Re-Contouring a barrel

E

eww1350

Guest
Will a barrel maker..like Krieger or Shilen re-contour a used barrel..?
I have a couple of Krieger HV barrels that I would like to have re-contoured to a medium sporter (hunting) contour....?


Eddie in Texas
 
I would think not. If they did they would not guarantee that the bore dimentions would not change.
If it was just a light skim cut it may be Ok but a heavy barrel down to a light one is taking a risk.
 
Hart will….I had one done about 5-6 years ago but I wouldn’t go down as far as you are talking. If you turn one down it would be wise to turn a straight dia. from the breach to the muzzle such as a Palma contour?? I also had one done by McGowen some 20 years ago and it destroyed it, went from a massive heavy to a LT target………

Rick
 
Reconturing a barrel

I took a kreiger 1.25" straignt barrel that was winner on a bench gun at 30" long, when it wouldn't shoot quite as well anymore with around 1500 rounds through it, I cut off 3' of the chamber, milled a slot througn it to see the throat, then milled the bottom flat and give it to my son-in-law for a paper weight for his desk. I then contured it down to sporter weight and made a soprter of it. It is 6.5mm and was a 6.5x284 on the bench gun. So I made a 6.5x284 sporter with it. I call it my recycle gun. It is a recycle barrel, old 98Mauser (trued) and I use the old brass that has been used in the bench gun. I also made the stock from a cherry tree that fell here on the ranch and laminated it into .5" strips. It will shoot undre .5" at a hundred yards, so conturing it didn't hurt it much.
I have sent some pics to my brother to see if he can post them here of the barrel being contured and of the rifle.

Sam Duke
 
Recycled barrel

My brother, Sam, had a 30" 1 1/4" straight Kreiger barrel that was chambered for 6.5x284 that shot very well indeed but after about 1300 rounds, it was no longer competitive so it was pulled off. It was then set up in the lathe and cut down drastically and reprofiled into a sporter barrel. This barrel was then chambered again to a 6.5x284 and fitted to a Mauser 98 action. It shoots well as a sporter. For a sample of one, I would say a barrel can be reprofiled. It took a lot of work but it turned out well.
Joe

http://usera.ImageCave.com/jeduke43/recycle2.jpg
http://usera.ImageCave.com/jeduke43/recycle3.jpg
http://usera.ImageCave.com/jeduke43/recycle1.jpg

Additionally, this is what the stock looked like in the beginning.

http://usera.ImageCave.com/jeduke43/stock.jpg
 
Last edited:
Thanks Butch

But I can't take credit for this one. Its all Sam's efforts. I just posted the pictures for him.
We do have several projects in the works though. Just have to find the time to build up a few new bench guns. Gotta stay ahead of the curve at LSSO.

Joe
 
I have contoured hundreds of barrels over the years... as far a hunting or varmint work the accuracy has been fine. It would not surprise me if there was very little loss of accuracy if the barrel was stress relieved properly at the factory. I just turned a Shilen full blank down to a lighter contour [.850 muzzle, 1.150 shank] and it did not warp a thousands of an inch on turning... straight as can be. Common with Shilen barrels. [and others too]
 
I had one done

several years ago and the barrel shot exceptionally well after. I bought that barrel of the classifieds here, New but un-chambered. The previous owner had cut too much off the muzzle end. My Smith found a company that re-contured it and If that one is an example, perhaps we should buy HV barrels and re-contour all of them! It's interesting how theories become rality, isn't it? :D
 
Lynn

The big white thing in the middle indeed is a steady rest.
The barrel was turned in steps and then all the steps blended together to form the contour.
There is a center in the chuck and a center in the tailstock. You can see the center in the tailstock better in the second picture. The center in the chuck is a "dead center" meaning it is just a tapered piece of metal. The one in the tailstock is a "live center" meaning it is ball bearing mounted so it spins freely with the barrel.
The big brass pigtail looking thingy is a homemade drive dog. It clamps to the barrel and gets pushed around by hooking on a jaw of the chuck. This is how you spin something between centers in a lathe. The center and the drive dog are two separate pieces. The drive dog is actually not brass.
The lathe is one of the big Grizzly gunsmith lathes.
Understand what you are looking at now?

Joe
 
Dennis Sorensen said:
I have contoured hundreds of barrels over the years... as far a hunting or varmint work the accuracy has been fine. It would not surprise me if there was very little loss of accuracy if the barrel was stress relieved properly at the factory. I just turned a Shilen full blank down to a lighter contour [.850 muzzle, 1.150 shank] and it did not warp a thousands of an inch on turning... straight as can be. Common with Shilen barrels. [and others too]
Click to expand...

The guy said USED barrel not a new one.
 
Dennis Sorensen

Would you mind describing how you go about contouring barrels. I have done a few myself but am always looking for a better way. My method is pretty slow at best. Thanks, Joel
 
My way is very slow as well...:(

I have a center and a dog in the headstock and I have a live center in the tail stock that I can offset for "windage" :) . Ends of barrel faced square with good 60 degree counter sinks in the bore.

I take very light cuts of about 10 to 15 thou of material at about 220 rpm with a pointed sharp HSS tool... the feed is adjusted for chip curl. Some times a chatter will develop when the diameter gets smaller... and then I go to back gear slowing the rpm down to about 100. I time how long it takes to cover 1 inch and then set a loud timer in my shirt pocket so I don't have to stand there while cutting that distance... I take the barrel out after each cut and lightly freshen the center countersink at each end with a piloted 60 degree tool by hand. That takes maybe 10 seconds. I don't try and turn a real smooth finish as that usually results in terrible chatter... I finish smoothing/blending the barrel in a spinner on a belt sander.


.
 
Sam Duke said:
Dennis, are you tapering or conturing the barrels?

Sam
Click to expand...

I taper them using the off set but any contouring as in a hunting barrel... I do that by feeding out by hand with the compound. It can be a little tricky to match other contours but you can get them close. Lots of repeated measuring and marking on the barrel with felt pen... I much prefer to buy a pre turned blank and make minor adjustments on it if required.
 
I've re-contoured high power barrels (probably 7-8 of them). Most were 6.5mm, 28-30" and heavy contours. I've turned a few to pretty light contours and lightweight AR barrels and so far every one was easily a sub-MOA shooter after completed. Most (if not all) of these barrels were cut-rifled though. Not too much experience with buttoned barrels other than one 7mm Shilen select match stainless barrel I contoured from an unturned blank to a medium sporter cut to 27". Chambered that in 280 Ackley and it did exhibit a tendency to walk its point of impact as the barrel heated up. I had the barrel Cryoe'd and it solved the problem. That was my first barrel I chambered and I didn't use coolant while turning it down. Also the chamber left a bit to be desired, but it still shot 1 MOA and better.
 
I have seen

Lathes that have taper attachments on them. That would be a nice feature to have when doing a re-conturing, I would think. I was wondering if there are set-ups for metal lathes that would trace the shape of a patern for metal lathes?
 
Eddie

We have totally Hi-jacked your thread without providing an answer to your original question. I would guess that most do not know whether the manufacturers will re-contour or not because no one has asked them.
My gut feel is that they might do it if you have enough money or time but that they would not guarantee much of any results. I further would guess that the funds involved would be pretty high for the return. For a company that has a sixteen week or so backlog of orders, working on a used barrel would be pretty low on their list of priorities. For someone who has the equipment and doesn't mind doing something just to see if it works, there is not much cost involved other than time and it is obvious that it can be successful. But that doesn't make it profitable.
But again I am just guessing as to whether the companies would do it or not. The real way to get the answer would be to call the companies you are interested in and asking them directly.
Hope this helps and sorry for hi-jacking your thread.

Joe
 
Joe and Sam,

Since you were so kind as to explain to Lynn about your tapering setup......... can you explain to me about the wires coming out the end of the barrel? Are you'se guys working on as new electronic cleaning system?

:D

al
 
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