Thanks Chad, I understand your (and others) minimum requirements for threads and tend to try to error beyond them if possible. I understand a custom contour from a barrel manufacturer likely takes a while but there are typically heavier contoured blanks available on the shelf in common bore diameter / twist combos.
My question was when someone buys an off the shelf heavy contour blank to get the appropriate muzzle diameter but still wants to reduce weight - Is there a benefit of aggressive/elaborate fluting over just turning it down to a smaller contour with a bell on the end to accommodate desired muzzle thread diameter?
Worms in a can.....you just opened it. Lol.
First, you are not making something stronger or stiffer anytime you remove material from it. I look at it like this:
Example #1: If I take a #1 contour "spaghetti barrel" and wave a magic wand over it to grow a series of rib features that are #3 contour along the profile, did I make that barrel stiffer than what it was?
I would say yes.
Example #2" If I have a #3 contour and I flute the snot out of it with the root of the flutes going to a #1 contour, did I do the same thing?
I would say no.
Half full, half-empty type argument, but it does carry relevance because how you got there matters.
With your particular question:
If the barrel were ordered in a contour that fits the barrel channel in the stock appropriately, I would argue fluting is the go-to means of reducing weight to avoid ending up with a silly-looking rifle. In my shop, we are pretty fearless when it comes to stock work, and reworking a barrel channel is something we often do. It has its share of cascading effects, though. It will require filling the channel, machine work, and a paint job, easily surpassing what it takes to put "wrinkles" on a barrel.
If you are looking to stick with what you have and take the maximum weight off, then this will do it.
LRI "Pattern X" barrel fluting:
Take a Proof Carbon in Sendero and ours and lay them side by side. The exterior contour is very close to being identical, but we beat the weight by a few ounces. This was a project I got involved with when the Remington Custom Shop was still operational. To the best we could find, it was the lightest rifle at the show that year (2019 or 2020, I forget now). Something around 4 lbs and a few ounces. What was nice was that the finished rifle didn't look like a butchered mess with a bathroom sponge for a recoil pad. It still retained all the relevant features people have come to expect.
The look of it almost immediately goes down a "wabbit hoe discussion" about harmonics, whip, stiffness, off-call shots, and blah, blah, blah. . .
I can't speak for any of that. What I can say is we've done a mess of them now for over three years, and people don't seem to have issues. If they are, I'm not hearing about it.
Some examples:
Pattern X fluting on an M700. Barrel started at: 6lbs/2oz. Finished at: 4lbs/4oz. 30 ounces or 1.88lbs removed.
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1lb, 4oz outa this slug! LRI Pattern X.
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Final Assembly
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