Cutting a barrel?

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Brianma65

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How good do a gunsmith have to be , to cut and recrown a barrel? To do a perfect factory like job. And who could do such a job? Further East the better. Thanks.
 
Rifle. shotgun or handgun?How long is it now? How short do you want it?

If it is only a factory like job you want on a rifle pretty much anyone with a lathe could do that. Just about any established gunsmith operating a shop can help you.
 
Like guntech says, rifle, shotgun or handgun is kind of important. A non-ribbed shotgun barrel can be done yourself with a pipe cutter and a file.
 
Shotgun barrels are all tapered. A pipe cutter is a poor option because it'll try to walk along the taper unless the user pulls it back so it meets up the initial cut. A good ol' hacksaw is the weapon of choice. Either way the end needs to be filed clean and square so the burrs from a hacksaw are not an issue. But the issue of possibly crimping the last few millimeters inwards with a pipe cutter most certainly is an issue. So for those in the know the hacksaw wins on all counts.

Anyhow, cutting and crowning in a lathe is pretty easy assuming it isn't a revolver. Then it gets very difficult in a hurry.

This assumes you're not looking to shorten an already almost too short barrel to a prohibited length. If so you're out of luck before you start.
 
It's a 20 inch rifle barrel, I want to make it 18.5 ( that's the limit right?) it's a bolt gun. I don't want it to be any less accurate. Am I right in saying it's all in the crown work?
 
You could cut a rifle barrel off crooked with a hacksaw... leave the saw marks and finish the crown with a piloted 60 degree chamfer reamer and it will shoot as good as if you spent 30 minutes making it look perfect.

The all important thing about a crown (the area that the bullet last touches when it exits the barrel) is that is smooth and burr free and as concentric to the bore as possible.
 
guntech said:
You could cut a rifle barrel off crooked with a hacksaw... leave the saw marks and finish the crown with a piloted 60 degree chamfer reamer and it will shoot as good as if you spent 30 minutes making it look perfect.

The all important thing about a crown (the area that the bullet last touches when it exits the barrel) is that is smooth and burr free and as concentric to the bore as possible.
Click to expand...
Lol , most of that sounds easy,except for the last part. There's a gunsmith shop about 700 kms away so they should be able to handle it then. I thought it was a more skilled related job... Thanks
 
Brianma65 said:
Lol , most of that sounds easy,except for the last part. There's a gunsmith shop about 700 kms away so they should be able to handle it then. I thought it was a more skilled related job... Thanks
Click to expand...

not really hard to do... just needs to be setup properly in the lathe.

the pipe cutter and file method... well those are the ones I ended up having to recrown....
 
I have to laugh at some of these posts, hacksaws and pipe cutters.... plumbers tools not gun plumbing tools.

My personal opinion is that a crown cut properly on a lathe = much better then a factor crown.

(1) center your barrel up using range or indicating rods. in a 4 jaw chuck w/isolating material (Copper / brass) and with a tail spider.
(2) Cut the barrel with a cut off tool and profile the muzzle to desired angle or design.
(3) single point cut the crown from in to out leaving a sharp but clean edge
(4) take a q-tip and drag it out of the barrel past the departure cut and if it leaves threads go back to step (3) until it is sharp, and clean
(5) fire lap it with a few rounds and check it.
(6) SOME people and some smiths like to take a marble, epoxy a drive stick on it and then use some grinding compound to lap the sharp edges, since most of my rifles have some sort of flash or muzzle bling I don't care, the chance of the crown being damaged is slight.

You can buy a jig from manson reamers that indicates on your barrel and then recuts the crown. Fancy tool for a one job application, but it is cheaper then buying a lathe and the tooling. https://mansonreamers.files.wordpress.com/2015/06/small-file-july-2015-catalog.pdf page 15

cheers,
 
After machining many finish with this tool.
60degreereamer-0.jpg


Leaves a very smooth, concentric finish.
heavy308crown-0.jpg
 
guntech said:
You could cut a rifle barrel off crooked with a hacksaw... leave the saw marks and finish the crown with a piloted 60 degree chamfer reamer and it will shoot as good as if you spent 30 minutes making it look perfect.

The all important thing about a crown (the area that the bullet last touches when it exits the barrel) is that is smooth and burr free and as concentric to the bore as possible.
Click to expand...
I did this and it worked well, quite accurate too.
 
Well, gun smithing must be cheaper where you are. My LGS used to do smith work, now contracts it out. $100 to get a barrel cut. Two barrels and the kit would be paid for. Not my method, though, pretty close.
 
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