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Making a Rifle Barrel
- Thread starter Gerald
- Start date
Blastattack
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
- Location
- Winnipeg MB
Neither of those are rifle barrels you dork. Video one shows a guy making a tube, and it is in no way a rifle barrel. However, you can very clearly see that he made a round piece of material to start, which will now need to be drilled out, reamed and rifled. Video two shows a guy making (again) a steel tube, which he makes round and then drills and reams to finish, and it doesn't even have rifling! Hammer forging material for a rifle barrel and making a hammer forged barrel are two entirely different things.
Ron Smith did not build his own equipment.............Bevan King built his own equipment which I used to make many barrels. Bevan was good friends with Ron Smith before his passing and was one of my best friends..............I miss him dearly..........
That is the old way of making barrels for black powder guns. Now they drill out barstock for most barrels. If you look up westwood on youtube you should eventually find a video of a guy making a home made pistol and one video is him making the barrel from barstock. Including his home made rifling machine.
I thought about setting up to make barrels years ago as I have a few machine designs/process in mind that would be fun to test out but I have other projects so I'll likely never bother. With JC and others making excellent barrels in Canada at reasonable prices the market is pretty well served, so for my rifles I just buy blanks and finish the rest. Most actual gunsmiths do the same, although the guys set up to make barrels usually also do some rifles, at least their own if not for others.
And yes, everyone would be drilling out of solid round bar, generally material designed/treated for making barrels, there's a few reasons for it.
And yes, everyone would be drilling out of solid round bar, generally material designed/treated for making barrels, there's a few reasons for it.
Sorry I guess I didn't explain itcenough for you to clue in. Not all barrels start off off as round stock with a hole drilled in it. A.barrel can be forged around a mandrel and welded with Borax. It can start off as flat bar or piece of wagon wheel for that matter...lol
Yep Pete, we probably should have however, you, Bevan and I did stuff for our own learning and knowledge and sense of accomplishment. The same reason I have so few pics of many of my hunts and no notes from all the experimenting I did with guns and cartridges when I was younger. We don't do it to solicit adulation from others, so we don't think of documenting and taking photos.
I don't even have any photos of the several airplanes I have owned........just never think of it, I guess. Some folks are camera/photo nuts and some aren't I suppose, and I have never been one.
The barrel making process would have made a great video though.........take it right from sawing the barrel stock to shooting the finished rifle would be pretty cool...........
Blastattack
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
- Location
- Winnipeg MB
Ron Smith absolutely did build his own equipment. He started with a drilling/reaming/rifling machine combo of his own design. He did eventually upgrade the drilling and reaming process with the addition of a Pratt and Whitney 1/2B deep hole drilling machine, and converted one side for reaming purposes.
Blastattack
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
- Location
- Winnipeg MB
I guess you're right. Only 99.9% of all barrels ever manufactured did start out as round stock and were then drilled out and rifled. Your example of a guy turning flat stock into round stock and then drilling it out and rifling it was clearly not compliant with my assertion.
Hope these pics show up
can anyone tell me how to post pics here???
I built a new rebar barrelled gun an would like to show people
sst
Hi Tom,
I have posted one picture of the first rebar barrel in this thread here: http://www.canadiangunnutz.com/foru...fle-Barrel?p=12663847&viewfull=1#post12663847
If you are having trouble posting pictures, I will post them for you. PM sent.
Ted
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That (first photo) was the process used to make round and octagon longrifle barrels before Eley Remington developed a system to bore long straight holes through solid rods of iron about 1830. That old system is never used for modern high powered rifles and is far too labour intensive anyway. Real Damascus barrels are very labour intensive and not found on modern shotguns unless maybe a special order from somewhere. I have heard rumours that some cheaper muzzle-loaders may have barrels made from seamless tubing - rumours only...
Hope these pics show up
can anyone tell me how to post pics here???
I built a new rebar barrelled gun an would like to show people
sst
Here they are, Tom.
Ted
Thanx Ted...
Well just wanted others to know about what myself an Ron have been up too....
I was planning on making an other rebar barrel gun to match the big boy, an got it done finally.
As you know Ron an I built the first barrel in 32 cal. and it turned out to be a lights out target gun (not planned I can assure you) as it was supposed to be a joke.
Well since then a lot of people ask (what's next) an I figured to was time to make a little sister for the first one....... a few weeks ago I went over to Ron's an drilled an reamed it on his Pratt & W machine..... it turned out to be really a great hole, and Ron rifled it in 22cal. Which we put on a Martini Action.
Now to make a long story short this gun turned out to be a great shooter as well I only shot 30 rounds through it and Ron an I headed to Spokane and did the shoots at Nine Mile falls.
Well the 32cal once again performed great an the new 22 also I was lucky enough to win the Pacific Regional 22rf match with it. And its just breaking in an I look forward to seeing what it is capable of..... it was doing about 1" at 100yrds during some bad wind relays.
Anyway I thought some people here in Canada would like to see what we do for fun! I'm not sure what's next but as long as Ron lets me use his equipment and help me experiment you never know.
There is a great interest in these guns in the States an I have received many calls from south of the boarder about them.
Thanx to a good friend in the States I found the above pics on a Web site as I haven't taken a pic myself of them.
And yes they are REBAR not lined not anything else........
I got lucky twice I guess..
"Havein Fun"
sstom
Well just wanted others to know about what myself an Ron have been up too....
I was planning on making an other rebar barrel gun to match the big boy, an got it done finally.
As you know Ron an I built the first barrel in 32 cal. and it turned out to be a lights out target gun (not planned I can assure you) as it was supposed to be a joke.
Well since then a lot of people ask (what's next) an I figured to was time to make a little sister for the first one....... a few weeks ago I went over to Ron's an drilled an reamed it on his Pratt & W machine..... it turned out to be really a great hole, and Ron rifled it in 22cal. Which we put on a Martini Action.
Now to make a long story short this gun turned out to be a great shooter as well I only shot 30 rounds through it and Ron an I headed to Spokane and did the shoots at Nine Mile falls.
Well the 32cal once again performed great an the new 22 also I was lucky enough to win the Pacific Regional 22rf match with it. And its just breaking in an I look forward to seeing what it is capable of..... it was doing about 1" at 100yrds during some bad wind relays.
Anyway I thought some people here in Canada would like to see what we do for fun! I'm not sure what's next but as long as Ron lets me use his equipment and help me experiment you never know.
There is a great interest in these guns in the States an I have received many calls from south of the boarder about them.
Thanx to a good friend in the States I found the above pics on a Web site as I haven't taken a pic myself of them.
And yes they are REBAR not lined not anything else........
I got lucky twice I guess..
"Havein Fun"
sstom
BigUglyMan
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
- Location
- New Scotland
Borax doesn't weld anything. Heat and pressure create what is called a fusion weld. Borax is a commonly used flux material in fusion welding.
Here they are, Tom.
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Ted
Wow another one Tom they make a dandy pair and I'm sure those 2 rifles have turned a lot of heads at the shoots .
Al Pedersen made his own boring and rifling machine from what most considered 'junk' His barrels were quite accurate. Steel came from a company in Minneapolis called Ryerson. 20 or 24 ft. bars. His equipment is still around , I believe somewhere in S. Sask. Al had a neat little shop on the farm. Lots of stuff came from that shop.Mark
