Need rifle barrel material info

**JoshIronshaft** · October 25th, 2010, 06:02 PM

So I'm working on a project for a mechanical engineering class and I need to know some info about my rifle barrel's material properties, or just rifle barrels in particular.

I'm looking at a Ruger 10/22 with an original blued barrel and a Mosin Nagant 91/30. For calculations so far I have been assuming for both, the material is 4130 chrome-moly but I don't know how accurate that would be. I need the density (so far using .283 lb/in^3) and the Young's modulus (so far using 29e10 psi).

Thanks.

**justashooter** · October 25th, 2010, 08:45 PM

rifle barrels are made of everything from 1020 AISI to 8620 AISI, including a smattering of stainless steels. 22 RF barrels were 1020 until the mid 60's, and some after. german made mausers were 1090. czech mausers were 4130, because they happened to have access to nickle and chromium that the germans didn't have a reliable supply of.

sporting rifles have used a variety of chrome moly and chrome nickle moly since the 20's. stainless barrels vary. russian 91-30 would be 1080-1090, with later russian guns getting into chrome moly, then chrome nickle moly. US produced guns in WW2 had better metallurgy, usually 4140, with receivers being 8620.

Hatcher's Notebook is a good source for info on guns made till 1950 in various military applications. i would assume that modern ruger 10-22 are chrome nickle moly in 4130-4140 range. tooling is better these days with nitriding and many barrels are mandrel forged with swedged rifling.

then you get into the question of heat treatment. most military and comercial barrels were produced in small contract shops that used visual temperature definition until the 50's. precisely controlled furnaces and production value consistency improved thereafter, and current production is to a scientific standard.