Recrown questions?

[Willie D]

How much does a recrown job take down the barrel?

A friend has an old Mauser in excellent condition save for some cleaning rod wear at the muzzle. It's almost too nice to shoot and I'm sure a few people would say "don't!" but he still uses it and would like to squeeze more accuracy out of it without hurting it's value.

Would recrowning automatically hurt its value?

 

[Clemson]

If it is an unaltered military Mauser, recrowning will decrease its collector value. If it is a beater/shooter, sporterized, or otherwise violated gun, recrowning probably won't hurt the value. The amount removed depends on the degree of damage on the current crown. As little as 1/32 of an inch if the crown is simply dinged or damaged. As much as an inch if it is truly belled be cleaning rod wear. If you remove that much, the front sight has to be removed and replaced, and that is not a trivial job. You can take 1/4 inch from most barrels without messing with the sight.

Clemson

 

[James K]

He might look into counterboring, which involves drilling an oversize hole in the end of the barrel down to, usually, about 1/2 inch. That gets rid of most of the worn rifling and leaves a true muzzle, but back in the barrel. It will not be as good as cutting off the barrel, since the exiting gas can cause some bullet disturbance, but it can restore accuracy without the need to reduce the barrel length or interfere with the front sight.

Jim

 

[Tom2]

I have recrowned guns with the hand tool from Brownells. Probably removed less than 1/16" on the actual end of the bore, not the whole end of the barrel. Have to not get carried away with the thing. When you can see the ends of the lands nice and sharp is when you are finished, I think. I then put some cold blue on the work which is just a bare ring around the end of the bore at that point. Not really noticeable but if it is a valuable collectable, it might be a different matter. Run of the mill Yugo Mauser or something, OK, but fully original German Mauser GI bringback, it might affect value as those are going up up up in price. Then a professional might be able to recrown it without changing the look or contour of the end of the barrel, if he does not have to remove much material, and keep it looking original. If it is not visible, it should not affect value unless someone spills the beans.