Fluted Barrels

[Roper]

What are the advantages of fluted barrels?
- reduced weight?
- faster cooling due to increased surface area?
- Would they not heat up faster with the flutes - less material in barrel?

[blargon]

Honestly, its mostly cosmetics. The weight difference is only 1 or 2 oz. They are slightly stiffer, and shed heat a bit more. Most high use varmint rigs arent fluted, but have heavier contours to soak up the heat.

[skypilot]

I think it has to reduce some amount of weight just due to the material removed by fluting, but it's still a heavy barrel. I'm guessing my fluted bull barrel on a .223 is at least 7 lbs. That adds much to the total weight and gives it a barrel heavy balance.
It doesn't heat up nearly as quickly as a sporter barrel and the barrel isn't as "whippy" as a sporter barrel shooting.

The advantage of the fluted barrel is the consistency of POI due to stiffness and it's ability to reduce warping.

[jaycee]

Mainly cosmetics some fluted barrels shoot very well, but then again there are many non fluted barreled rifles that are just as accurate . It's a six of one , half dozen of the other type of deal .
You can take two identical rifles of fluted barrel configuration , and one will be more accurate than the other shooting the exact same ammunition . The same thing happens with non fluted barrels .