Some weeks ago I measured the barrel diameters at one inch intervals of Michael Petrov's .30-06 Surkamer and his .400 Whelen G&H with the idea that I would use a profile for my .400 that was somewhat in keeping with an original rifle. I think these early profiles were a bit more robust than what is typically used today.
Michael's rifles show a range of artistic treatment of barrel profiles. Some have a short cylindrical section just forward of the action. Depending on the gun maker a short radius or a long radius was then applied that reached some point forward where a straight taper was applied to the muzzle.
To remove evidence of the rear sight spline, some of the barrels were turned just forward of the action and a collar was fitted that snugged up flush with the straight front ring of the action.
Some, like the Surkamer, had a moderate radius without the cylinder and that is what I decided to use. The Surkamer has a muzzle diameter of .606" and this was increased to .660" so that I could use the early Redfield banded ramp that came with the rifle.
Morris Melani created two profiles in MasterCam from which templates would be machined. The first was a true recreation of the Surmaker .30-06 and the second a modified Surkamer for the .400 Whelen that would be sent to the barrel maker for tracing on the new barrel.
Here are the templates:
Documentation was engraved on each of the 23.25" steel bar stock templates.
