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#Post#: 171--------------------------------------------------
Carbon fibre, pros/cons
DIR By: allmanav
Date: February 8, 2021, 9:12 am
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[b]Everywhere you turn there's a carbon-fiber barrel or stock on
a rifle. Does the lightweight material really prove superior to
steel and wood?
Across the thousand years that people have been using guns,
there have been innumerable materials used to achieve the goal
of launching a projectile at a target. In the grand scheme,
carbon fiber is just another material applied to that end and
not specifically devoted for it.
Muskets were greasy affairs, and anyone who is a muzzleloader
aficionado will be familiar with all manner of mess. These
shooters use everything from animal fat and butter to wax and
entrails to work on their guns and load them. Greased fabric
patches are wrapped around round balls and rammed down, waiting
to be fired by flint striking steel.
Mass production in the era after the Industrial Revolution saw
machine guns with barrels surrounded by water tanks as a means
of keeping them cool. The first composite materials saw
widespread use as laminated wood or wood-impregnated resins
began to see action. Plastics and aluminum were next, and their
adoption in arms was slow and faced great criticism.
Some people still won’t touch a “Tupperware” gun, despite the
first popular models showing up over a half-century ago. Full
steel guns are getting rarer as a result of this, and only fan
favorites, like the 1911, are still in common use. Today’s most
popular guns make use of steel in strategic places but are
otherwise constricted primarily from polymers and aluminum.
Further cutting into steel’s territory is carbon fiber.
What Exactly Is Carbon Fiber?
Some treat the material as a brand itself, a status marker
showing that an individual can afford an expensive barrel. The
material is quite remarkable, and what it does for rifles, in
particular, is great—but not completely necessary for most
shooters.
The material itself is, in layman’s terms, composed of thousands
of strands, each made from carbon atoms. Surprisingly, this
isn’t a new material at all, but it’s new to firearms.
The original attempts to generate it for industrial applications
goes back to the early 1860s, though it didn’t reach its
commercial potential until about 100 years later. It’s
essentially a fabric spun into a weave that’s then filled with
resins or polymerized composites to achieve a sheet of what
resembles cloth. Virtually all firearm applications of carbon
fiber are mislabeled and would be more appropriately called
“carbon-fiber reinforced polymer,” but that isn’t quite as
catchy. This is the same general technology applied to archery
equipment and water sports, like kayaking and canoeing.
To make carbon-fiber barrels, most companies use a variation of
wrapping it around a steel barrel, commonly called a “liner,”
though it could be thought of as a super-thin barrel itself. The
attachment points on a carbon-fiber barrel are steel, such as
where it threads into the receiver, and at the muzzle where you
can thread on a brake or suppressor. Different companies do
their wraps in special ways, and you can sometimes identify a
brand by the appearance of the pattern in the fibers.
As far as stocks are concerned, many aren’t actually made 100
percent out of carbon fiber, but are instead a shell made of
another composite sheathed in carbon fiber to add strength and
rigidity. Other companies laminate layers of carbon fiber into
fiberglass or other like materials to create a weave of layers
that can then be shaped and bedded.
More Carbon-Fiber Barrel Guns And Accessories:
The Pros and Cons Of Carbon Fiber
The main con of carbon-fiber parts is that they’re expensive,
usually two to three times the cost of comparable steel or
aluminum versions. This is what has earned them the reputation
as status symbols in several shooting communities. Their use in
handguns is limited, to say the least, as the material is really
only used for grips or cosmetic enhancements due to the fact
that most handgun parts are pressure-bearing or moving. Thus,
carbon fiber today is really a rifle thing with minor
accessories available for other gun types.
The short, thick carbon-fiber barrel on this compact precision
rifle build makes it so that it’s well-balanced and can fit just
about anywhere. The heat-resistant SHTF+ wrap from KE Arms keeps
rapidly dissipating heat away from the optics and the aluminum
KRG forend during long strings of fire. It’s so small that it
can drop right into a Hill People Gear pack and away you go!
The short, thick carbon-fiber barrel on this compact precision
rifle build makes it so that it’s well-balanced and can fit just
about anywhere. The heat-resistant SHTF+ wrap from KE Arms keeps
rapidly dissipating heat away from the optics and the aluminum
KRG forend during long strings of fire. It’s so small that it
can drop right into a Hill People Gear pack and away you go!
Is cost the only detriment? Well, in my experience, carbon fiber
can be misapplied for certain roles. To illustrate best
practice, I built or received three rifles that make use of
various carbon-fiber parts from several different manufacturers.
It’s possible to make a rifle that’s too light for a given role,
and it’s also possible to be severely disappointed by what you
receive if you buy into the hype.
The cons discussion here is meant to be honest, and, despite
common claims, a carbon-fiber barrel isn’t any more accurate
than a steel barrel, considering that it’s itself a steel core
with steel rifling. The mechanical and physical principles of
accuracy don’t change here, nor does relative velocity of a
given bullet when fired through carbon-fiber-wrapped barrels of
plain steel barrels. Simply adding a carbon-fiber barrel to your
rifle isn’t guaranteed to make it shoot better. The basic thing
a carbon-fiber barrel offers is substantial weight savings over
a steel barrel of the same contour, with the added benefit of
faster heat bleed-off and rigidity to weight.
So, wouldn’t it be more accurate if it’s stiffer? Well, take
into account that most standard carbon-fiber barrels are meant
to mimic the profile of common heavy barreled guns, the idea
being that common stocks would still work without much fitting.
The common profile for these barrels is the same as the military
M24 contour, with the next popular contour being Remington
Sendero, a heavy-class hunting profile thinner than M24 but
thicker than a standard hunting-weight barrel. Side by side, a
24-inch M24 contour carbon-fiber barrel won’t outshoot a 24-inch
M24 contour steel barrel on paper, but it’ll weigh only one
third of what the steel barrel weighs as a rough rule of thumb.
There are some out there who claim a carbon-fiber barrel will
last longer than a plain steel barrel, sometimes to the tune of
twice the accurate life. This means, in theory, that a .308
Winchester with a carbon-fiber barrel would have an expected
accurate life of 10,000 or more rounds, so you’d never need
another one if that were true.
Contrary to popular belief, it’s not the rifling that wears out
but rather the throat and start of the rifling. These areas are
susceptible to heat-imposed damage and eventually erode enough
to make it so that the bullet has to jump or enter the rifling
off-center. High-volume shooters with hot cartridges like 6.5
Creedmoor—a round known for poor barrel life—are enthusiastic
about carbon-fiber barrels due to their ability to radiate heat
quickly as opposed to steel.
Now, a reality check is that this really only applies to people
who shoot their 6.5 CM enough to see a reduction in accuracy,
not their barrel being blown out into a smooth bore. What does
this mean? The average person will never in their life shoot a
barrel “out,” and shooting a barrel out for a competitor means
they might go from shooting ¼ inch at 100 yards to ¾ inch at the
same distance over 3,000 rounds, which is the general “accurate”
life of a standard 6.5 CM barrel.
What you need to understand is that carbon-fiber barrels give a
slight edge to high-volume competitors at ranges past 800 yards
against steel barrels, but this isn’t the norm for most people,
and there’s no reason you won’t get a decade of use out of a
steel barrel for use in competition before you start to notice
it’s no longer consistent at those long ranges.
The positives of carbon-fiber barrels are primarily centered
around weight savings and accuracy for a given complete rifle
weight. It’s true that you can shave literal pounds off a rifle
by switching to a carbon-fiber barrel, especially if you had a
heavy-contoured barrel on your existing rifle. If you have a
mountain-class light rifle, remodeling your rifle to use a
carbon barrel will allow you to keep the short length but add
tremendous stiffness and accuracy for the same weight. Short,
light rifles suffer from heat-related accuracy problems more
than other guns, and it’s very noticeable.
Heat dispersion for hunters isn’t really a big deal and only
comes into play when you’re at the range practicing or
developing loads for your rifle. Some hunting rifles with skinny
barrels are hard to zero and lose accuracy after just a few
rounds due to heat buildup. The weight savings is nice in the
field but isn’t much of a factor unless you’re climbing or
walking. A stand hunter isn’t benefited by this much at all,
considering the stationary nature of that type of hunting;
weight just isn’t that important, since you’re just walking up
to the blind with a nice thermos of coffee, snacks and a book to
read.
There really isn’t too much of a debate around carbon-fiber
stocks. Stocks are somewhat basic in nature and haven’t changed
all that much in the last hundred or more years. A carbon-fiber
stock is quite rigid, but not as stiff as a metal chassis. The
weight savings over wood, composite or polymer stocks isn’t the
same ratio as barrels, so expect to shave about 10 to 20 percent
in total weight over a comparably sized conventional stock.
A Look At Upgrades
The three rifles in this article are designed for very different
purposes, and all make use of carbon-fiber parts to achieve
their ends. The first of these is a top-shelf hunting rifle from
Mesa Precision Arms; it was built from the ground up to take
full advantage of modern materials and techniques. It’s a
hunting rifle chambered for 6.5 Creedmoor, and capable of ½ MOA
at ranges to 1,000 yards. It does take considerable practice to
use so light a rifle at so long a distance, but it’s not ethical
or even likely that you’d be firing on an animal at target
distances like that. This rifle excels at ranges inside 800
yards and is a charm for the pack-in hunter with multi-species
tags.
Many patterns are unique to a given manufacturer. This barrel is
from Proof Research, and it bears their distinctive “Damascus”
pattern.
Many patterns are unique to a given manufacturer. This barrel is
from Proof Research, and it bears their distinctive “Damascus”
pattern.
The Mesa has a carbon-fiber stock and barrel and a titanium
action. This is a specialty product that’ll almost certainly not
be in the safe of the recreational deer hunter. This rifle
retails around $5,000 as featured in this article, but it’s
truly peerless in terms of raw performance, even against other
rifles that use nearly identical components. The lightweight
package is specialized and fully tuned with minor details you
won’t see, and it shows in field use. This product is
representative of just what can be accomplished when technology
and craftsmanship are applied in unison. There’s a vast
difference in a custom carbon-fiber rifle built by a company
that specializes in those materials and a company that simply
adds to a product in their existing catalog.
The next rifle is my personal deer rifle, the action custom
blueprinted by the fine folks at Precision Rifle Company in my
native Michigan. They’re a leader in making accurate rifles that
use straight-walled cases, mine being a 14.5-inch pin-and-weld
.450 Bushmaster. This rifle uses an AG Composites Alpine Hunter
carbon-fiber stock.
Why use a target-style carbon-fiber stock on a big-bore rifle
with a cartridge good to 200 yards? The rifle is a special build
in that it’s completely specialized for Michigan hunting. I’m an
open-field stalk hunter, for the most part, and I rarely if ever
use a stand, instead remaining on the ground in blind corners of
wheat, soybean or corn stubble. This rifle has the shape
necessary for positional shooting unsupported but is light
enough that it can be carried easily over distance and in dense
cover. A carbon stock makes total sense in this respect, as I
can save weight while getting the benefits of a more robust
stock.
The last rifle is another specialized custom-built Remington 700
in a KRG Whiskey 3 folding chassis. The rifle uses a rather
unique barrel setup, that being a Savage-style finished-chamber
with a barrel nut assembly. It’s from X-Caliber barrels, which
also manufactured the standard steel barrel on my .450
Bushmaster. The barrel nut setup makes it so that you can
install the barrel yourself at home on a standard, non-trued 700
action. The result is a drop-in carbon-fiber solution if you
want to try your hand.
This barrel is chambered in 6.5 Creedmoor and is 16 inches long.
The idea was to make a compact rifle for tactical shooting
competition that made good use of 120-grain bullets at high
velocity. The 6.5 CM is hot, and this short, stiff barrel bleeds
heat while being exceptionally compact with no loss of accuracy
or velocity. It launches 120-grain bullets at 2,700 to 2,900
fps, depending on factory or hand-load used. It shoots inside
.308 Winchester at virtually all distances with almost no
recoil.
While the AG Composites stock here is on a short-range rifle
meant for 200 yards and in, it demonstrates light weight and
superior ergonomics that make it great on a modern stalking gun.
While the AG Composites stock here is on a short-range rifle
meant for 200 yards and in, it demonstrates light weight and
superior ergonomics that make it great on a modern stalking gun.
Specialized uses like this strongly favor carbon-fiber barrels.
High-round count and mobility are key here, and a carbon-fiber
barrel makes total sense to keep the rifle cool while saving
weight and fatigue when moving it. Choosing to build a rifle
around a bullet can change your approach, and this one went
through several iterations with expert input to get it right,
and the X-Caliber barrel here made all the difference.
Cost And Benefits
The truth of it is you might not be benefited by carbon-fiber
upgrades if your end use doesn’t involve weight savings or heat
dissipation. Cost is certainly a factor here, and the price of
upgrades can usually buy you a whole new rifle or a new scope.
Carbon-fiber barrels aren’t cheap and can run well over $1,000,
not even counting chambering and fitting. Carbon-fiber stocks
are more feasible, but they don’t provide significant
performance enhancements at the end of the day as compared to
conventional stocks.
As this technology marches on, it’ll certainly improve and begin
appearing in more places. Today’s carbon-fiber game is still in
its infancy. In 10 years, it’ll be likely that this material
will be cheaper to produce and will find more end uses, but in
our time, it’s still a specialized product best suited for the
few who want to pay for a perceived edge.
The article originally appeared in the December 2020 issue of
Gun Digest the Magazine.[/b]
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