Bruce

I have a barrel that warps up as it heats on a hot, sunny day like today was in N. Texas when the gun is fired fairly fast. It raises PI by enough to move the pattern off the birds, I then have to hold well under the target to break them. I’m just not good enough to keep up with the change.

Any experience with the nitrogen “deep freezing” advertised in the magazines – they claim stress relief and a permanent fix for this sort of problem. Gun is a 390, barrel is Moneymaker .780, 30″ with their 5/8 rib.

Thanks

Dick

Dear Dick,

I don’t think that any shooter is “good enough” to put up with an extreme point of impact change while shooting. Personally, it would drive me loony.

No, I don’t have any personal experience with cryogenically treated barrels. One of the things that they do claim for their process is stress relief. Stress built into the barrel is what is causing your heat creep. The freezing process is relatively inexpensive and quick. I think that I would give it a try. You don’t really have much to lose as a gun that changes its point of impact that much is virtually unshootable. Freeze the sucker. If that doesn’t work, sell it to an Alaskan. I haven’t heard that freezing has any downside at all, other than the modest whack in the wallet and lost time in transit.

If you do decide to freeze it, I would really appreciate hearing from you as to how it worked. Perhaps we will be able to help another shooter who is going through what you are. I’ll post this letter and see if any SR readers have experience with freezing.

Best regards,

Bruce Buck The Technoid writing for Shotgun Report, LLC