Drilling out rifling in a 22 RF barrel

B

Bluefield

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Anyone ever drill out the rifling in a 22 RF barrel to make a 22 shot barrel? I am thinking of rough drilling out most of the rifling with a twist drill brazed to an extension rod. Then following up with a pull reamer on a rod to remove the last few thousands and smooth up the bore.
Why do this you may ask? I have an inquiry from an Ornithology department at a museum to convert a couple for Savage 22 over 410ga combo guns. They use them for harvesting specimens. Weird request of the month.
 
A kind of "Darwin Award" thing?


Or Audobon?


Or Teddy Roosevelt?


I'd like to learn what has bn usd by others in the past. I think the savage O/U, paricularly with custom .410 loads is an xcelent choice.
 
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Roughing with a twist drill then finishing with a reamer? Keep in mind there is only about 0.0016"-0.002" rifling to the side in most 22 rimfires. I'd measure the minor bore diameter with something like pin gages or a small hole gage. Then I would get a chucking reamer of 0.222" and have a pilot ground on it the pilot being about 0.0002" smaller than the minor diameter. If you are setting this up in a lathe where you would have good tool control, the piloted reamer may not even be necessary, just the reamer. This being a Savage combo the lathe would need to have a large spindle bore, say 5" or more.

Thinking further, just starting at the chamber end, just a 0.222 chucking reamer welded or soldered to to an extension and powered with a twist drill probably would work. It don't have to be pretty anyway.

All that removing the rifling from a 22RF shooting shot load is going to accomplish is to make the pattern slightly smaller and more even.

It would be interesting if you would pattern some shot loads with the rifling in and then with the rifling removed. If you do this, let us know the results.
 
i would suggest to them to try all available types of 22shot, as some rifled barrels will do fairly well with it. smooth bore, or rifled shot from a 22lr isnt very effective even on small creatures at much more than 10yds. alternately, just recommend they use the .410 with the smallest shot they can find.
 
Make a D reamer from a piece of drill rod.

Your customer needs to understand that .22 RF shot loads are sorry and probably won't achieve what they think they will. They'll wound or miss more birds than they kill cleanly unless they are exceptional hunters or shooting from a blind very close to the target. They would be better off getting someone to work out a reduced load of shot for the .410 barrel, or better yet, buy a single shot .410 gauge shotgun for shooting the reduced load. The idea is to preserve speed, but throw a small load of shot. My choice of shot would not be #12's, either, I would use #9's.
 
You could try Gun Parts Corp. and see if they have any smooth bore RF barrels like the Rem 552 or some of the older 41X Targetmaster rifles. 10yds. is about tops (sparrows etc.)from what little I've used mine (41X TM SB) with shot loads.
 
Yes, these Savage model 24's are 22 rifle over 410ga. and 20ga. shotguns. From what they told me the rimfire shot shells, with the fine shot in them, works very well for collecting small birds with out tearing them up. The smooth bore gives them a better pattern with more range. One of the museum personnel has a converted one that was done by a gunsmith many years ago but he has since "joined the majority".

Spoke to Dave Kiff at PTG yesterday, He can to make me a carbide pull reamer on a 36" rod. He said that it would take out all the rifling by it self. But it would need a slow speed of 250 rpm and lots of oil to flush the chips. I reasoned that taking out the majority with a drill and then finishing with the reamer would put less strain on the reamer and the job would go faster. Since I would have 5 to do and time is money.
 
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Butch Lambert said:
Roger,
I believe the weapon he is talking about is an over and under.
Butch
Click to expand...
I figured he may be able to FIT 1 of these barrels to the Savage O/U . Might be easier than boreing/fitting. I wouldn't think the cost would be (barrel) much ($20-$30) at all. On the other hand useing 22 short or CBs would probably do a better job collecting birds with minimal damage rather than 22 shot loads. ......BTW if you are interested in trying a smoothbore I have a parts rifle Rem 41X Targetmaster it's missing the bolt and butplate but otherwise complete (good shape also). It's yours if you pickup the shipping.
 
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Bluefield said:
Yes, these Savage model 24's are 22 rifle over 410ga. and 20ga. shotguns. From what they told me the rimfire shot shells, with the fine shot in them, works very well for collecting small birds with out tearing them up. The smooth bore gives them a better pattern with more range. One of the museum personnel has a converted one that was done by a gunsmith many years ago but he has since "joined the majority".

Spoke to Dave Kiff at PTG yesterday, He can to make me a carbide pull reamer on a 36" rod. He said that it would take out all the rifling by it self. But it would need a slow speed of 250 rpm and lots of oil to flush the chips. I reasoned that taking out the majority with a drill and then finishing with the reamer would put less strain on the reamer and the job would go faster. Since I would have 5 to do and time is money.
Click to expand...

I would go with Kiff's recommendation except that I don't see the need for carbide. A HSS setup should do 5 or even 50 barrels. I see no gain in drilling anything, a piloted pusher or a pull reamer will do the job beautifully and in one pass.

I completely agree with the museum staff regarding the usage. They have a good reason for it to be exactly as you describe. They KNOW what they want, give it to them.

I disagree with all the other ideas, IMO boring out Savage 24's is the logical way to proceed. And the perfect gun for the job.

opinionsby


al
 
Bluefield said:
Y I reasoned that taking out the majority with a drill and then finishing with the reamer would put less strain on the reamer and the job would go faster. Since I would have 5 to do and time is money.
Click to expand...
I would be skeptical of using a twist drill to do any of the work. They tend to tear material and reaming afterward is going to require going way over size to remove those marks (if that would be any concern). I'd say the drill will make tear marks that will require a .010 over reamer to get rid of. I recently did some drilling in tough material that even after running the reamer to finish up, it still shows gouges from the drill, and that reamer was .014 larger than the drill dia (hole near 3/4"). That's a lot of scratches.

For as easy as rifling is to remove, I'd simply run the reamer and be done with it.
 
Drills tend to follow the existing hole, reamers will tend to cut their own path. If you get a reamer started off line, you will get an oval hole.
That said, I would get a #1 drill (0.221" diameter) and use it to remove the lands. You then might want to try honing it for the desired finish.
 
While you're at it you might want build a minature set of choke tubes for the muzzle end.

Paul
 
HAHAHA... Miniature choke tubes. Now that would be a project.
 
Find out if Redmond can make a smothbore liner ?
Jug chokeingg is an option.
Chuck.
 
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The simplest way to go would be to contact Cliff LaBounty the guy who does all of the barrel reboring and add a shipping fee to the job.
The 22 shotshells with the crimped case shoot very well for collecting bats and small rodents in closed environments were richocets are common.The shotshells for the larger pistols that have a soft clear plastic are the worst invention ever as they don't open up until impact.If you can get the hard plastic usually yellow in color they break open going down the barrel and spread like a shotgun while the clear shoot like a slug.
You can no longer shoot bats by the way in California.
Waterboy
 
Lynn,
He may want to contact Clearwater Reboring. Mr. Dubell bought LaBounty's reboring and rifling business 3-4 years ago. Jim Dubell is in Washington state.
Butch
 
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