A friend of mine wanted his S&W target pistol barrel shortened by 1.5" for better balance in the hand.......
Using a simple hack saw, I cut the 1.5" from the barrel.
I then chucked the barrel into my four jaw and found there were zero true parallel sides to this hunk of steel. It took lots of fussing to get a tight fitting spud to run true at two pints with an indicator. Once this was set I faced off the barrel and crowned it at 90 degrees. My friend took the gun to the indoor range and it was shooting 1.5" groups. I suspected the crown was not perfect and needed another method to make it right.
I decided to crown with a piloted crowning tool........
Because I had recessed the first crown, I needed to modify my crowning tool to cut a very small area of the barrel.
This was accomplished with a rig I built to hold my dremel tool in the milling machine
Once the crowning tool was modified I needed a method to hold the action true to the bore in my lathe. I simply turned a piece of hardened drill rod to the chamber diameter.
Onto this mandrel I placed the barrel.
The crowning tool with a perfectly fitting pilot was inserted into the muzzle
Lots of high sulfur cutting oil and turning the barrel by hand with pressure applied to the crowning tool with the tail stock.....
A little bit of the front sight still existed and this I finished up in the milling machine
Now we are shooting in the .3 inch range!
Using a simple hack saw, I cut the 1.5" from the barrel.
I then chucked the barrel into my four jaw and found there were zero true parallel sides to this hunk of steel. It took lots of fussing to get a tight fitting spud to run true at two pints with an indicator. Once this was set I faced off the barrel and crowned it at 90 degrees. My friend took the gun to the indoor range and it was shooting 1.5" groups. I suspected the crown was not perfect and needed another method to make it right.
I decided to crown with a piloted crowning tool........
Because I had recessed the first crown, I needed to modify my crowning tool to cut a very small area of the barrel.
This was accomplished with a rig I built to hold my dremel tool in the milling machine
Once the crowning tool was modified I needed a method to hold the action true to the bore in my lathe. I simply turned a piece of hardened drill rod to the chamber diameter.
Onto this mandrel I placed the barrel.
The crowning tool with a perfectly fitting pilot was inserted into the muzzle
Lots of high sulfur cutting oil and turning the barrel by hand with pressure applied to the crowning tool with the tail stock.....
A little bit of the front sight still existed and this I finished up in the milling machine
Now we are shooting in the .3 inch range!
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