Body (purple), shoulder (pink) and neck (green). The back end is to the left, and the front is to the right. Illustration of the various sections of a typical rifle chamber. They are seldom used outside sports and competition shooting.Ī barrel can be fixed to the receiver using action threads or similar methods. Most common form of composite barrel are those with carbon fiber sleeves, but there are proprietary examples such as the Teludyne Tech Straitjacket. Fluting will also increase the surface-to-volume ratio and make the barrel more efficient to cool after firing, though the reduced material mass also means the barrel will heat up easily during firing.Ī composite barrel is a firearm barrel that has been shaved down to be thinner and an exterior sleeve slipped over and fused to it that improves rigidity, weight and cooling. While the main purpose of fluting is just to reduce weight and improve portability, when adequately done it can retain the structural strength and rigidity and increase the overall specific strength. Most flutings on rifle barrels and revolver cylinders are straight, though helical flutings can be seen on rifle bolts and occasionally also rifle barrels. This is most often done to the exterior surface of a rifle barrel, though it may also be applied to the cylinder of a revolver or the bolt of a bolt-action rifle. Construction įluting is the removal of material from a cylindrical surface, usually creating rounded grooves, for the purpose of reducing weight. This was because manufacturing defects such as air bubbles trapped in the metal were common at that time, and played key factors in many gun explosions these defects made the barrel too weak to withstand the pressures of firing, causing it to fail and fragment explosively. Įarly cannon barrels were very thick for their caliber. During the 19th century, effective breechblocks were invented that sealed a breechloader against the escape of propellant gases. The later-invented breech-loading designs provided a higher rate of fire, but early breechloaders lacked an effective way of sealing the escaping gases that leaked from the back end (breech) of the barrel, reducing the available muzzle velocity. Įarly firearms were muzzle-loading, with the gunpowder and then the shot loaded from the front end (muzzle) of the barrel, and were capable of only a low rate of fire due to the cumbersome loading process. Bronze and brass were favoured by gunsmiths, largely because of their ease of casting and their resistance to the corrosive effects of the combustion of gunpowder or salt water when used on naval vessels. Early European guns were made of wrought iron, usually with several strengthening bands of the metal wrapped around circular wrought iron rings and then welded into a hollow cylinder.

The Chinese were also the first to master cast-iron cannon barrels, and used the technology to make the earliest infantry firearms - the hand cannons. However, the early Chinese, the inventors of gunpowder, used bamboo, which has a strong, naturally tubular stalk and is cheaper to obtain and process, as the first barrels in gunpowder projectile weapons such as the fire lances.

A female worker boring out the barrel of a Lee-Enfield rifle during WWI

Nef barrel made fromscratch