Can Anyone Tell Me Which???

[HollowPoint]

I finally got it all put back together again. I then weighed it again both with and without the scope in place. Without the scope it still weighed in at 6.11 pounds. With the scope in place it added one and a half pounds to get the total weight to 7.6 pounds. So, with an 18" Carbon Fiber barrel in place I was able to shave about a pound and a half off of what it was before when wearing the 16" Spiral-Fluted bull barrel in place.

I had a heck of a time getting the headspacing just right this time around. I must have put it together and then taken it apart three times before I figured out what was going on. If I weren't already bald-headed I would have pulled all my hair out trying to figure out why I wasn't getting the head-spacing to work for me. I'd try cycling cartridges after each assembly and some would cycle just fine and others would not. My No-Go-Gauge was doing exactly what it was supposed to do but I got no repeatability when cycling various cartridges. It turns out that some of my reloads had the primers sitting flush with the bottom of the case and those that were giving me problems had the primers sitting just above the surface of the base of my reloads. Rookie mistake.

I torqued my Compression-Nut down exactly the way I'd described in my previous posts. I heated the barrel again till it expanded length-wise as before; this time I let it expand to .023" then I quickly slipped my Carbon Fiber tube into place and torqued it down just past the point where it felt snug. The one mistake I made when doing so was to not hold the Carbon Fiber tube firmly enough as I tightened that Compression-Nut down.

The Carbon Fiber tube was perfectly indexed so that my vent-holes were at top dead center in relation to the reciever but when I tightened that compression nut the tube spun clock-wise along with the Compression-Nut so my vent-holes ended up slightly off center.

I have a pretty extensive internal library of cuss words to draw from in situations like this and I was able to pull out a few of those choice words when I noticed what had happened. To find some sense of consolation I reasoned within myself thinking, "Well, this is just a prototype to see if this Carbon Fiber Wrapping project is really going to work or not." So I opted to leave it as it was for now. If by some chance I manage to heat up that barrel to the point where it expands just enough for me to simply use hand pressure to spin it upright then I'll do that. Shooting my range sessions the way I usually do, I really don't think that the barrel will ever get that hot. Maybe if I shoot alot during the summer months. I'll just have to wait and see.

This time around before I heated up my donor barrel I had sprayed it with some flat-black spray paint in certain areas so that my laser thermometer would give me some useable readings. That seemed to work out a whole lot better than trying to take temperature readings off of a shiny stainless steel barrel. I also tried putting my melting-pot-thermometer right against the barrel as I was heating it. I tied it onto the barrel with some thin strands of copper wire. That was a waste of time. The needle on that analog thermometer never moved, even while the Thermal Expansion of the barrel had reached .023".

After assembling the rifle for the last time I did make it a point to mask off the base of the barrel and the muzzle so I could paint it black. This wasn't done for any aesthetic reasons; I did it so I could take my laser thermometer to the shooting range and take some reading off of those black areas after each shot. Now it's just a matter of finding the time to get to the range for the testing. I'm hoping for the best cause I deliberately tried to do my best to keep everything as perfectly concentric as I could. All my rifle components were put together using the same torque specs I'd used when I previously/initially rebarreled this same rifle and it turned out just as accurate as it was in it's factory configuration.

I took only a couple more pics of the assembled rifle sitting on my postal scale. I'll try to post those a bit later.

HollowPoint

[HollowPoint]

Here are three more pics of my assembled Tikka Carbon Fiber Wrapped barrel project rifle.

These photos too were taken and edited in a hurry just like all the others. I'm hoping that they'll tide those of you over who have been following this project thread until I can get to the shooting range for some testing.

I really think it's going to work, provided I don't over-heat the barrel and cause it to thremally expand beyond the amount of torque I applied to the Compression-Nut. Having tested for myself the way that the barrel expands longitudinally as it reaches certain temperatures, I don't believe I will experience alot of point of impact shifts but, that is what the range testing is expected to show.

Another thing the range test will show is, if I do reach the temperture limits that the epoxy resin used to make the Carbon Fiber tube, will the tube start to de-laminate or show any kinds of adverse affects from the combination of heat and the pressure induced from the Compression-Nut?

I'm thinking that if I do get the temperature up that high the accompanying length-wise Thermal Expansion should mitigate any of the crushing pressure induced by the torque of the Compression-Nut but, it's just one more thing to keep an eye out for during testing.

I'll be back with more photos and results after I've had a chance to get to the range for testing. Thanks for sticking around guys.

I almost forgot. I was able to shrink those short videos I made of my Thermal Expansion test down to uploadable sizes to my Instagram account. I'll try uploading them tonight. They may make absolutely no sense to anyone of the very few people who follow me on instagram cause I've not mentioned this project to anyone except for you guys here on the Cast Boolits forum. I'll be removing those same short videos a day or two after I upload them. I just wanted to show you guys here what I was trying to describe with the written word. When you write a description down it tends to make things sound a whole lot more complicated than they really are.

HollowPoint

[cwtebay]

That's awesome!!! Thanks for sharing your journey with this endeavour!! Hope it shoots the lights out for you!

Sent from my Pixel 3 XL using Tapatalk

[HollowPoint]

That's awesome!!! Thanks for sharing your journey with this endeavour!! Hope it shoots the lights out for you!

Sent from my Pixel 3 XL using Tapatalk

Thanks cwtebay:

I'm pretty sure it will shoot. What I'm not sure about yet is if it will shoot consistently and accurately. If it does then the Cat Will Be Out Of The Bag; so to speak. It will mean that for those who have access to a metal lathe and some common sense there will be no need to pay upwards of 800 dollars-plus for a Carbon Fiber barrel put together by one of the big names in that line of the gun parts industry.

I really hope that this long winded thread didn't come off sounding like I was trying to talk folks into going the DIY route when considering a Carbon Fiber barrel for one of their rifles. If you have the means to do so it would probably be best to just purchase a pre-made Carbon Fiber barrel from one of the top names in that field. By all accounts they put out some top notch stuff.

The problem for me was that you can buy the very best Carbon Fiber wrapped barrel that money can buy but then you have to go looking for a competent gunsmith to install it, if you are unable to do it yourself. Beyond that there are a myriad of variables that will effect how good a given Carbon Fiber barrel will shoot. You've just laid out a wad of cash for a new barrel, then an additional amount for a competent gunsmith, then more money for your load workup and then there's the competence of the person pulling the trigger to consider; and on and on it goes. It's to easy to spend alot of money and end up with little to show for it.

I'm not insinuating that I'm that competent at any or all of those things, it's just that I don't have that kind of expendable income so I thought I'd try developing a way that would allow me to do it myself with a minimal outlay of hard earned dollars. So far it's looking like it's going to work. Only after testing will I know for sure. It may turn out that a different type of Carbon Fiber tube may be needed; or a tube made with an epoxy resin with higher heat resistance or wrapped on a mandrel at a more optimum angle to increase rigidity or both. I'll just have to wait till my range sessions testing is done to know for sure.

I'll be back to dredge up this thread when I get that far along. Next week I think I'm going to be helping out that friend I mentioned in a couple of other posts. If I'm lucky he'll be to busy again next week to do the work on his truck again so I can use that time to head to the shooting range.

HollowPoint

[HollowPoint]

I was able to upload snippets of the short videos I made of my Thermal Expansion tests. I say "Snippets" cause they were already only a minute long.

I wasn't able to upload them in their native Window Movie Maker format so I had to go online and download video converting app that would allow me to convert the format from WMV to MP4 in order to be able to upload them to my Instagram account. Unfortunately the app download only came as a rudimentary version; which meant that it would deliberately only convert one third of the overall video being converted.

This is done to give you an incentive to buy the full app with all of it's features. Yea; I'm not buying the full version for an upload that I plan on taking down in a day or two but I did manage to upload enough of those short vids to give you all an idea of what I was getting at. Following is the link to that upload for those who may care to take a look. It's a poorly done couple of videos but it's all I got to show you at this time.

https://www.instagram.com/p/B8Am6Lxhxn9/

HollowPoint

[HollowPoint]

I finally made it to the shooting range today. My friend with the truck that needed fixing wasn't able to make it again this week so I was a free man.

Fortunately I had already loaded up a box full of ammo I'd put together for load-workup meant to be shot with my previous Spiral-Fluted bull barrel. I also had some medium power loads I'd made up for fire forming purposes that I used as sighters just to get me on paper.

I had no illusions of going to the range and stacking bullets at a hundred yards right off the bat. I'm generally not that lucky. It takes me two or three range sessions to get dialed in. My first 15 or 20 fire forming loads were four to six inches off the mark. I kept over clicking my 1/4 MOA turrets so that rookie move made me end up shooting just as far off to the opposite side of my aim point. I finally got that centered so I moved out to 100 yards.

With the rifle now being as light as it is I had a hard time keeping the cross-hairs on the bullseye. I couldn't believe what a difference that lighter weight made in steadying my aim. The fire forming rounds were made up of some left over 55 grain Dog-Town factory blemished bullets I had in my storage closet for God knows how long. Those were my medium power loads and they were all still in the 223 Remington brass case configuration. I had twenty-five 50-grain soft points and 20 rounds of 45-grain soft point all on top of Benchmark powder.

Even as unsteady as that light rifle was I managed to get a couple of MOA groups out of the 50 grain bullets. It wasn't until I'd just about fired all my ammo that I finally figured out how to best mount and hold the rifle to get some better accuracy. I had to shoot it like it was a pellet gun to get tighter groups. The 45 grain soft points gave me the best groups of the day; and, they did so at the highest charge weight I'd loaded up. For me this means that they would also be the highest velocity of the bunch too.

I had my Film-Through-Scope TactaCam camera with me and I did get some video of it but my 16 power scope and the poor quality of the video this camera delivers made for some not so impressive video captures. Still, I did get some video that I'll be uploading. I just have to split it up and edit it down to one minute snippets in order to be able to uploaded for your viewing. I also took photos of my targets before I took them down. When I got home to take a look at them they were no where to be found. I did keep those targets for future reference so I'll have to just snap some pics of them to show you.

Initial cold-bore temperature of my Carbon Fiber barrel before firing any shots was 50.9 degree Fahrenheit. I'd fire three of those fire forming cartridges and then take temperature readings at the chamber end, at the muzzle and through one of the small oblong breather holes in the Carbon fiber Tube. After each three shots I'd measure in the same locations. After the first three shots the temperature went up to 53.2 degrees. I noticed that at each location that I put the laser thermometer on the temperatures were different from one another so I then started just recording only the highest measurement.

After nine rounds fired the temperature climbed to 72 degrees. Then after firing the last fire forming round -number 15- the temperature measured 84 degrees. Each three shots in succession were spaced no more than about 30 seconds apart or however long it takes to cycle the action. It took slightly longer to load three more rounds into the magazine then insert it into the reciever for the next three shot volley.

Ambient temperatures were what this native Arizonan considers to be a cold morning. This most likely contributed to the barrel not heating up as much as it might have if I were conducting this test in the dead of summer. At any rate, after firing that last fire forming round the firing line went cold to give shooters the chance to run out and change their targets or do whatever they needed to do before the next session started up. By then my rifle barrel had cooled down to a measured 65 degrees Fahrenheit. After the sixth round of the new shooting session it was back up to 83 degrees. After the ninth round it was 94 degrees; 12th round it went to 100 degrees. After twenty rounds fired my laser thermometer never registered anything hotter than 105 degree Fahrenheit. It kind of left me wondering because I thought surely it should have gotten hotter than this by now but, I don't really know. I've never shot a Carbon Fiber wrapped barrel before today.

The only points of reference I have are those YouTube videos I watched of guys rattling off thirty round magazine full's in under a minute. Their measured temperatures only went into the 150s even after that. It wasn't until the third or fourth magazine full that they started to climb into the 200 degree mark.

So, what am I to deduce from this particular range session shooting my DIY Carbon Fiber wrapped rifle barrel??? Right now I'm inclined to call it a cold weather success because I got no signs of delamination, weakening or deformity from the Carbon Fiber Tube itself. In fact, only if I put my hand on the metal parts at the muzzle and the chamber end could I feel anything resembling high heat.

Again; If I was running this test during the Arizona summer I may have gotten a different outcome. I'm going to keep the barrel in place until then and make a few more treks to the shooting range in the upcoming weeks just to confirm that this wasn't a weather related fluke.

Those 45 grain soft points showed signs of real promise when I shot those latter rounds. The fifty grainers also gave me some MOA groups so I'm not ruling those out either. They just need a bit more work. Next time I'll take my chronograph so I can get some velocity readings. I also want to see if I get any points-of-impact changes when I put my suppressor on.

This is an addition to what I've already described above. I thought of this after I'd already posted this comment. As crazy as this may sound, I'm thinking about next time I'll also take along a Kitchen-Thermometer so that I can slip it into the bore at the muzzle and the chamber end. Hopefully it won't explode inside my bore. They a appear to be rated up to 520 degrees and the probe looks like it's a small enough diameter but I'll have to do some checking before I actually do this.

I'll be back.

HollowPoint

I'll upload those pics and those short clips of video once I get them edited down.

[HollowPoint]

I'm still working on those video clips. I got one of them edited down to an uploadable size but the other two; the ones I took with the FTS Tactacam camera came out so washed out at the center of the image that I can't repair them with the video editing software I have to work with.

I was in the shade filming through the scope at a target that was reflecting sunlight right back at the Tactacam camera and the inbedded software adjustmenets that came with this camera are so rudimentary that there was no adjustment I could make that would make these video clips any more visible.

I haven't given up on them just yet. I have another video editing software that I downloaded some time ago that has many more editing features but I'm going to have to learn how to use that software before I can use it to try to fix these washed out video clips.

The photos I took of the two targets from this same range session came out a whole lot clearer. That's because I used my SLR camera to photograph them. You can find those below. I tried to include explanitory text along with the photos so I hope they don't end up being more confusing that clarifying.

I went to the range with a batch of 55 grain Dog-Town fire-forming loads on top of some 3031 powder that were still in the shape of common 223 remington brass. I also had 25 rounds of previously fire-formed 50 grain soft points and 20 rounds of 45 grain soft points that were loaded with varying charge weights of Benchmark powder.

As I already mentioned in my previous post, the 45 grain soft points showed great promise and the 50 grain soft points gave me a couple of MOA groups but nothing any tighter than that. I was just happy to get what I got out of them; and extremely happy that my Carbon Fiber wrapped barrel ended this testing session none the worse for wear. I did have to shoot most of my ammo before finally setting down to where I was then able to get some decent accuracy.

I still have a bit more editing to do before I upload any of this stuff onto my Instagram account but for now, here are those target photos.

HollowPoint

[HollowPoint]

I contacted Rylan over at RockWest Composites shortly after I'd finished my initial range tests the other day. He had asked me to let him know how my initial testing went once I was able to get to the range. All I did was send him a copy of the same of text I posted in my previous update here on this thread topic. I finally got a reply from him today.

The time before last I corresponded with him I had asked about the possibility of them making Carbon Fiber tubes using epoxy resin that was able to withstand higher temperatures than the CF tube I was using now, which was rated as being able to withstand up to 250 degrees Fahrenheit. At the time he mentioned that he would be talking to his engineers in an upcoming meeting about possibly coming up with a Carbon Fiber tube using just such a resin.

This time when he replied to my email he mentioned that they were making progress in that direction and he asked me to contact him again in a couple of weeks. He should have some more information about the new CF tubing they're working on putting together. I think it's a situation where they have to tool up for a different type of tube wrapping. I don't really know at this point. I'll just have to wait and see what he has to say next time I email him.

I finally got that short video clip uploaded to my Instagram account. It includes some hastily uploaded photos that include some of the same ones you've already seen. For some reason the audio in that video clip I uploaded didn't come through; just the video alone. Another thing was that I was in such a hurry to upload them that I forgot to scale down my images so now only the centers of the photos are visible. This cut the edges off some of the pics including some of the text that extended to the outside edges of these same photos. Oh well. I'm still learning how to upload stuff that contains multiple pages in one uploading session. I'll know better next time.

I fully intended to take down the previous upload but it got a fair amount of attention; I mean more than my obscure Instagram account is used to getting so, I left it up.

https://www.instagram.com/p/B8aXpNCBV6A/

I've already loaded up my next batch of cartridges for my next trip to the range. It may not be for another week cause I got taxes scheduled and annual medical checkups and a couple of other things I have to get finished up first. Also; I discovered that I've had to tweak the magazine follower on my rifle magazine in order to cycle my cartridges reliably. I had no problem cycling the 223 Ackley cartridges in my previous spiral-fluted barrel but this new Carbon Fiber wrapped barrel is a bit more finicky. I 3D printed a couple of new magazine followers and finally got one to work on the factory magazine. Now I have to make one up for my DIY 3D printed extended magazine as well.

I'll be back with updates.

HollowPoint

[HollowPoint]

I touched on this in my previous post. It has nothing to do with the DIY Carbon Fiber barrel itself but it does have to do with going from 223 Remington chamber to a 223 AI chamber.

With my last re-barreling/re-Chambering of this same rifle to 223 AI I experienced no issues with reliable feeding or cycling of cartridges from the magazine to the chamber. This time around however I did notice that I'd be humming right along and them one out of three or four attempts at chambering another round would result in the points of my bullets coming to a dead stop as they hit the face of the chamber end of my barrel just below the actual chamber opening.

I 3D printed a few different configurations of the factory magazine follower until I hit on the right shape that would allow for reliable cycling/feeding of fresh rounds into the chamber. My DIY 3D printed Extended Magazine required a bit more work to get it to feed reliably. With both magazines I needed for the loaded rounds to have more of an upward tilt at the tip of the bullet/cartridge. With the factory mag it was just a simple case of modifying the shape of the follower. With my 3D printed DIY mag I had to not only print out a differently shaped magazine follower, I had to also fabricate a metal liner for the magazine in order to be able to have the loaded rounds sit ever so slightly higher in the mag in addition to having the loaded rounds be tilted upward enough to funnel into the chamber without hitting just below the chamber opening.

I finally got it all ironed out so now I'm just waiting for my next opportunity to get to the shooting range again for testing session number two. By the way, that new Kitchen-Thermometer I ordered showed up yesterday. When I opened up the box to take a look at it I could have kicked myself for not buying this instead of that laser thermometer in the first place. The probe on this new thermometer will fit nicely and deeply right into the bore and the chamber for what I hope will be more reliable temperature measurements. I didn't mention this before but I had actually contemplated taking along to the range a rectal-thermometer and shoving that sucker up into the bore in hopes of getting more accurate readings. Common sense and fear of having that rectal-thermometer explode inside my bore won over. I bought the Kitchen-Thermometer in stead.

Here's the Kitchen-Thermometer I'm referring to.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Meat-Thermo....c100012.m1985


Here too is a photo of what I was attempting to describe about my magazine feeding issues and fixes.

HollowPoint

[HollowPoint]

It looks like I'll have another chance to get to the shooting range again next week some time. I've been chomping at the bit to get back out there to do some more testing.

While I've been waiting for that opportunity I've spent a little time Tweaking my 3D printed Extended Magazine models so as to get them to work with both the 223 Remington configuration cartridges and the 223 Ackley Improved cartridges. When I modified my existing DIY Magazine by using a metal insert to facilitate reliable cycling, although it did make it work reliably, it also made it alot heavier too. I figured that an all ABS-plastic mag would be much lighter. I had to print out a total of three magazines before I finally got the dimensions just right so they feed reliably. I know that doesn't sound like much but when you figure that each magazine takes eleven and a half hours to print (not including the base-plate, the follower and the spring-follower, that's alot of printing hours. But, I just started each print at about 7:30 or eight-O-clock at night and they were ready when I woke up the next morning.

The magazine design was originally meant to hold 9 rounds but all I had on hand was some .055" Music-Wire which was a bit on the thick side for this application. I had run out of the .047" Music-Wire and my local hardware store was out of the thinner wire as well so my magazines will only accept a total of 8 rounds; and even then I have to cram that 8th round into the magazine. I don't really like doing that because I feel like I'm crushing to spring to much. For now I'm only loading seven rounds into them. Once I get my hands on some more .047" spring-wire I'll make up a new set of springs so I can load the full nine rounds into these DIY Extended magazines.

I uploaded my only image of these 3D printed magazines onto my Instagram account; along with a short video clip showing that they actually work. The link is as follows:



I'll be back with updates when I've had a chance to finish up that second round of testing.

HollowPoint

[HollowPoint]

I got a chance to conduct my second round of range tests on my DIY Carbon Fiber Barrel this morning. I'm going to start out with the Frustrating news first and try to work my way toward some sense of happiness and accomplishment.

Have you ever gone hunting or to the shooting range or on a fishing trip in anticipation of good things, only to find out you had forgotten your fishing rod or your tackle box; or your bullets or your hunting license? I had set everything I planned to take with me to the range right by the back door so I wouldn't forget any of it. This time around it was that new Kitchen Thermometer that I had purchased just so I could get more precise temperature readings by sticking the probe of that thermometer into the bore of my Carbon Fiber wrapped barrel rather than trying to take temperature readings on the outside surface of the barrel. I did still have the laser thermometer in my range bag but that thermometer was just not giving me accurate readings.

Another frustration was that I had been hoping to get my DIY Film-Through-My-Rifle-Scope attachment finished by now so that I could document these things I'm sharing with you here. With the internet being rife with liars and exaggerators I wanted to be able to show you, not just tell you how things went for me this time out. My existing TactaCam camera with it's FTS attachement has failed each time out to give me anything I would consider to be decent footage of my outings. ( an expensive P-O-S) With my DIY attachment I believe I'll be able to get far clearer documentation when I attempt to film through my scope. These were the frustrations I faced on this morning's shooting range outing.

The bad news had to do with the 4-inch shifts of my Points of Impact on target when I put my suppressor on. Granted, I got the same results when this same rifle was in it's factory configuration with a 22" pencil thin barrel but, I was really hoping that with the larger diameter of the barrel as it was now at only 18" long and with the Carbon Fiber tube in place it would have displayed a bit more rigidity than with it's skinny factory barrel on. With the factory barrel on this rifle my points of impact only dropped about two-and-a-half inches and a bit to the right. This morning when I aimed for the center of the bullseyes my bullets were hitting 4" low; both the 45 grain soft points and the 50 grain soft points.

In addition to these lower impact points I found that my groups opened up from the MOA and Sub-MOA groups I got before with my 50 Grain loads and the 45 Grain loads respectively. That surprised me because usually when I've mounted my suppressor it tended to tighten my groups just a bit. Not this time. They were still in five shot clusters of about an inch and a quarter or so with a pesky flyer that would open the group up a bit more but they were no longer MOA or Sub-MOA groups. My suppressor is a stainless steel mono-core baffle design with a titanium outer tube so it is on the heavy side but still, 4" was a bit much in my opinion.

The Good News? I loaded up 15 fresh rounds in the same 45 and 50 grain soft points I went out with in my first testing session. I started with the charge weights that showed the most promise in my previous outing. I got pretty close to the same group sizes with the promising loads so that was a good sign. It showed me that the first outing may not have been a fluke. At five rounds for each charge weights I loaded the promising loads and then two more charge weights that I increased by .3 grain increments. I should tell you here that I've been using load data for the 223 Remington to work up loads for this 223 Ackley improved so I felt safe increasing the charge weights by a bit over the 223 Remington maximum charge weights; and in point of fact I got no pressure signs with any of my loads.

With the 45 grain soft points at the same promising charge weight of 27.6 grains I managed to pull off another Sub-MOA group. I also got a Sub-MOA group with this same bullet and 27.3 grains so I think that this may be a sweet spot. Incidentally, one of the pieces of equipment that I didn't forget to take with me was my barrel mounted chronograph. At 27.3 grains of Benchmark powder I was getting an average of 3338 FPS and with the 27.6 grain charge weight I got an average of 3346 FPS. I also fired five rounds with a charge weight of 27.9 grains of Benchmark powder but my group opened up to four within an inch and a flyer that opened the group up to a good two inches. It turns out that my concerns about going to a shorter barrel and loosing some velocity may have been unfounded. For me this is good news.

The 50 grain soft points on top of Benchmark powder Still managed to give me a couple of MOA groups similar to my last outing's results so, here too I'm thinking that this DIY Carbon Fiber wrapped barrel is holding it's points of impact as long as I hold my aim as steady as I can.

At 26.5 grains of powder I was getting an average velocity of 3170 FPS from that 18" Carbon Fiber barrel. At 26.8 grains of powder I got an average of 3200 FPS. 26.8 grains was one of the promising loads from my previous trip to the range. It gave me similar results. I say "Similar" only because I managed to screw it up by shooting a flyer that opened up an otherwise promising repeat of the last group I shot with this particular load. It opened the group up to about 1 1/4". At 27.1 grains I got an average velocity of 3230 FPS with the 50 grain soft points; and this was my tightest group yet with the 50 grainers. It measured just under an inch at a hundred yards.

These groups and velocities were all good news for me. So long as I didn't mount the suppressor my groups seemed to fall in line with my previous range testing groups. Further good news was the fact that the Carbon Fiber tube itself showed no ill effects from this range session either; and this time around I really did fire with less of an eye for keeping the barrel as cool as possible. Each five round charge weight was fired in under a minute; give or take a few second here and there. I put my laser thermometer on my suppressor at one point and I got a temperature reading of 172 degree Fahrenheit. At the same time, readings on the barrel itself were only registering no more than 76 degrees Fahrenheit. I knew these readings weren't even close to reality. Oh well, I plan on doing one more range test then I'm calling this project completed. I'm also calling it a success. I would still much prefer a Carbon Fiber tube with more heat resistance though. Something along the lines of maybe 400 degrees Fahrenheit of heat resistance. I can't help but think that with more heat resistance perhaps my points of impact would not have dropped by four inches. I don't know if this line of reasoning is correct or not but it just sticks in my mind. The higher the heat resistance of the Carbon Fiber composite the better, I think.

I did take my Cheap action cam camera with me and I did get some sporadic and short video shots. I also got some still photographs of my groups but I have yet to edit them down to a small enough file size so I can upload them to my Instagram account or my YouTube account. I'll try to get that done this weekend some time.

I believe that one more range session is in order. I want to make sure that my previous two sessions were not a psychological or placebo-type of anomally. I can say with complete confidence now that my DIY Carbon Fiber Wrapped barrel project is really a viable choice for anyone who would like a Carbon Fiber wrapped barrel but have shied away from them because of the price. If you have a metal lathe and the know-how to use it, this may be a doable alternative for you. Even better still would be to just save up your nickels and dimes for as long as it takes and just buy one premade. Nothing wrong with that.

I'll be back with those pics I mentioned a little later. Thanks for sticking around everyone.

HollowPoint

[HollowPoint]

Here are a couple of closeup photos of the two targets I attempted to describe in my previous post. In them you can see how my impact points shifted 4 inches lower when I mounted my suppressor on the DIY Carbon Fiber barrel.

The target with the word "Suppressor" penciled in at the top center is there to draw your attention to the two holes at the top center of the target. Those two hole were made when I fired the fifty-grain pills at an identical target that was sitting just above the target with the low impact holes.

I got the same drop distance with both the 45 and 50 grain bullets.

The second photo is of my groups shooting both bullet weights. The 45 grain bullets along the top row and the 50 grain bullets along the bottom row. Except for those groups shot with my suppressor mounted, all other groups generally impacted in the same way as my previous shooting range outing.

The short video clips I mentioned that I took will take me a bit longer to edit down the file size on. I'm hoping to get those up within the next few days.

HollowPoint

[HollowPoint]

I got my next batch of ammo all loaded up. I'll be testing to confirm my previous sub-MOA loads were/are the real deal. I found in that last testing session that My Carbon Fiber barrel seemed to be holding up well with the slightly faster back to back firing of my load workup loads.

This time around I've made sure to bring along both my thermometers; the laser thermometer and the newer kitchen-thermometer. I'm really hoping to get some more accurate temperature readings with that kitchen-thermometer. I'm looking at sometime next week for my next foray to the range. The timing is good cause the weather here in Arizona is starting to get a bit warmer compared to the last two times I went out. I'm curious to see if the warmer ambient temperatures will translate to a hotter barrel.

Another thing too is the fact that I finally got my 3D printed SmartPhone scope mounts done. I've tested them on my air guns in the back yard and they seem to work just fine but, my air guns have no recoil to speak of so I have yet to see how these 3D printed scope attachments hold up to the recoil of a 223. They should be alright but I won't know for sure till I try them.

I figure that documented video proof is probably better than me just making written claims about the suitability of the type of Carbon Fiber tubes I've used for this DIY Carbon Fiber Barrel project. The same goes for my claims of accuracy and my marksmanship. (or lack thereof)

Anyway, I thought you all might like to see what I was talking about with respect to that 3D Printed scope mount setup for my smartphones. I happen to have three old no longer in service smart phones so I made some dedicated adapters for each model. One Android phone, one iPhone 5s and an old HTC smart phone. All came with on board video cameras so I thought I'd put them to use. The HTC cell phone adapter is not yet printed cause I ran out of print filament. I ordered some more so once it gets here I'll print out that last adapter.

One other thing I should mention about my 3D printed smartphone scope mounts is that I made one as a side mount unit that allows me to still be able to sight through the scope in typical fashion and the other is made to sit on the back end of my scopes and sight via the live feed of the cell phone's video camera. The main bodies of my scope attachments are sized to be able to use the same plastic sleeves that came with my Tactacam Camera's FTS unit. I could have printed my own but since I already had these factory made Tactacam sleeves I just used those instead.

Here is my CAD rendering of the 3D printed units I've already printed out. I'll be back once I've finished up that last range session.

HollowPoint

[HollowPoint]

I got rained out the week following my last post. It rained all week in my area. The week after that on the days that I had free to go to the range I got rained out again too.

Now this week I'm being urged to stick close to home due to those viral-scare reasons that by now most are aware of. I'm not the one who's scared but for the sake of some in my family I've consented to stay close to home for now. Crazy times we're living in. Like I said; I'm not scared for myself but our mass media has done a stellar job of striking fear where common sense once used to be.

I'm just posting this to let those of you who were following my progress know that I'm still hear and this project is still on. I'm just waiting for an opportune opportunity to get to the range for my final testing session. Stay safe everyone and fear not.

HollowPoint

[HollowPoint]

I finally got a chance to get to the shooting range today after being rained out twice and then being Corona'd into staying put for a time.

It amazes me how psychotic some people have gotten over this virus thing. Even on the shooting range it was a completely different atmosphere. I guess I'm lucky cause my life really hasn't been altered to much other than having to deal with scared people.

All of that aside, I'm happy to report that my Carbon Fiber Barrel project is still holding it's previous accuracy potential. I got the same or similar points of impact. I got several MOA groups and I would have gotten the same or similar sub-MOA groups if my marksman wasn't so inconsistent. I've had very little range time or trigger time lately.

With nearly every five shot group I sent down range I managed to pull flyers. I knew they were going to fly away from the group the moment I squeezed the trigger; I just knew it. I'd get a ragged hole group started then I'd pull the next shot or the next two shots.

My excuse for these flyers is the lighter weight of my rifle now that it wears the lighter Carbon Fiber wrapped barrel. Yea, I'm sure that if I still had my heavy spiral fluted bull barrel on I'd still be able to come up with an excuse for my lousy shooting technique but still, I'm happy with the overall results I got all three time I've been at the shooting range. An accurate rifle is what I was hoping for with this project. It's to bad my marksmanship couldn't have equaled the accuracy potential of this Home-Smithed Tikka T3 light.

This time out the 50 grain soft points were wanting to give me ragged hole groups before I screwed them up with flyers. The 45 grain soft points were still giving me MOA groups but just barely.

I also loaded up some of the 55 grain Dog-Town bullets I bought a few years back but they didn't do well at all.

Next time I'm out shooting it will be to hunt coyotes. Now that I know what this Carbon Fiber barrel can do I'm confident that if I get a clear shot at a coyote I'll be able to put him down out to three hundred yards with the fifty-grain pills.

I did take some photos and some video but I have yet to edit those video clips. I'll try to get them done by the end of the week and post them with my final thoughts.

I'm seriously thinking about re-doing my Tikka Hunter rifle now. I rebarreled that particular rifle about a year and a half ago and it too was made nose heavy by that re-barreling job. If I can get the components together over the summer I may just go ahead and lighten that rifle up with another home-smithed Carbon Fiber wrapped barrel.

I know how to do it now; and I know it will work.

Incidentally, I took that long-nosed kitchen thermometer with me to the range today. I could'nt figure out why it was giving me such low numbers. Both at the muzzle and at the chamber end it was reading in the high 30s and low to mid 40 degrees. (ambient temps were 67-68 degrees) I thought that this themometer too was just a useless piece of excrement like the digital thermometer I had used prevously. Then I realized I had it set for Celsius instead of Fahrenheit. What an idiot.

Anyway, I wasn't exactly taking it easy on the barrel. I was shooting my loaded cartridges five rounds a session in under a minute and then as soon as I reloaded the magazine I did the same with very little time for the barrel to cool. The thermometer never read more than 140 to 142 degrees Fahrenheit. I'm thinking it had to have gotten a bit hotter than that but even then it never reached the stated 250 degree tolerance level of the Carbon Fiber composite tube I used in this project.

I'm not to concerned about what anyone thinks about my Carbon Fiber wrapped barrel project at this point. I'm calling it a success. My points of impact have remained the same or nearly the same over about 90 rounds of different weights from 45, 50 and 55 grains. It was only my marksmanship or lack thereof that has caused variations. I'll be back after I've had a chance to edit those video clips.

For those of you who have been following this thread, Thanks for sticking around this long. Sorry it took so long to get this final range session done.

One last thing I want to mention to any of you Arizona shooters. I just found out this morning at the shooting range that they raised the price of shooting at that range from ten bucks to fifteen bucks so now this hobby just got a bit more expensive. I don't know if this only applies to the Usery Pass shooting range or if it applies to all shooting ranges across the state. Just thought I'd let you know. That price hike to effect today.

HollowPoint

[HollowPoint]

I thought I'd upload a pic of the latest targets I shot during my last time out to the shooting range. At first glance they don't look very impressive but when you consider that I was there to test the effects of a more rapid shooting pace to see how the heat generated would affect my home made Carbon Fiber barrel, I'd say the barrel and the Carbon Fiber tube it wears passed with flying colors.

What impressed me the most was that I got very similar groups, points of impact and velocities when compared to the last two times I did these range tests. I only wish I had taken my time between shots. This may have mitigated alot of the ugly flyers I was getting. No matter now.

As I mentioned before, the three topmost bullseyes of the top page were shot with the 45 grain Speer Soft-Points. I kept the charge weights the same as the charge weights from the last two range sessions that gave me the best results. Except for the last five rounds, which I had increased the charge weights of, those five rounds threw my point of impact farther to the left and made them more disbursed.

The lower two bullseyes of the top page and the upper left bullseye of the lower page were shot with the Speer 50 grain Soft-Points. Here I started out with very tight clusters only to be opened up by my inability to hold steady enough. I should have taken my mechanical rest with the remote trigger. Then I might have been able to take my human error out of the equation but I just didn't think of doing that at the time. Maybe then I could have stacked those 50 grainers one on top of another at a hundred yards. Oh well, maybe next time.

The three lower-most bullseyes of the bottom page were shot with the 55 grain Dog-Town bullets I got from MidwayUSA several years ago. I still have a bunch on the shelf so I thought I'd try them to see if they would shoot for me. Those 55 grainers weren't quite as cooperative as the lighter Soft-Points. I've basically been using them for fireforming my 223 Remington brass to 223 AI brass.

I hope to go coyote hunting within the next couple of weeks. I think I've proven to myself everything I needed to know regarding my home made Carbon Fiber wrapped barrel project. I still have to edit those short video clips I took during this range session. It's just three 3-minute clips but it's a total of nine minutes of footage I have to whittle it down to one minute in order to upload it to my Instagram page. I can make it a bit longer for my YouTube page but it takes my antiquated computer equipment a long time to upload even a five or six minute snippet of video.

I'll be back when I get that done.

HollowPoint

[HollowPoint]

I make my videos on antiquated computer equipment. It takes me two to three hours to edit them. Then I have to wait about a half hour to fourty-five minutes more for my computer to struggle through the file saving process. Then I have to wait another half hour for this same Windows-7 laptop computer to convert the movie from a Windows Movie Maker file to an MP4 file so I can upload it to my YouTube account.

All of my videos are short, choppy and poorly made but they're good enough to show that my projects eventually end up successful; if I don't give up on them.

Here's my short choppy video of the last range testing session of the DIY Carbon Fiber wrapped rifle barrel that is the topic of this long winded thread.

I hope to be doing one more of these DIY Carbon Fiber wrapped rifle barrels before the summer is over. Now that I know how to do them it shouldn't take me nearly as long.

I know I said in my previous post that this would most likely be my last comment on this thread but, I want to take this same Tikka rifle out on a coyote hunt. If I have a successful hunt I may resurrect this thread just to show off a bit; then I can call that post, "The last post."

I think this topic of Carbon Fiber wrapped rifle barrels might have gotten a bit more interest if I had posted it on the "Special Projects" section of this forum but at the time I started it I thought it had more to do with gunsmithing than anything else. I did attempt to contact the powers that be here via an email to ask if they could move this thread over to the "Special Projects" section but I never got a response and I just didn't do any followup on it.

Thanks alot for sticking around everyone.

HollowPoint