Spiral fluted or twisted material? That is surely a unique configuration. What caliber is the rifle?


JMH

ruger, Kidd, Bergara, Blaser, etc

Steyr-Mannlichers had that barrel pattern and, yes, they were hammer forged. I had 2 Model Ls in 22-250 and I had one of them rebored to 250 Savage. Sweetest little deer rifle you ever saw.

It is on a 22rf

I believe the Germans started hammer-forging barrels circa 1939 with most having polygonal rifling. The Germans like most producers using hammer-forged today turned the barrels after the forging operation so they are not so readily identified as such. It has been a long time but as I recall the rifling in Steyr's rifles from the 1970's-80's had conventional rifling.

The original 5R barrels on the Remington M24 rifles were cut-rifled by Mike Rock but there were delivery delays leading to Remington developing a hammer-forged 5R. It cost Remington a bunch of $$ to put the new barrels and rifles through First Article Testing again in accordance with the Army contract but in the end paid off with the barrel being produced in-house rather than be sourced from a vendor. As a side benefit, 5R barreled rifles became widely available in a variety of calibers.

I once stood outside the booth watching barrels being hammer-forged at Remington and it is an unbelievably loud operation!