[natedog375]

hey i was just wondering if after a long stream of shots from a mini 14, would it help to poor a little bit of water on the barrel, or would that just cool it to fast and cause warpage/cracks in the barrel?

 

[MAJORMINUS]

I WOULDN'T DO IT! Let it cool on its own.Burning up ammo is BIG FUN, but you'll burn up your gun too.Even on machine guns like the M-60, firing at 100 rpm requires you to change the barrel every 10 minutes. Let it cool and ,if you want your mini to last, don't shoot it like it is a machine gun.

 

[voruzon]

It would definitely be safer to have a barrel enclosed in water-containing sleeve to start with - like the old machine-guns. Untill most of the water evaporates, you will have barrel at constant teperature.

 

[va hunter]

Get it hot enough and cool it down too quick and you might have the first mini to shoot around corners . Good for urban combat but wont work in reality. Just dont let it get too hot to start with. :ar15:

 

[gaar]

How do the Ruger cast receivers respond to rapid cooling? Like dropping a hot mini 14 into the snow, Will they crack?

Are the Ruger barrels cast?

 

[davey]

It's not necessarily just the rapid cooling... but the rapid uneven cooling. As you cool a metal rapidly from the outside, the expansion / contraction can occur quicker then the induction of heat, causing internal stress. Enough stress from the metal expanding on one side and not on the other and the metal will bend / crack. If the snow is cold enough and the receiver is hot enough, it will probably do a number on your receiver.

-davey

 

[cajungeo]

I agree with davey. It could do a number on your barrel. Not shure the receiver gets that hot though. Leave your bolt open remove your mag elevate your barrel slightly let it cool on its own. In heat treating it is called quenching. It is a common procedure to heat brass cases with a torch, then emerse in water, to soften the metal. I would not recommend it on your barrel. The excessive heat could shorten the life of your barrel. There have been cases of rifle chambers getting so hot it produced cook fires. (chambered rounds cooking off in the hot chamber) Excessive heat will also affect your accuracy. I let my barrel cool down if I can't touch my barrel for 30 sec., but I'm probably more cautious than most.

 

[Satan2655]

Also: You ever notice heat waves coming off a hot blacktop road in summer? If you are using a scope and your barrel is hot enough, you can see these heat threads through the scope, and it will throw off your accuracy simply because of the optical changes (not to mention your poor mini barrel turning into a pool of molten metal). What can you expect from an $8 barrel?

 

[gaar]

AN $8 Barrel, I still can't figure out why a company like Ruger does not put a High quality, Chrome lined barrel on the mini & hard chrome the gas system components, It will probably cost them another $10 per rifle, People would be happy to pay another $100 per gun with those improvements, I mean look what people pay for AR-15s!

 

[mikr]

Can't undertand a lot of things he did, the grandfather of the so called "hi-cap" (or more correctly, normal capacity) magazines.......it gives you more things to fret about, but a new barrel is probably the best and more expensive things to really improve the accuracy of Ruger rifle.....

 

[Satan2655]

You have to think about the additional weight that a good barrel would add to the gun. A nice chrome lined steel barrel will weigh a good deal more than the tinfoil one from the factory.

 

[gaar]

Originally posted by Satan2655
You have to think about the additional weight that a good barrel would add to the gun. A nice chrome lined steel barrel will weigh a good deal more than the tinfoil one from the factory.

I don't agree, The Ruger factory barrel is thicker than the standard Colt SP1 barrel ( The Colt A1 barrel measures approx .62in around )& Most SP1s shoot better than the Mini 14! Plus the barrel is chrome lined the way a hard use barrel should Be!
Someone with a good caliper, What is the diameter or the Mini 14 barrel?

 

[mikr]

Using a (NASA) calibrated Mitutoyo micrometer, O.D. on a 184-681xx mini measured .5759", +/- .0003 forward of gas block, aft of flash suppressor.

Pretty thin if you ask me.

 

[voruzon]

Ratio of cross-sections - masses for barrels of equal length:
(0.62 ^ 2 - 0.223 ^ 2) / (0.576 ^ 2 - 0.223 ^ 2) =
(0.384 - 0.050) / (0.332 - 0.050) =
0.334 / 0.285 = 1.172

17% higher crossection/weight of a Colt barrel.

But the extra 17% weight is located in the place where it matters most - on the outside of the barrel where it adds much more to barell's stiffness than the same weight added close to the centerline.
Besides, the added inertia of that 17% reduces the barel whip regardless of making the barrel stiffer.

So it would be no surprise if the Colt barrel made of the same steel would produce 30% better groups.

Actually, the diameter of the barrel for a Mini I saw specified was even thinner - 0.565" in one source and 0.562" in another.

Voruzon

 

[Tailgunner]

Originally posted by cajungeo
In heat treating it is called quenching. It is a common procedure to heat brass cases with a torch, then emerse in water, to soften the metal.

Quenching is the rapid cooling of metals.
In the heat treating of steels rapid cooling causing hardening.
However in non-ferris materials like copper, lead, brass etc. quenching causes annealing (softening) to occure, while slow cooling causes them to harden. Just the oppisite of steel.