Button-Rifled Barrels

[Ethan Givan]

I was looking at some rifles today on the internet and it said that they have Button-Rifled barrels. I dont keep up with all these terms so could someone explain to me what this is and what the advantages of it are. Never heard of it before.

[WaCoyote]

Here's a paragraph from here http://www.firearmsid.com/Feature%20Articles/RifledBarrelManuf/BarrelManufacture.htm

Up until WW2 rifling was the most time consuming operation in making a rifle barrel and so a lot of effort was put into finding a way to speed up this process. Button rifling is a process that has been flirted with on and off by various large ordinance factories since the end of the 19th century. Today, button rifling is a cold forming process in which a Tungsten Carbide former, which is ground to have the rifling form in high relief upon it, is pulled through the drilled and reamed barrel blank. The lands on the button engrave grooves in the barrel as it is pulled through.

I always heard it was a cheaper way to go and it made for accurate rifles. I believe Savage uses this method.

[bowana]

The big difference between Button Rifling and the most common form of barrel making "Hammer Forged" is that the barrel that is buttoned is done so with less stress on the steel. While I own a number of good hammer forged barrels, buttoned and "cut" rifled barrels are my most accurate rifles. I own a factory Weatherby Accumark 338-378 that thinks its a varmint rifle. I can shoot 3/4" groups at 200 yards. It has a buttoned rifle barrel. I also have a custom TC barrel that is chambered in 6.8 spc. It shoots 1/2" groups and is buttoned rifled.