AET Barrels

[fastarget]

What is your experience?

Helped a friend chrono his new gun, with an AET barrel and it chronoed 50fps slower than a comparable gun with a Kart barrel.

He was also told not to shoot lead or plated bullets, only jacketed.

Was curious as to why.

[pcschwenke]

I only shoot lead in my AET. (never shot jacketed) Lead shoots extremely well. What are you comparing against? A hybrid ported gun will loose velocity compared to one not drilled or ported.

Wil Schuemann never mentioned not shooting lead in our conversation! In fact, he mentioned I should be using 0.357 lead instead of .356.

[fastarget]

Gun is non ported , Infinity with AET barrel. It was compared to his previous Limited 2011 with a kart barrel.

AFter googling etc it seems not unusual , and the lack of velocity is reported by many owners. Having something to do with the rifling etc, which would make sense.

Did not know the reason behind using or not using lead,and plated, other than the rifling peeled the plating, and some shooters had issue with heavy leading of the barrel. Again only through the search.

[sti38super]

AET barrels are button rifled so they should shoot anything well.

[fastarget]

No doubt about that, groups well off hand back from 30 yds, but need to get it to meet PF.

[RangerTrace]

AET barrels are button rifled so they should shoot anything well.

It seems that most of them (AET Barrels) will not shoot plated bullets very well. My 6" Limited gun has been the only one that likes them. My 5" Limited gun ripped the plating off and my 5" SS won't shoot a 10" group with them.

[fastarget]

I have only run a few extreme bullets through it, one mag I beleive, from 10 yds, they made one hole.

However the first time break-in and today, I ran Zero bullets through it, and the groups off hand from 25 30 and 35 yds are prettttty good.

Just need to figure out PF, I think it will need .2 to .3 at least to get to my other gun's PF. Since Brandon also built it for IDPA, I need to do something with the grip safety, glue something on it to allow me to depress all the way. Great gun otherwise 450 first rounds and no issues.

[Whoops!]

The gain twist rifling is one of the main culprits as it causes less pressure to be created in the beginning of the pressure curve, there is less force needed to propel the bullet down the barrel and there is more room for the powder to burn throughout its burn in compared to other barrels. As a result, there is less pressure pushing the bullet forward throughout the entirety of it's travel down the barrel, leading to a lower velocity when compared with other handgun barrels of the same length. You will see similar velocities using longer barrels of the same length when one is gain twist rifled and the other is conventional. The key is to use a long enough barrel to fully utilize the respective burns.

In my book, this is great for open guns as the pressure curve will sustain a higher pressure later on in the curve when the gas is interacting with the compensator and the burn will be sustained for a longer time as when compared to a non-gain twist rifled barrel.

I have an AET and conventional barrels. My experience is the same as yours as far as velocity goes.

I have had good luck with plated bullets in my AET barrel, but the characteristics of my open gun pushing the bullet down the barrel are substantially different than those of a limited gun.

Edited October 31, 2012 by Whoops!