Thread: fluted barrels

Actually it will be stronger if the same weight due to the larger diameter.
Dan Lija writes about it here http://riflebarrels.com/fluting/
Digging further into his website he also has an Excel calculator which can be used to work out the weight difference fluted/non fluted.

Some smiths are reluctant to flute (or just plain will not) due to the potential for releasing inherant barrel stresses and subsequent loss of accuracy. Button rifling creates those stresses whilst single cut rifling (Kreiger, Bartlein etc) have very low stresses.