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Rifling. How hard?
- Thread starter darkgael
- Start date
Not hard at all, assuming you know how. All you need is a rifling machine or a rifling jig, or a rifling box. You can make your own, as long as you know how, or buy a rifling machine, or make a rifling box or a rifling jig. It's actually quite simple, not as complex as it sounds. The main complicating factor is how many barrels you want to rifle, and whether you want to automate it or not.
And as Dufus said, when you're done it will probably be at least a 33 caliber, maybe a 375 caliber.
And as Dufus said, when you're done it will probably be at least a 33 caliber, maybe a 375 caliber.
The main complicating factor is how much money you want to spend. Like Scorch says, the actual machining isn't terribly complicated, if you have the right machine.
Assuming it's an existing .32 cal handgun barrel that's worn out, it's already over .32 calibre. That'd be .312"- .314" groove diameter.
Assuming it's an existing .32 cal handgun barrel that's worn out, it's already over .32 calibre. That'd be .312"- .314" groove diameter.
rifling
What I have is a Baby Bulldog that has had its barrel drilled out and a smooth bore liner installed.....nicely done. I wonder why whoever did this did not install a rifled liner. There is no way to know.
The bore is .30". The cylinder is chambered for .32 Colt.
Perhaps I should have asked - What is involved in removing a barrel liner and installing a new one?
What I have is a Baby Bulldog that has had its barrel drilled out and a smooth bore liner installed.....nicely done. I wonder why whoever did this did not install a rifled liner. There is no way to know.
The bore is .30". The cylinder is chambered for .32 Colt.
Perhaps I should have asked - What is involved in removing a barrel liner and installing a new one?
Barrel liners can even be installed with a very thin smear of epoxy. it would be practically impossible to break the bond of a thin epoxy layer of that sort of huge area through just shearing force.
I believe that your only hope of breaking that bond would be to heat it thoroughly enough to break down the glue. I still can't comprehend the sort of force that it would take to pull/push out that barrel.
Imo, really, the only possible choice you have is to have the thing drilled out and religned.
Again.
I believe that your only hope of breaking that bond would be to heat it thoroughly enough to break down the glue. I still can't comprehend the sort of force that it would take to pull/push out that barrel.
Imo, really, the only possible choice you have is to have the thing drilled out and religned.
Again.
What I have is a Baby Bulldog that has had its barrel drilled out and a smooth bore liner installed
Sounds to me like what you have is a Short Barreled Shotgun. Unless it has the accompanying Federal paperwork, what you have is a potential legal problem.
Now you might be able to get by if the gun is an antique, but I'd check carefully.
Jim Watson
New member
If glued in, heat will break down the adhesive.
I once saw a gun that had been lined for caliber conversion. The owner wanted a different front sight, so he soldered one on and watched melted adhesive run out of the seam. He figured the rear 3/4 of the barrel was unaffected, so he kept shooting it.
The pre-epoxy method was to solder in the liner. It is feasible to melt the solder and push the liner out. That was in the instructions for Parkerrifling if the chamber had to be recut.
I once saw a gun that had been lined for caliber conversion. The owner wanted a different front sight, so he soldered one on and watched melted adhesive run out of the seam. He figured the rear 3/4 of the barrel was unaffected, so he kept shooting it.
The pre-epoxy method was to solder in the liner. It is feasible to melt the solder and push the liner out. That was in the instructions for Parkerrifling if the chamber had to be recut.
I wondered about solder. I kept coming back to the question of how bloody hard it would be to accurately solder a liner into a rifle without a full length gas burner to keep both steel objects hot enough to work with even a low temp solder.
Not so much a problem with a revolver. either way it seems that the process will be heat and some means of pulling out the liner.
Not so much a problem with a revolver. either way it seems that the process will be heat and some means of pulling out the liner.
Jim Watson
New member
The Parkerrifling setup shown in my 1939 Stoegers reprint HAS full length burners for soldering in liners.
smooth bore
Believe me, I had the same thought and the same concern. The gun is an antique (pre-1898).
I am rethinking the chambering....it may well be the .320 Revolver as opposed to the .32 Colt.
Found this info:
Very much like this gun:
http://nwiowaoutdoors.com/2013/04/01/belgium-made-mini-320-revolver/
I may use it for parts as I have another Baby, virtually identical, that needs a new hand and hand spring as well as a rebound lever.
I will have to evaluate.
ToW has limited liners available. The only one that might - might - work is meant for the 32-20. I'd have to buy eight inches (@ $5.89/inch)
Sounds to me like what you have is a Short Barreled Shotgun. Unless it has the accompanying Federal paperwork, what you have is a potential legal problem.
Now you might be able to get by if the gun is an antique, but I'd check carefully.
Believe me, I had the same thought and the same concern. The gun is an antique (pre-1898).
I am rethinking the chambering....it may well be the .320 Revolver as opposed to the .32 Colt.
Found this info:
That matches the diameter of the present smoothbore.In 1875, Colt introduced the .32 Colt short and long cartridges chambered in their New Line Revolvers. No other American maker chambered it, but it was used in Great Britain, known as the .320 revolver. For some reason, Colt used a .30 caliber bullet that measured .300 instead of the typical .311-.312 used by other makers of .32 revolvers. A heeled bullet was also used to some extent but wasn’t popular. Accuracy was not very good though, and was only adequate for close range. Most loads shot an 80 grain bullet in the 750 FPS range, giving around 100 FT LBS. of energy,
Very much like this gun:
http://nwiowaoutdoors.com/2013/04/01/belgium-made-mini-320-revolver/
I may use it for parts as I have another Baby, virtually identical, that needs a new hand and hand spring as well as a rebound lever.
I will have to evaluate.
ToW has limited liners available. The only one that might - might - work is meant for the 32-20. I'd have to buy eight inches (@ $5.89/inch)
Last edited:
Gunplummer
New member
I soldered a lot of liners in rifle barrels. The hard part is not the liner installation, it is drilling out the old barrel. The liners are always way over length. I have a heavy block of wood with a hole drilled in it. I set it on the floor with the liner in it. I then slide the barrel over the top. Let gravity help you out. I will admit, I always had someone else to help. I just use two Bernzomatic torches. It is only solder. You are not trying to smelt steel. That is what I use to take old military sight assembles off too.
Since one can get barrel liners pretty easily I always figured that relining a .22 couldn't be that hard, the biggest problem I believe that I would have would be cutting details like extractors, drilling it out, putting it in, cutting it off and crowning it, etc.
Seems like a pretty simple job for a guy with a reasonably well equipped shop. It isn't like hooking up a new mouse.
Seems like a pretty simple job for a guy with a reasonably well equipped shop. It isn't like hooking up a new mouse.
Gunplummer
New member
If you have no way to make your own drills it gets very expensive. Check the price of them in Brownell's sometime.
If that revolver is British (or European), it might have been made smoothbore to make it a "shotgun" and evade laws banning "pistols". If so, it would be ironic if making it a smoothbore made it illegal under US law.
Didn't Shakespeare have a word or two about laws?
Jim
Didn't Shakespeare have a word or two about laws?
Jim
Here is one link to a couple pictures of the rifling jig in the gunsmith shop at colonial Williamsburg:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/eggsngrits/3575069274
you may have to hunt through a group of photos or google like I did.
From the conversation I had with one of the workers there the rod that goes in the barrel basically has a single small very hard "tooth" that the barrel is passed over and over with the cutter taking very shallow cuts. Then index the barrel in the jig over a partial rotation an repeat. And repeat for each groove.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/eggsngrits/3575069274
you may have to hunt through a group of photos or google like I did.
From the conversation I had with one of the workers there the rod that goes in the barrel basically has a single small very hard "tooth" that the barrel is passed over and over with the cutter taking very shallow cuts. Then index the barrel in the jig over a partial rotation an repeat. And repeat for each groove.
That is probably the very same device they had 40 years ago when I visited. This device is used with a standard one hook cutter. there a
was a practice at one time of building a broach that had 5 cutters in a sing;e head, but it wasn't particularly efficient.
im not even sure if you could cut 0.177 rifling.
there used to be a lot of noise about whether cut, swaged, or forged was best. i quit listening after fifteen years.
was a practice at one time of building a broach that had 5 cutters in a sing;e head, but it wasn't particularly efficient.
im not even sure if you could cut 0.177 rifling.
there used to be a lot of noise about whether cut, swaged, or forged was best. i quit listening after fifteen years.
Jim Watson
New member
there a
was a practice at one time of building a broach that had 5 cutters in a sing;e head, but it wasn't particularly efficient.
This would have been news to Smith & Wesson for a large part of their history. And to popular Italian maker Pedersoli now. And to John C. Garand, although on action parts, not barrels.