Modified KK500?

[Shakeyaim]

I was looking at images of Sergey Kamenskiy's Walther KK500 and noticed that his receiver isn't a standard KK500. Instead of the barrel being glued in, his receiver appears to have slots cut and screws counterbored in it to clamp the barrel in place. Anyone any idea why this has been done? - Faster barrel changes? It looks professionally done so wonder is it from Walther or did his own gunsmith machine it? Anybody have thoughts on it?

Below from 2018


https://www.facebook.com/WaltherWaffen/ ... 301293048/

Below from this years Olympics
https://www.gettyimages.ie/detail/news- ... 1234366652

[Tim S]

I'd noticed that. He's not the only one with that feature; Franziska Peer's rifle also has the slots. That makes me think it's factory work.

[Shakeyaim]

Maybe the Walther factory enlists some of it's sponsored athletes to carry out R&D in competition and they require barrels that are easy to swap out. eg: They try a chamber with different dimensions or a different rifling twist rate.

[Tim S]

Those athletes clearly have the confidence in whatever Walther have done to take those rifles to major events.

It's interesting if the slots clamp the barrel. Walther used the split-receiver-clamping method with the KK200 back in the '90s. They switched to gluing barrels for, or by, the KK300.

[Shakeyaim]

Yes, I understood that gluing the barrel in place theoretically stresses the barrel less as there are no clamping forces involved. Neither were there any tensions stretching the barrel like in a threaded in barrel. I'd imagine these "stresses" must be very low anyway since it doesn't hurt other manufacturers, maybe there's all the marketing involved too.

There are definitely two socket head cap screws visible on Kamenskiy's receiver so it certainly appears to be clamping the barrel. I'm guessing there are no slots on the other, left hand side as they would only be required on one side - similar to an Anschutz 2013 with a slot on the right hand side (albeit longitudinally instead of axially). The slots are right adjacent to where the action screws are on the underside so it could be a busy area for screws. Maybe this is something that will feature on the next KK600, 700 or whatever the call it? Anyway, it's something to geek out on!

[Tim S]

Gluing seems to have the added advantage of not needed further machining, or extra parts like the chamber face Anschutz use in the 54.30 to ensure the extractor slots line up. I do wonder what advantage clamping would offer for Walther. I can't remember that they made much of this feature of the KK200, certainly not for DIY barrel changes.

I don't doubt Peer's rifle has bolts hidden inside the stock.