Stress Relieving a barrel

[deerkiller]

here's one I've not seen or heard talk of for sometime - In the past I have had several rifle barrels, in 2 cases the entire barreled action CRYOGENOCALLY stress relieved - with history in the medical field that dates back I know that it has been used on surgical instruments for a long while and although I cannot prove that it really works on barrels or not I will say the on the two actions the trigger break poundage dropped by 1/2 lb measured and both were noticeably smoother - has this process been debunked or just routine nowadays ? what about vendors (if it's still thought to be a good practice) ?

 

[LaHunter]

Cryogenic stress relieving barrels is pretty common among custom barrel makers.

 

[Wapiti1]

Cryogenic treating doesn't stress relieve anything. It completes the full transformation of austenite to martensite in high alloy or very high carbon steels. It can also complete precipitation of carbides/nitrides in the steel. Both of these things increase the stress in the steel. Stress relief can only be done through a heating process. This part is marketing BS.

Does it work? Maybe. This is highly dependent on the steel alloy, and heat treatment used prior to cryogenic cooling. The cryogenic processing also has to be done correctly, or it either does nothing, or causes more issues.

One thing to consider is that if it makes a huge difference, the original parts wasn't heat treated correctly to begin with, or they cut corners to save money. It shouldn't make a world of difference, just an incremental improvement.

Jeremy

 

[howl]

Bump.

So does relieving a barrel with heat like Lilja https://riflebarrels.com/vacuum-stress-relieving/ ) produce a barrel which will hold POI when hot?

 

[Wapiti1]

Bump.

So does relieving a barrel with heat like Lilja https://riflebarrels.com/vacuum-stress-relieving/ ) produce a barrel which will hold POI when hot?

Yes, that is the purpose of thermal stress relief.

Jeremy