How many of you have purchased a plain barrel blank and then sent it off to the fluting guy without any regrets?

My first barrel was fluted at the barrel maker

Not a fan of fluting. It looks cool but can affect accuracy and the flutes collect dust and dirt like crazy where I hunt.

Fail!

BIL, I don't regret sending the 7 mm barrel to Kampfield. That's the only one that has been sent.

I have several that are, some factory & some custom, they are all crazy accurate

My heavy .300WM had a smooth 25" bull barrel from Krieger. With a sling and cartridges, it weighed 11 lbs 3 oz, too heavy for anything but a benchrest rifle or PD rig. Dixie Precision Rifles in Brandon, Ms, fluted the barrel and knocked off 15 oz. They did the job in less than one week, and the fluted barrel is quite handsome.

Now the rig weighs 10 lbs 4 oz. I've only shot the rifle inside of 200 yards, but the accuracy seems unchanged. I'm still a bit unhappy about the weight--it's even heavier than my .375H&H--but I can live with it.

I haven't had any accuracy woes with my barrel spiral fluted by kampfeld! We hunt in dust and sugar sand, no problems yet with the flutes collecting undue amount of stuff, Lol!

Why fail, because I stated my opinion (and the opinion of several other gunsmith's)?

huntandfish, obviously you don't hunt where I do.

Flutes do not degrade accuracy. They reduce weight. I've had, and have multiple fluted barrels that routinely shot, and shoot sub MOA.

I have never had a problem with flutes. We do flute first then lap unless it is a take off barrel but I have never ever had it make the accuracy worse. I think a lot of guys don't re crown them after they have had a live center in them for fluting, that will jack you all up but easy to blame it on the flutes, instead of the crown.

I admit that a lot probably depends on who does it and how it's done, but I spent about an hour talking to Ed Shilen about fluting several years ago at one of their swap meets, and he told me that they will not flute their barrels for this reason.

On the other hand, some other manufacturers claim that it actually stiffens the barrel, and I don't have enough time to test either theory, but I do understand physics and geometry, and removing material to stiffen a barrel doesn't make sense. I understand the theory of increasing the surface area, but you are doing so at the expense of mass, which equals rigidity.

Of course, for a hunting rifle where you won't be shooting more than a round or two at a time, it probably won't affect accuracy enough to be an issue anyhow, but simple physics and geometry dictate that heat and harmonics will cause a fluted barrel to react differently than an unfluted barrel unless the fluting is near perfect.

The dust/dirt thing is just from my experience, but we hunt near plowed fields where the wind is almost always blowing. I got rid of the last fluted barrel rifle I had, a 700 with a McGowen eight flute barrel because I got tired of cleaning dirt out of the grooves.

At the end of the day, it really doesn't matter, if you like flutes, get flutes and enjoy the reduced weight.

On their website, Shilen still claims that fluting a barrel will degrade accuracy, and they won't cut flutes. On the Krieger website, however, they have no qualms about fluting barrels and state plainly that the process won't harm a good barrel.

Pick your expert. Personally, I believe if you like the looks and weight of a fluted barrel, then go for it.