Any tips for fitting forend to heavy barrel?

[Casull]

I just rebarreled a Ruger #1 to a heavy barrel .50/460. Now, I have to inlet the forend to fit it. I would like to get it to follow the contour of the new barrel closely. I am really bad with wood! Any tips or tricks you can share?
I thought of turning the barrel in the lathe with sandpaper on it and pressing the forend down, but this didn't work at all as I couldn't get the sandpaper to stay on the barrel. Superglue does not stick well to polished barrels or sandpaper but it does stick quite well to fingers!
Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks,
Rob

 

[guntech]

Inlet it with a proper bent gouge and a barrel channel scraper and a barrel channel rasp.

You want a fine line of clearance at the top edge of the forend and underneath you want more clearance graduating to the most clearance on the bottom.

If you don't have the correct tools it is hard to do it right.

Trying to sand it using the barrel will remove too much wood at the top edge and not enough everywhere else and will usually look like a butchered job.

 

[hicaliber]

When I did mine I used a piece of dowl slightly smaller then the barrel with sandpaper wrapped around it.
Work slowly (you will be surprised how fast 60 grit paper cuts) and check it often and you can get very good results.Progress to finer grit paper as you get close to the size you need.
Stay away from the power tools, they take longer to set up then it does to do it by hand..............Good luck.

 

[bigbull]

If it's a straight taper it is easy to use a mill with a ball end cutter and cut straight down the channel while cpmpensating for taper, if it has any kind of radius cut into the taper you can still use a ball end cutter sized for the narrowest diameter at the forend tip and cut a groove down the forend then its time to get out the chissels scrapers and sandpaper. Oh I had to edit my response, "don't forget the inletting black" !
Good Luck
bigbull