Furhunter
New member
I had been thinking about a barrel cooler for some time. Water down the barrel and a cold wet rag over the barrel sounds all good but dont want the moisture on these nice pretty Cooper stocks /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif
I want something to help in the heat this time of year when out load testing or PD shooting. Yes, Having multiple rifles with you on a hunt is the trick, but what if you only have one rifle, or want to test loads for one rifle.
I went down to the local welding supply store and picked up a 5LB Co2 bottle, a rebuilt oxy regulator and 8' of green hose, out the door for 151 bucks, and with my trusty digital meat thermometers I was off to the range.
The green Hose was a nice snug fit to the Sinclair bore guide I was useing.
The testing was done with my Savage BVSS in 223. Temp outside was 90deg and warming up fast. The shooting was done at the range under the covered firing line...in the shade.
A 5 shot string will warm up the barrel to 104 deg.
After taking the temp which took about 3 minutes, I added another 5 shots and the barrel was at 113 deg. This feels warm, another 5 shots later the temp was at 118. The barrel to me felt to hot to shoot any longer at around the 118 to 120 mark.
I set the rifle in the shade, action open with the small probe in the breech end of the rifle, slid up to the hottest part of the barrel just past the throat area. It took the rifle the better part of 30 minutes to cool back down to 94 deg.
I placed the rifle back on the bench and fired 18 rounds of some fodder stuff I have had laying around, point was to get it hot again, didnt matter how many rounds it took. well I took the temp after the 18 rounds and it was 126 deg.
I placed the rifle in the stand, pulled the bolt out and replaced it with the bore guide and Co2 attached. I gave it a 30 second run of Co2 @ 5psi, temp was down to 111 deg.
Another 30 seconds worth and it was down to 101 deg.
Another 30 seconds and it was 95 deg.
I cooled the barrel from 126 to 95 with 90 seconds of Co2 at 5psi.
So you all know at 5psi the Co2 is cool but not cold as it would be at 20 psi or so, the faster you run the Co2 the colder it gets. I dont want to frost the barrel just cool it down faster. I know this will be a big help on the 204 as it heats up faster than the 223, and should be handy at the range on those hot days. The only thing left to do is figure out how many "coolings" you can get from the 5lb bottle. You can also get 10's and 20's, if this one proves to have a short life then I will prolly goto the 10lb bottle, I dont want the hassles of a larger bottle than that. It only costs 3 dollars more to fill a 10lb than the 5, but it was 20 to 25 dollars more to buy, and they didnt have them in stock, would have had to order one, It was 5 or 20, so I took the 5lb. They will give me full credit if I want the larger bottle later on. I have also found the bottles and some regulators online, but the money savings, and service wasnt enough to steer me away from the local supply house. I hope this is some help to those thinking about it.
I want something to help in the heat this time of year when out load testing or PD shooting. Yes, Having multiple rifles with you on a hunt is the trick, but what if you only have one rifle, or want to test loads for one rifle.
I went down to the local welding supply store and picked up a 5LB Co2 bottle, a rebuilt oxy regulator and 8' of green hose, out the door for 151 bucks, and with my trusty digital meat thermometers I was off to the range.
The green Hose was a nice snug fit to the Sinclair bore guide I was useing.
The testing was done with my Savage BVSS in 223. Temp outside was 90deg and warming up fast. The shooting was done at the range under the covered firing line...in the shade.
A 5 shot string will warm up the barrel to 104 deg.
After taking the temp which took about 3 minutes, I added another 5 shots and the barrel was at 113 deg. This feels warm, another 5 shots later the temp was at 118. The barrel to me felt to hot to shoot any longer at around the 118 to 120 mark.
I set the rifle in the shade, action open with the small probe in the breech end of the rifle, slid up to the hottest part of the barrel just past the throat area. It took the rifle the better part of 30 minutes to cool back down to 94 deg.
I placed the rifle back on the bench and fired 18 rounds of some fodder stuff I have had laying around, point was to get it hot again, didnt matter how many rounds it took. well I took the temp after the 18 rounds and it was 126 deg.
I placed the rifle in the stand, pulled the bolt out and replaced it with the bore guide and Co2 attached. I gave it a 30 second run of Co2 @ 5psi, temp was down to 111 deg.
Another 30 seconds worth and it was down to 101 deg.
Another 30 seconds and it was 95 deg.
I cooled the barrel from 126 to 95 with 90 seconds of Co2 at 5psi.
So you all know at 5psi the Co2 is cool but not cold as it would be at 20 psi or so, the faster you run the Co2 the colder it gets. I dont want to frost the barrel just cool it down faster. I know this will be a big help on the 204 as it heats up faster than the 223, and should be handy at the range on those hot days. The only thing left to do is figure out how many "coolings" you can get from the 5lb bottle. You can also get 10's and 20's, if this one proves to have a short life then I will prolly goto the 10lb bottle, I dont want the hassles of a larger bottle than that. It only costs 3 dollars more to fill a 10lb than the 5, but it was 20 to 25 dollars more to buy, and they didnt have them in stock, would have had to order one, It was 5 or 20, so I took the 5lb. They will give me full credit if I want the larger bottle later on. I have also found the bottles and some regulators online, but the money savings, and service wasnt enough to steer me away from the local supply house. I hope this is some help to those thinking about it.
