How to Cool a Hot Rifle Barrel
A hot barrel can cause all kinds of issues when shooting, the worst of which being a loss of accuracy after only 3 to 5 shots. Other problems can occur, including a mirage effect from the heat seeping through the muzzle, distorting your sight, and even a warping of the barrel after prolonged heating. However, there are plenty of methods to cool a hot barrel, some of which will be more efficient than others.
A simple method of cooling a hot barrel is to stand the rifle on the butt after each shot to allow the heat to flow out, since leaving the barrel horizontal can cause the heat to linger at the top of the inside of the barrel. You could also make use of a vented stock, though the benefits this has on cooling a barrel are minimal.
Another way to cool your rifle barrel is to attach a bag of ice to the barrel while shooting. This can work for a time, but is ultimately a tedious process since the ice would melt fairly quickly with the heat of the barrel as well as the potential heat of the sun. You would need to bring a cooler full of ice bags with you anywhere you wanted to shoot, and that is less than practical for any shooter.
You can similarly pour cool water on the barrel, but this requires immediate cleaning afterwards, and any water on a wooden stock can damage it. An archaic method of cooling a barrel would be to urinate on it, but you can imagine all of the drawbacks that this would cause, and unless you’re in some unheard-of, dire situation where you need a cool barrel with no other means of doing so, it might be best to skip this method.
Arguably the most efficient method of cooling a hot gun barrel is to use a barrel cooler that uses air. The universal Original Barrel Cooler fits the bill perfectly for a hot barrel, since it cools the barrel from the inside-out and can reduce your wait time between shots up to 60%. Using the Original Barrel Cooler can help to extend the life of your barrel, saving you money, and best of all, it can help to maintain your accuracy on a hunt, at a competition, or at the range. You can pick up the Original Barrel Cooler here