Profiling a barrel blank

Q

Quiet

CGN frequent flyer
Rating - 100%
125   0   0
I've accquired an old Douglas chrome moly barrel blank that is a straight 1 1/4" or so cylinder and I want it reduced to a heavy target type profile before installing on my action.
A local gunsmith with multiple lathes and who does barrel installation work told me he would have to send it away to be profiled first without being able to give me a maximum a price estimate. This makes it sound like it is some sort of unusual or risky procedure.

Are there any particular risks in turning a barrel down to size, or is this likely just a matter of individual preference? Are there any good sources of information on what is involved?
 
The reprofiling is just machine time and machinist vary in opinion on rate of material removal. So there is the cost of shop time.

Then there is the potential that the bore is not centered to the exterior of the blank. Addn set up and cutting is required to bring this into being true.

Depending on how much material is removed, stresses may be introduced into the bore that ideally, would be relieved before install.

So, add all this up and you have a whopping bill and potential headaches vs buying a new profiled, stress relieved, warrantied barrel to your spec.

We have the ability to profile but shooters just aren't interested in paying what it costs so we point them towards what they want in a properly manf blank.

Everyone gets what they want at the best prices.

YMMV.

Jerry
 
Profiling a full blank is most economically done at the manufacturing level. No one can turn a barrel as cheaply as the barrel maker can. Depending on how light a contour you need I would guess most smiths would charge from $75 to $150 for profiling.

That being said any gunsmith with a lathe long enough can profile a barrel. It should be cut to within a 1/4 inch of finished length first... I prefer to chamber and thread and fit the barrel first... then cut to length, flat crown, profile and finish crown.

It is important the manufacturer has stress relieved the barrel. I have not had any that were improperly stress relieved since 1968-69 when I had two Ackley barrels turn out looking like a cam shaft... warped with each lathe cut... what a mess... Ackley apologized and replaced them.
 
Last edited:
trevj said:
Is it worth a couple hours a Shop Rate to you?

Or can you buy a replacement barrel cheaper than that?

Everything is possible, some things are more expensive than simply buying new.

Cheers
Trev
Click to expand...

I'm not sure, how much are shop rates generally?

I would just like to make my 25-06 Encore a little lighter. The barrel and scope alone are 4.5 pounds.

.850" at the muzzle 26" barrel
 
If the barrel has been rolled to shape such as a rolled octagon, you can probably expect a lot of surface stress. When the surface is removed the barrel can warp significantly. I reprofiled a Numrich inexpensive octagon blank to 1/2 octagon and it warped considerably. The reason the shop might have wanted the profiling done before fitting is that it would allow him to have the warp pointing either up or down rather than sideways. Outrageous as it might sound, a warped barrel can shoot reasonably accurately as long as it does not shift with temperature and if the curve is up or down, you only have to worry about vertical sight position. I have rebarreled 2 or 3 of my guns with round barrel blanks which appeared to have been lathe turned on the outside and had no problems in reprofiling them to 1/2 octagon

cheers mooncoon
 
Post a picture of your barrel. If it is fluted it will end up a bit ugly, but a barrel that heavy can lose a lot of weight...
 
Encore barrels aren't fluted only the pro hunter barrels. This is a picture I stole from the net.

Encore-Rifle-Barrel-Blue-49.jpg


My .223 barrel on the gun

 
The only problem I can see is the lug on the bottom on the barrel and the forearm attachment nut on the barrel. The lug at the chamber wont be able to be moved. But the forearm nut will need to be moved to profile the barrel. Then the forearm modified so it fits correctly with the reprofiled barrel.
Not gonna be cheap. Likely 150 for the profilimg atleast. And another 75 or so to modify the forend. Getting close to the cost of a new barrel.
 
The forearm on these guns are held on by two screws there are two threaded holes in the barrel. So some cheap pillars could be made to bridge the gap. But maybe buying a thinner Pro hunter barrel and chopping a couple of inches would be more cost effective.
 
That would be fairly easy to turn a taper similar to the old Browning double tapered barrel of the 70's... only do just one taper ending at the forend, take the muzzle down to .600". It would take at least 8 ounces off the heavy muzzle end. How good it would look would depend on how true the barrel is now, and if it is stress relieved.
 
Profiling a barrel on a manual lathe is a HUGE PIA. It also requires a special attachment called ...... a taper attachment. I'd guess the gunsmith you asked prob doesn't have a taper attachment. And the reason for that is tapering barrels is a HUGE PIA.

A taper attachment can only taper a few inches of barrel at a time. So it requires many many passes to get a barrel tapered and then there is all kinds of filing and sanding to make the thing look nice.

All that can be avoided by using a CNC lathe but not that many gunsmiths have the funds for such machinery.
 
I have two blanks I want profiled, do you know who in alberta has said CNC lathes for this? I'll need to contact someone at some point.

I'd be happy to send them off to guntech but I'm not sure he wants to work with barrel blanks.
 
Long tapers are much easier to do by offsetting the tailstock so you can take the cut the whole way, most lathes can do that, somewhat easier to steady it that way too.

Best thing cost wise is to buy the right profile from the manufacturer.
 
100X promotion for Guntech!!! Any work needed that he would take on, I would send to him and pay the man what he needs for the job....
 
If u do not have a tapering attachment on your lathe u can not do this type of work and most some lathes do not have this attachment I have done it on a old la blonde lathe guntec knows the the lathe it's the one I boat from Barroto's sports in 1984
 
As said above a taper attachment is not needed if you can set your tail stock over.
I have done them but the problem machining on something 30ish " long is chatter. You have to use a steady rest and do part of the barrel at a time and you can still get chatter. It is a pita job. Doable but not many wanting to do.
I would like to see how they are done in a Cnc I think they may use a feature that constantly changes the chuck speed so vibrations can't set up. I may try to rough one out in my Cnc mill with the 4th axis to see how it does.
Stephen
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom