Stress Relieving: A No Brainer?

[Incursion]

I was asking gunsmith Bob Munck what type of things he does to enhance guns, and one of the things he mentioned was stress relieving. He said that it increases the longevity and the accuracy of the gun. Is this true? If it is, it seems like it would be a no brainer to go ahead and get this done on the entire gun. Basically the process lowers the temperature down to -300 degrees and changes the structure of the metal. It's all computer controlled, so I don't really see any chance for error. He said it would be about $50 to do a barrel which doesn't seem like that much money to me.

 

[Mikul]

This sounds veeery similar to the cryo-treating that many knife manufacturers subject their blads to. At a certain temperature close to absolute zero the molecules in the metal align and stay that way.

 

[444]

Cryo treatment is controversial. Check out sites like benchrest.com. The controvery is whether or not it acutally does anything. I have never heard anything about it doing harm.

 

[drothen]

There is a local guy here that does cryo-treatment. I was there when he was doing 3 engine blocks for a local racing outfit. The people I talked to said the treatment greatly increased the life on thier cutting tools. I don't know if this would help a gun or not.