The Voyeur's Guide to Barrel Chambering

Excellent series. Good photos and explanation. I'll be having a new barrel fitted this winter, and as German said, it shows customers what is being done and how. Thanks.
 
This is a great read /with pictures ,I learned a few tricks. Thanks for the post
 
Very well done, I really enjoyed it. It looks like John got a new lathe, what is it?
 
German Salazar said:
Thanks for the link Hambone. From a gunsmith's perspective, the series is probably most useful to show a customer all that gets done and why it costs what it does. It's more of a "what gets done" than a "how it gets done" series. Glad you liked it!
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What's not to like? Its a great series of articles.

Taking nothing away from you or the series. or to kiss ass in any way but............. Its what I've come to expect from your blog. Which I rate as one of the very best on the www.

There are one or two who contribute to the online shooting magazines that would do well to attempt to produce articles of as good a quality as those that are the norm on your blog.
 
Hambone said:
What's not to like? Its a great series of articles.

Taking nothing away from you or the series. or to kiss ass in any way but............. Its what I've come to expect from your blog. Which I rate as one of the very best on the www.

There are one or two who contribute to the online shooting magazines that would do well to attempt to produce articles of as good a quality as those that are the norm on your blog.
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Dang straight, Salazar has one of the best, if not "The most tastefully written and wonderfully illustrated" shooting blogs on the web. Not to mention an easy & interesting read done by an accomplished shooter...

Rod
 
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German, great photos and they are of the best gunsmithing lathe ever built.

Question, the paragraph under photo #5 reads "The real work of indexing the barrel happens now. A long probe goes into the barrel, resting on the lands and grooves at least one inch in." I think that should read indicating not indexing. As I understand "indexing" it is a process to point the muzzle in a suitable direction where the muzzle has been pointed off-axis by using a process where the dial indicator reads outside the bore and not in the bore where, IMO, it should read.

This comment is just my opinion of how to set up a barrel for chambering and is in no way is intended to take away from a most informative article.
 
German, I think you got all the photos flipped in backwards, the bolt appears to be on the wrong side of the action!!:)
 
German,

"It" happens more often than one might think. Dave Tooley did a long-range barrel for a guy a while back, .300 Win Mag, IIRC. The guy said it just wouldn't shoot. Dave took the rifle back, went to the range, and sure enough, got pie-plate size groups at 200 yards with Sierra 200s.

Being Dave, he took a cleaning rod & quickly figured out it was a 14-twist barrel, instead of the 10-twist ordered & stamped. Hart replaced the Barrel, & Dave chambered up the new one. It shot fine. Pleased customer, spare barrel.

This one had a happy ending. Both Dave & I were enamored with the BIB 187 flat base bullets for long range. I had a 13.5 twist barrel, & mine shot better than Dave's old 10-twist. I kept telling Dave he should screw that 14-twist barrel on & give a try.

Being Dave, he finally got around to it. Rechambered to the .30 SHV (like a Dakota). And started winning everything in sight with those 187s.

Moral: Hang on to the barrel. You never know when you might discover a use for a Palma-contour point-blank rifle. Like a point-blank tube gun (my type of "tube"). I think it's a law of nature that when a barrel makes you so unhappy for a technical reason, it turns out to be a real good barrel. You just have to get by the "might have been."
 
Chuck

"What" happens more often than one might think? I see no mention of miss stamped twist rates in the series.
 
German

My memory of your previous months telling of your twist rate problems caught up with me after I had posted.

I'd be interested to know who covered the extra freight, handling, packaging and machining costs incurred by this manufactures id stamping error. Hopefully it wasn't you or John.

Valuable lesson to be learnt by us all here IMO. Check before machining or make sure you cut off and keep the barrel stub with the stampings on as possible evidence.
 
German,
Great photography on the barrel chambering/fitting. One nit to pick on the description: the Garand and a few others do have square threads but none of these are Acme threads since that is a different thread form. Anyone out there know if Acme has ever been used on a barrel thread? Again; great blog.
 
German I am trying to locate the article on the South Bend Lathe re-build and I can't seem to locate it what is it listed under.

J.Louis
 
German Salazar said:
Hambone, Charles is referring to an article last month http://riflemansjournal.blogspot.com/2011/10/equipment-rare-krieger-mistake.html about a Krieger I got marked 1:11" twist that was a 1:18" twist. As it turns out, there were at least nine of those made, maybe more, it appears most have now been located by Krieger.

Charles, that barrel is alreay back in Wisconsin, but I know what you mean, there's always some opportunity lurking that we haven't yet considered.
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One of them was at my shop. A customer had ordered it from Krieger and had it sent to me. I checked the twist with a cleaning rod and it was an 18 with 11 stamped on the end of the barrel. Sure am glad Krieger was on the ball and caught their mistake. I doubt if I would have had a very happy camper if I had chambered the barrel. Krieger took care of the postage back to them with a credit on account.
 
German:

I found the Rifleman's Journal to be a very good read. It proves one is never too old to learn. Thank you and Hambone for sharing it with the rest of us.
One editorial note: my Name is Nathaniel Lambeth, and I go by "Nat" not Nate if you want to correct something.
Again thanks for the great read..
Nat Lambeth
 
great article,only thing wrong with it is,,YOU STATE & SHOW PICS. ON PART 4 OF A MICROMETER STOP THAT IS "HOLDING " THE REAMER..WRONG .WHATS HOLDING THE REAMER IS "my floating reamer holder" that i have ben selling for 20 yrs..it is "not" made by pt&g. as you have stated..please correct this..the micro-stop is set screw clamped onto the reamer.if you check with john you will find that he bought it from"rockjag4" probably from the 6br site..thanks------------ROCKJAG4 PLEASE READ THE EMAIL I SENT TO YOU ON YOUR SITE..THANKS..
 
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So like i have asked in the past if the reamer follows the bore anyway and i am using a floating reamer holder, how critical is it that my barrel is dialed in to .0001? To be quite honest i have been told my jet machine wont even hold this kind of tolerance? We are about set up. we have been building a complete machine shop and it has taken a bit longer than we planned. The mill and lathe are in place and we are waiting on some electrical work. Then we will be ready to cut some steel. Dads says he will be able to tell how tight the lathe is as soon as he turns it on. I hope its close!! We are going to use Kennametal and that stuff isnt cheap. if i dont need a boring bar i wont buy one!! Lee
 
Lee,
If you have a four jaw mounted, and have a spider on the other end of the spindle, you can dial one in right now. Your headstock bearings are the limiting factor on how close you can get. Also, you should be able to use a pin that is ground true in the four jaw to see how close it can be dialed without power. A friend has a lather that is very similar to yours, made in Taiwan, that is probably 20 years old, and he tells me that he can get things very close.
Boyd
 
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