Question about threading a fluted barrel

[matt]

I have a 24" bushmaster varminter with a 24" barrel. There is about an inch of non-fluted at the tip. If I put a suppressor on it, its going to be ridiculously long. So, I was thinking about having a couple inches cut off and then threading it.

I know next to nothing about barrel harmonics. Would a fluted barrel without a full "ring" at the tip reduce performance somehow? Would cutting off 2", 3", 4" make much difference, especially if it was primarily run suppressed?

Not exactly sure which suppressor, but I'm considering AAC 762sd so I can use it with my 308 as well.

[pkuptruck]

not sure about the threading if a fluted barrel, so I will leave that to the experts.. :drunk:

as far as harmonics, when/if you cut it, you'll need to experiment with the length. Might have to re-cut 1/4 inch at a time to find a "sweet spot"..
(did it with an old mauser barrel.. and ended up with a tack driver!! YMMV..)

Why not get a new barrel instead..?

[matt]

Why not get a new barrel instead..?

Well, that may be the best solution overall, saving time, and that may translate to saving money too! Especially if I can get a standard thread to match my needs. :)

[pkuptruck]

Well, that may be the best solution overall, saving time, and that may translate to saving money too! Especially if I can get a standard thread to match my needs. :)

:thumbup:

[Gloofy]

If it shoots good, thread it and leave it.

You can remove the fluting maybe in in front of the gas block. If I were going to do it, I'd take it all off out front. It's gonna look messy if you cut it on the flutes.

It's fairly expensive to have that work done. What is the outside diameter of the barrel now?

[matt]

If it shoots good, thread it and leave it.

You can remove the fluting maybe in in front of the gas block. If I were going to do it, I'd take it all off out front. It's gonna look messy if you cut it on the flutes.

It's fairly expensive to have that work done. What is the outside diameter of the barrel now?

It's the stock varminter barrel from bushmaster. It's one inch at the barrel nut, and tapers down from there. I think the top is three quarters of an inch. It probably would be better to just rebarrel it.

[TWS-Mike]

I have a 24" bushmaster varminter with a 24" barrel. There is about an inch of non-fluted at the tip. If I put a suppressor on it, its going to be ridiculously long. So, I was thinking about having a couple inches cut off and then threading it.

I know next to nothing about barrel harmonics. Would a fluted barrel without a full "ring" at the tip reduce performance somehow? Would cutting off 2", 3", 4" make much difference, especially if it was primarily run suppressed?

Not exactly sure which suppressor, but I'm considering AAC 762sd so I can use it with my 308 as well.

Rebarrel is the best route.

But on another note, if you have found a dealer with a 762SD in stock, you had better jump on it (we just sold our last one, Great can, BTW)

They are not being made any longer and Major Malfunction (Largest Distributor in nation) is out as well. (so is silencershop.com)

We just reordered a bunch of 762sdn-6's to replace that suppressor in our lineup (shorter/tad bit more $)

Mike
www.tacweapon.com

[rjrivero]

My opinion for what it's worth, a 24" barrel gets you precious little gain over a 20" barrel. Out of a 20" barrel, 75gr OTM bullets still retain supresonic velocities out to 500 yards. You will STILL have a fine shooting gun if you chop down a couple inches and thread that barrel. The flutes will come to the shoulder area. You won't have a full shoulder, but so what? You will still be able to tighten down a muzzle device and/or a suppressor and as long as the threads are concentric to the bore, you won't have any issues with bore strikes.

As far as barrel harmonics are concerned: If you're not hand-loading, you're not taking advantage of them one way or the other. It's easier to tune a load to a barrel resonance than it is to tune a barrel to a load resonance. You typically find the "sweet spot" by creeping up to it, passing it, and coming back to it. How would you do that by chopping your barrel incrementally? ;)

Threading your barrel, if you pull it out of the receiver, would cost $65. If you wanted us to do the disassembly/reassembly it would be an additional $50.

With that said, re-barreling your rifle may be just a little less cost effective if you want to go that route. A new barrel, depending on manufacturer, will cost $225-300 depending on what kind of barrel you want exactly. Then you could sell your existing barrel for maybe $150? Cost wise, you might save a few bucks to have the existing barrel chopped. If you're happy with the twist rate and the barrel profile, then having it threaded would be slightly more cost effective.

The more expensive option would be to build yourself a new upper. That's the "fun" of a modular design.