doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DIY Gunsmithing @ doublegunshop.com Barrel fitting Help

You were advised to lightly polish high spots on the breech end. Lightly means just that as I learned on my first attempt at fitting an orphan set of Armor Steel L.C. Smith barrels to a OO grade with a blown barrel. Working slow and careful, I got the gun to close perfectly with proper clearance under the barrel flats, good bolting, top lever right, etc. My total cost for the blown gun and orphan barrels was about $100.00, and I was happy to make a cheap shooter. All was great until I found that I took a bit too much off the rim depth and some (most) ammunition with slightly thicker rims wouldn't permit the gun to close properly. I had made the mistake of stoning a few thousandths too much off of the breech end of the barrels instead of stoning the hook. Learn from my rookie mistake that you often can't put metal back once removed.

Fortunately, I was able to borrow a reamer to cut the rim depth a bit deeper on both barrels. I've used kerosene soot lamps, Dykem layout blue, Jarrows black, etc for spotting. And RWTF is right about a small straight acetylene flame making lots of soot. But one very cheap and readily available item for your arsenal is to hit up your wife for an old tube of lipstick. A thin coat on one surface will easily transfer to the opposing contact surface, and show high spots very well. Some acetone on a rag will clean it right off. I'm not so keen on this for inletting wood although some use it. I got this idea from one of the Brownell's Gunsmith Kinks books, which are a great source of tips and ideas.

I forgot I had an old kerosene lamp so I put that to good use.

Here is the progress.

I am assuming I want almost 100% contact?

Coming along great. You do need to put the extractor in to see what it is going to do.

OK 1st of all I do not know how long it takes master barrel fitter to do this but I have about 6 hours in it up to this point

This is the latest without the extractor.



Just for conversation sake. Assuming the extractor has no impact (I am sure it will) how much more of the chamber face am I expected to have shinning to be considered done?

Thanks for all the input. The barrel gauges at .730 both sides and I cut the barrel down to 27" from 30". Besides wanting that length I figured it would also give me a chance at barrel soldering and eventually slow rust bluing. Also I am sure the shell face rim will have to be re-cut. I am also going to carve a beaver tail fore end and a new stock.

This is one of two projects the other being a real nice and tight Fulton special 16 gauge that I am doing to have a go at working through many of the steps of restoration. I have a couple 20 gauge LC smiths and that will get the benefit (hopefully) of the effort.

This shot gun is going to be my tight woods close to home flooded timber woody duck gun.

Thanks again.

Travis

That is pretty much there. how much contact does your smoke show on the hook? I doubt you removed enough metal to effect the rim cuts. A beavertail fore end puts a lot of extra force on the fore end hanger, don't be surprised if it eventually pops loose.

Travis, that is excellent fitting. Some so-called "master" double gunsmiths can't get one with that much contact. If it looks that good with the extractor in, I'd leave it alone.

How does the barrel flat to action flat relationship look?

SRH

First of all if you ever hear of me wanting to do this again please send me a self addressed envelope and I will send you a plane ticket to come down here so you can kick me in the nads. Holy moly what a chore. I spent 5 1/2 more hours on it after my last update. It really ended up being a test of will. The barrels were still riding high so I kept at it and had to work on about 7 areas simultaneously to end up with what I hope is a good fit. There is at least 85% breach face contact and the barrel flats are almost 50 contact with the tightest being over the pin. I polished the barrel face with 320 grit. Any reason to go finer?

The extractor fitted just fine and operates properly but I did note that one of my shot shell brands did fit tight but I tried about 5 others and they were fine. I will forgo messing with rim depth cutting for now. I have not checked hook/lever contact yet but it feels pretty smooth with some good travel.

Many thanks for the input and direction. Pics of what I hope is the final product. At the risk of jumping off a bridge, if you see something that needs attention I guess go ahead and tell me

Thanks again

I hope you are not leaving the extractor looking like that?

If you don't have at least 50% contact on the hook it may shoot loose again. But you have gotten past the biggest hurdle. The next one will take you a lot less time and the one after that will be less. Good work!

For Salopian I did clean up the extractor.

Mark II what is the next step after lever surface adjustment.

Many thanks

Travis