RA Carbon Barrels

[Amphibious]

As some of you were asking:

Reprinted with Permission:

Hi Will,

We do make a Carbon rail as you know. Just to put you in the picture, it is made a very unique way, basically pull truded. To explain this, it is a mechanised manufacturing process which is the best way to improve strength and at the same time make it light weight. The difference is in the pressures involved with the manufacture process. Normal carbon tubes are made by hand laid up fibres. At best this will give a 70% fibre to 30% resin. As the fibre is the strength and the resin is the weight (very basically) it is thefore better to increase the fibre content and reduce the resin content. Not possible with hand laid up tubes. Ours is mechanically drawn out at 3,5 to 4 tons of pressure. Anyway, enough of the technical. I hope this helps with your decision.

In terms of tips, be careful at first of the lightness, some feel it is too light and actually fit a small piece of lead inside the muzzle to weight it down a bit. This is your choice and, at least you now have the option.

Any more questions, just ask.

Best regards,
Rob.

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Hi Will,

One of the problems with carbon was always the splitting of the tubes at the ends. This eventually causes leaks. To test ours I had one set up on the floor with the muzzle end resting off the floor on a piece of wood and a guy holding the handle up right at the mec end. I then got one of my staff who weighs 100kg plus to stand on the barrel. Nothing broke so I got him to jump up and down. It was so impressive I took a video clip. If you want to see this just give us a shout and I'll mail it.

What impressed me most was the strength of the handle and barrel at their joining area, not the slightest damage, very impressive and much better than expected. I have tested many other barrels and none can stand up to this abuse.

A strongly loaded barrel has only about 3,5kg load weight in the middle trying to flex the tube.

Rob.