Carbon Fiber Barrel - What's the Advantage?

Carbon fiber stocks are easy to understand, but what about a carbon fiber barrel? There are some purists out there who think barrels should only be made of steel, while others are open to new options.

Let’s go over some of the advantages of carbon fiber barrels to see if you should add them to your current rifle or your next rifle build.

Advantages of carbon Fiber Barrels

Starting out we should know that carbon fiber barrels are not pure carbon fiber. They are actually a wrap of carbon fiber around a much thinner steel barrel. This essentially replaces a normal barrel’s outer layers with carbon fiber which brings a number of benefits.

Barrel Weight

Less steel means less weight, especially with carbon fiber. Carbon fiber is roughly 5 times stronger than steel when compared at the same weight levels. Which means you can have a similar strength level to a normal barrel with less carbon fiber.

If you drastically reduce the weight of the barrel you will have a lighter rifle. Lighter rifles are easier to carry for long periods of time which makes them great for hiking and long overland hunts. 

Barrel Rigidity

Carbon fiber is more rigid and has a higher tensile strength than steel. But this is modified by both steel and carbon fiber being compared by weight. Two pounds of steel barrel might be the equivalent of 1 or 1 ½ pounds of carbon fiber wrapped around its inner barrel. Depending on how that fiber is laid out, you can have more rigidity.

So you’ll have a lighter barrel with equal or slightly better rigidity which means the barrel will whip around less than a full steel barrel. This will produce more consistent harmonics in the barrel which affects accuracy. 

Heat Resistance/Dissipation

While you might not fire a lot of rounds while out in the field, you will encounter changes in temperature. Due to how carbon fiber is made and its inherent properties, it is very close to neutral when it comes to reacting to temperatures.

Metal and wood will change dimensions when it is hot or cold, but carbon fiber does not change enough to be noticeable. This is great for a barrel since it is exposed to high heat when firing and temperature change when in the sun, etc.

Carbon fiber can also dissipate heat faster than steel. The dissipation of heat can be very beneficial especially if you are doing long range days with a lot of shooting. You’ll take less time letting the barrel cool than with a full steel barrel.

Barrel Life/Durability

Barrel life comes up a lot when you are investing in a barrel and carbon fiber can help with that. Carbon fiber is very resistant to wear. This can be firing the gun, environmental aspects like corrosion, or just hitting it against something accidentally.

Eventually everything can and will break, it just takes longer for carbon fiber to do that under the circumstances it was designed for. Once it goes out of those parameters you’ll have a higher risk of failure, but this is true of any object.

Since carbon fiber has been refined in barrel production, your carbon fiber barrel will be durable as a normal steel barrel if not a little more with the same diameter. If you went larger you would lose weight savings.  

Conclusion

Carbon fiber barrels bring a lot to the table when it comes to hunting and lightweight builds. The weight savings, durability, and overall utility of a carbon fiber barrel make it worth considering for your next rifle upgrade.

If you want some help with choosing the right carbon fiber barrel for you check out our wide selection of Bartlein, Proof Research, and Benchmark Barrels.