifling on the "old" muzzle end. It shot fine. Got 4000 rounds the first time, curious to see what I get in reverse

NICE!