Tension Barrels

jbhotrod

jbhotrod

New member
See quite a few tension barrelled rails and even some that are water cooled in combination with the tension. Have yall noticed these to shoot any better than a regular 1.350 or 1.450 barrel?
 
jbhotrod said:
See quite a few tension barrelled rails and even some that are water cooled in combination with the tension. Have yall noticed these to shoot any better than a regular 1.350 or 1.450 barrel?
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I am not aware of any serious NBRSA Unlimited Shooter who is using a tensioned, or water cooled barrel.

I think Jerry Hensler fooled around with this concept about 15 years ago with mixed results.

Many shooters avoid "zero gain" scenarios, where a lot of time and money are spent on something with neglegable results.
 
There was a time when such water cooled and tensioned rails seemed to be popular. BUT...as Jackie wrote, the concepts kinda died for whatever reasons. Probably died when they got beat by a regular ol' rail. Skip Otto comes to mind here....and it hurts a bit....
 
Wilbur, there's no doubt that the railgun that Skip built was a really good shooting rail gun. The barrel was held in a large aluminum sleeve that ran just about the full length of the barrel. Inside the sleeve it was filled with oil to help dampen the barrel. Tom Libby holds a record or two with one of Skip's rails. According to Tom it was quite a job to change out the barrel and cost more to have it rebarreled by his gunsmith just because of that. Also was extremely heavy which makes rotating benches more work. Tom still holds the 100 yard 10 shot group record at a .097" using his Otto rail. Because of the extra cost to rebarrel and the weight of it, he's shooting a more conventional rail, either a Kensler or Young. Don't remember which.
 
Tom Libby is shooting a Kensler rail, and it really shoots well. If you ever come to an unlimited match in Tacoma, Wa. there's quite a few tensioned barrels that are cooled but I am pretty sure its not water! I asked once and I thought they told me that oil was used, could be wrong but thats my story and I am sticking to it. Most if not all of them were made and installed by Craig Kensler,as I recall. Last year Larry White was also playing around with a tensioned barrel,Interesting concept but as I recollect they seem to still get beat by guys just shooting normal rails.
 
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The best combo I ever tested were the Cerrosafed barrels. An aluminum sleeve 2.5"-4" diameter with a 1.5" hole with the barrel Cerrosafed in place. They would really shoot and never heated up much even during a hot Texas summer match. The rails were attached directly to the sleeve rather than a normal top. They were a royal pain to change barrels in though.
 
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