Ceramic or Porcelain Barrel
 

Hey guys,
Thought I'd ask a question here since I'm stumped on it.
A customer came into my shop the other day asking about a "Porcelain Reinforced Barrel" for his 9mm.
I've heard the rumors about the Govt. testing these for the large caliber weapons on gunships to prevent the barrel from overheating and warping. They also claim that it can give an increase to muzzle velocity by up to 30% over a traditional steel barrel. But do they really exist for small caliber firearms?

I don't know and haven't heard anything about a porcelin barrel of any type.

One non conventional barrel that is being tested, and we had a couple in the shop, was a new AR bull barrel out of a shop in Oregon that is almost 85%-90% carbon fiber and weighs about 1/2 to 1/3 of what a traditional AR GI barrel weighs in a non bull configuration.

Haven't seen anything announced by anyone picking them up or anything like that, but there is technology out there that people are testing, so I suppose it's possible.

If you end up finding anything that is worth a damn, please come back and let us know.

JD

There is the poop on hybrid/ceramic gun barrels...


http://www.ces.clemson.edu/~mica/Publications/Ref_99.pdf

WOW, thanks Mark! Good thing that was seven years old, not sure I could have understood a current technology white paper! :D:D

I've already read that article, however it doesn't say much about small caliber firearms. Mostly for the M2 and larger.

To my knowledge, these are not available to civilians. They will not be for some time.

So they do exist for small caliber weapons?
Can you give us anymore info on these "shadow barrels"?

They are a work in progress. Progress is slow.