I want to know how you guys cool you barrels. I want an easy way that wont involve buying much or lugging alot of stuff to the range. ANy suggestions???

Well............................

Suppose the easiest way without lugging a bunch of extra gear would be to just set it aside and let it cool down to ambient.

If that's not fast enough, I think there's a product on the market that has a small bottle (can) of compressed CO2 and a tube that you can blow down the barrel. Most oldtimer black powder cartridge shooters carry a length of surgerical tubing and use it to blow their breath down the bore. Not only blowing out any remaining smoldering embers, it also blows the residual heat from the bore.

Always leave the action open between shots to aid air circulation and it wouldn't hurt to blow down the bore with a length of tubing.

In the 100+ temps in my area, I take a small (12 pac) cooler loaded with pre-frozen towels with me, along with 3 or more rifles. Cycling the rifles to allow cooling between them, and limiting the shot strings to no more than 3 consecutive per rifle, I wrap a frozen towel around the barrel and chamber when they don't cool enough between the cycles. When the towel becomes more damp and cool instead of cold, that goes around my neck to aid in my personal cooling and a fresh frozen one is brought out of the cooler for the next warm barrel.

Pick any or all of the above suggestions.

BTW, Welcome to the board. Hope you enjoy the postings.

thanks, but I learned an easier, less effective way from old shooters.com. Its not suited very well for you guys, but it cuts the cake for plinkers like me.

You use empty brass that is cooled down, and hold it around the barrel. It works as a simple heat sink to reduce SOME heat.

Just wondering, is it okay if I cycle the cooled brass into the chamber (bolt action) or will it cause problems.

I just take 4 or 5 rifles to the range, and figure only getting a couple of groups each. And a .22 for some flinch-reduction therapy. It's over 90F more often than not in Texas, at least it seems that way when I am shooting, and not much can be done.

Ok, this may be TOTALLY my imagination, but I THINK (uh-oh) that my barrels cool quicker if I leave the bolt open and point the muzzle up, creating a chimney affect in which the hot barrel warms the air and the heated air goes out the top while drawing cooler air in from the bottom. The physics is correct, but does it really make them cool down any quicker, I think so, maybe, you think? Real sure about it aren't I?

Got to vote for the easy way...just let it cool. taking two or three rifles to the range is the best way, having one cool...on on deck...and one being shot.

Tried the forced methods (from tanks of compressed gas to coolers of ice) but for me the easy way works better...keeps you focused and relaxed.

Easy - shoot in the winter!

Just kidding, sort of. The suggestions the other guys gave will work better for warm weather. Me, I just shoot mild cast bullet loads in the summer, and do load development with hot loads in the cooler months.