Will Colt Ever Make the Socom Ii Again?

Perhaps you lot have read on forum X, Y, or Z that a user states "Colt Socom barrels are incredibly accurate!"… or that "My Filly Socom butt is more than authentic than my other carbine barrel X."

Image Courtesy of www.looserounds.com "Unbagging a Colt M4A1 SOCOM barrel."

I know I have encountered many posters sharing their feel, though often without data… merely notwithstanding its become commonplace to accept the Socom series of barrels from COLT equally quite accurate for a mil-spec, chrome lined offering. First off, what is a Colt Socom barrel? The Colt SOCOM barrel is a medium contour butt which was produced to bridge a gap in the M4 Carbine's ability to handle total auto fire. The thicker Socom profile handles longer strings of full auto burn down than its skinny predecessor.

It'south been said that Colt's assembly line for their mil and civilian customers is the same associates line… meaning you're getting the same M4 Carbine (sans fun switch) that our boys would be carrying in Afghanistan. Sweet! So why is the Socom butt such a good shooting product? It's non match course anything, it is simply another workhorse barrel off the Filly associates line. Is the accurateness a myth? No. Information technology'southward not.

Shooters  who own these barrels have noticed that the 14.v SOCOM is shooting observably well, simply often they don't postal service any information to back up the claims. This is oft frustrating when doing research. Who has the data? The ever popular Molon has done usa all a favor and collected some data on the Colt SOCOM vs its Gov't contour sibling. Visit his exam and notes here. Accept note that on page 2 he compares the SOCOM to two 16 inch m4 profile barrels which he noted performed basically the same every bit their 14.5 inch counterparts.

A Colt Socom barrel tested past Molon was capable of producing an 30 round average sub-MOA load with an extreme spread of .nine inches and a mean radius of .35.

Two 16 inch Filly Gov't profile barrels tested with the aforementioned methods revealed no ameliorate than 1.five MOA boilerplate between them and a 30 shot hateful radius avg of .49.

Both used match ammunition. Both are Colt products. Both are chrome lined. So what gives?

Practise the moving ridge!

The sine moving ridge to be exact.

The Rifleman's Paradox.

Each butt "whips" as 50k + PSI violently pushes the projectile downwardly the bore. How much flexion is present in the arrangement is a combination of butt thickness, barrel length, pressure level of the load, bullet weight, and rut absorption. Rifling twist charge per unit and bullet weight even play a office as the torque generated on the barrel plays its own note on the harmonics. Pressure level goes from 50k-55k PSI to Atmosphere in but milliseconds. It's no wonder barrels WHIP.

Your barrel is a hollow beam anchored at the receiver. As Teludyne Tech so eloquently puts information technology, "your barrel is a dynamic pressure vessel". In that location is a pressure gradient starting at over 50k PSI at the bedroom which rapidly drops as the bullet progresses down the bore. Once the bullet leaves the bore (uncorking), the pressure level in the butt drops to atmospheric pressure in an instant. The behavior of the barrel as these forces human action upon it is known as butt whip or barrel "harmonics".

The bullet and powder also play a huge role here every bit well. Your butt will carry (flex) differently with 55 grain M193 5.s. a 77 grain bullet and a slow burning powder.

Heat is also a factor. Rapid fire heats the steel, makes it more pliable, and causes it to expand. Do you lot have a barrel that walks as information technology heats up? Bingo. That's still another variable.

Pulverization, heat, pressure, projectile, all apply their own variable and every bit each load functions uniquely in a butt as it "whips" in unique ways. Load A will cause the barrels harmonics to behave in one way, while load B causes yet another unique situation.

Add all that in with an imperfect projectile, and powders that aren't loaded to 100 percentage precision… is it any wonder that load x groups low and left, and load y groups loftier and correct? They were both released at a different X, Y centrality as the barrel moved through its low-frequency sine wave.

So dorsum to the Colt barrels. The 16 inch M4 Carbine butt is very accurate for a fighting rifle. The AR15 is already a very authentic platform, and the avg group of 1.5 minutes with match ammo is well below the military machine standard for weapon accuracy. So then if the Colt Socom barrel shaves off another half a infinitesimal from an already accurate platform, what gives?

Does anyone know where the hottest area of the bore on a m16 is? Anyone? Information technology'southwardfour to six inches in front of the  bolt face ("External Barrel Temperatures of the M16A1 Rifle"). If this is the hottest area of a butt, a government profile butt seems to make less sense. The Government barrel is skinny where information technology is hottest, and has a heavier end which finer adds a weight to the stop of our axle. I have started eyeing my Gov't profile barrels suspiciously. Oh, it'southward attractive… On the surface they are very sexy, but deep down they have some real issues. There is a reason SPR profile is considered an accurate profile and there is a reason no one sells a "match" Gov't profile barrel that is winning matches.

The Filly Socom barrel appears to occupy an expanse of force to weight in a unique sweet spot. The barrel is thicker where the pressure is greater. It is thicker where the heat is greater. It is thicker where it matters. When you increase the stiffness of the hottest, highest force per unit area expanse of the butt, yous are going to reduce whip and promote more than consistent butt harmonics. The Colt Socom butt does just that. It likely reduces whip essentially enough to shave off one/2 a minute vs its Gov't profile sisters. The sine wave, if we had a means to compare the two profiles adjacent, would likely be more subtle compared to that of a standard gov't profile barrel. Less whip and greater consistency from circular to round, load to load. Information technology's a curt, stiff barrel.

The Gov't profile is a taper of .675 to .625 under the mitt-guards. Wall thickness is a taper starting at .451 nether the hand-guards.

The Colt Socom is .850 under the hand-guards.  Wall thickness is .626 under the mitt-guards. This is 28 % thicker than Gov't Profile.

That's 28% more cloth to soak up rut and maintain rigidity. If the diameter truly is the merely variable, then that's something amazing to consider. Remember of how little the diameter matters in this scenario. It's a chrome lined SUB MOA bore as shown by a 30 round composite grouping. That's statistically significant. Colt doesn't hand lap anything off that line, and yet by just increasing the thickness under the hand-guards, we take acquired a sub-moa capable weapon.

Wrapping Up:

So are Colt Socom barrels more than authentic than the average bore? Virtually likely, they are. Is it because Colt Magic? No. I mean, it could exist, I don't work there but I wouldn't bet money on information technology. As a byproduct of the design, the SOCOM is an HBAR by another name. The increase in material is a straight increase in fabric force and it likely benefits from superior barrel harmonics over its Gov't profile sibling. Consider a medium profile every bit a skillful compromise on mechanical accuracy vs weight. Consider HBAR profiles for pure mechanical accuracy. While barrel diameter doesn't guarantee accurateness (for example, a poorly cut crown can undo all the benefits of a stiff butt), they do add an chemical element of consistency to your barrels harmonics and suppressed some negative effects of heating up and cooling downward.

If you are looking for a Colt SOCOM, Brownells has them available hither.

I would like to recognize the book Modernistic Advancements in Long Range Shooting Vol. Two equally an fantabulous resource for understanding barrel behavior.

Lothaen Out!

okeefewitheored.blogspot.com

Source: https://thenewrifleman.com/why-are-colt-14-5-socom-barrels-so-accurate/

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