doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Shotgun chamber sleeving /re-lining

I've seen this procedure advertised as a means to restore a damaged chamber and I am curious as to how this is viewed across the industry "if carried out properly", what the different techniques are...if there really is more than one and how this would affect the value and desirability of an intended purchase....is re-proofing an issue?...(on this side of the pond)

All opinions welcome

CJ

CJ,
I dunno how it's viewed by anyone or how it would affect value, but I did chamber sleeve a sxs .410 once. It's pretty straight forward would be nearly invisible and undetectable unless someone knew what to look for. Even then it would be tough to detect. If done well, I see no desirability issues unless you were dealing with a very pricey collectable. From a proof perspective, my understanding is yes, it does affect the validity of a British proof. Of course, in the US, valid proof is not required.

Briley does chamber sleeving. They can take a 12 and chamber sleeve it down to 16,20 or whatever. They can do a 10ga as well. I think Cryl Adams has a 10ga. hammer gun chamber sleeved down to 12 for ZZ bird competition.
I inquired about this last summer and the cost was 750.00 then. Don't know what it would be now.

Regards, Gordon

If you were to chamber sleeve a 12 down to a 20, how would that effect pressure issues? I guess it would be the same as using chamber-mates or similar gizmos, only permanent. Presuming that pressure would be significantly lower in the increased volume of the 12 ga tubes, and presuming that proper 20 ga shot-cups would seal the bore for the step-down(up), and presuming that the 12 ga chokes would still be effective, would this be a workable way to safely shoot modern 20 ga loads in old damascus 12's?...Geo

Is it not possible to sleeve the chamber to the original gauge, i.e. 12 to 12?

You can chamber sleeve to the original gauge or down on gauge. Going down a gauge results in what in effect is a over bored gun. Hence the gurus tell us that pressure is lower and velocity is greater.

I had a 16 that had been left loaded with two paper shells for what we figured was almost 50 years. Moisture and the paper shells caused the chambers to be deeply pitted. The gun was a Fox 16 with 30" barrels and ther price was right, south of $400.00, "as is". It was so bad, that the original barrels were being saved for spare parts as they were unsafe to ever use as they were. Figured that I might as well try to sleeve them. Boring the chambers out was a fairly easy step. The making the chamber sleeve took a lot of trial and error on the lathe due to mostly my lack of experience. Would have been easier to make them back as a 16 but I wanted a 20 with long barrels and this was my chance. I had a extra 20 Extractor and that had to be changed. If it went back as a 16 the original extractor could have been left as it was. It is one heck of a long range dove gun.

If I had it to do over again I let Briley do it for me. While the second one should not take nearly as much trial and error as the first. But this is a job that they can do very well and I think that their price is very reasonable.

Pat,
Yes, I simply sleeved the chambers to the original size. They had been damaged by a dummy with a reamer trying to make it a 3".

Why spend hundreds of dollars to chamber sleeve and go down a gauge? Simply go out, buy a set of Lil' Skeeters, grind an extractor opening and glue them in place for less than $50.
Or spend big and get some Chamber-mates.

Pete

Thank you all for your replies... the reason I asked these questions was to see if I should seriously consider the purchase of a gun that has had this done to it but unfortunately was not done very well, but….. if I get it a the right price I will machine out the old sleeves an put in new ones...(this is not for going down to a smaller gauge size it is strictly to restore a desirable piece) the sleeves were fitted poorly to the point where I can see a visible joint/gap ring in the middle of the forcing cones...should the sleeves have been made that long?...maybe they had to go that deep to clean out the problem area...obviously I will have to make them just as long or a bit longer to correct it.
If this were being done by Briley, how deep would they have bored out the chambers?...basically, where would the joint in the bore be?

CJ