doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Ruined rifled drilling barrel.

Best fix is to have a new barrel put in place. Any threaded plugs aren't going to have the strength to with stand the pressures of a nitro rifle cartridge. I am not sure a liner wouldn't fail as well where it passes over the plugs.

You could probably plug the holes with threaded inserts and open the chamber for a straight cased black powder cartridge. Wouldn't be much different from blackpowder muzzleloader pressures which are routinely built with threaded plugs in the breech area.

I have a couple ideas. Thanks for the vote of confidence Geno.

One possibility would be to weld up the holes, use a piloted core drill to drill, then finish ream, the barrel out in a few steps to the largest size that would be comfortable, leaving say something like .050" wall at the muzzle, then drill a shorter depth in a larger diameter for the chamber area, then machine a barrel blank to slip fit, cut the chamber and you'd have a lined barrel...ala Teague.

I second the vote for welding the holes, and then relining the bbl. In fact Chuck's idea is about as perfect of a solution that I could think of.

I have seen old wincester lever guns where they "saved" the barrels by reaming them as far out as they would go and then lined them with new chamberings.

Springfield 1861 muzzle loaders were converted to trapdoor like this using the Allen method. Barrels and liners were simply brazed at the chamber and at the muzzle.

I like the idea of switching to a more common caliber instead. Say, 243 or maybe something like a 30-30 Winchester.

I would take a chamfer bit (1" chamfer bit?) and chamfer the holes to allow more room for a tig head or welding rod. Place some brass inside the barrel to flow weld upon, then complete the tapered plug weld. Heat treat the area as necessary. Brazing may also be an option.

My two cents.

Don.

The best way to restore this damaged rifle barrel- what we had in Vietnam with the M-60 MG- based on the great German MG-42 to some extent- barrel life was greatly increased when they used Stellite liners- Lauf Stahl-- most likely a nickel rich ordnance grade steel- I would TIG weld the proper sized alloy steel plugs, then have the bore reamed out, straightened, and then a Stellite liner with the same characteristics of the original bore as to twist, lands and grooves and either RH or LH twist-installed. Extremely expensive, and the gents are right about the greater pressure in the chamber area where some numbnut bored the holes-drillings are indeed fine weapons, what a shame this one was almost ruined- are the shotgun barrels in 16 gauge?

I had a drilling that I imported from the UK. It was a Sauer. the rifle barrel was redone as a 222 Rem, complete with rimless extractor. worked like a champ. The rifle barrel was monoblocked. They cut the 8x57JR barrel off at about 3 inches and then fir a 22 barrel into it and it obviously matched the contour of the roginal barrel. all soldered together and re rust blued. Unless you pulled the forend off and looked for the joint, you would have thought it was made that way. All the work was done in the UK, complete with proofs.

Have seen several drillings brought over from Britain where they welded up the rifle bore so as never to be able to use it.We are are all well aware of the dangers that those various obsolete rimmed rifle calibers posed to the life and limb of the citizenry.

No reason why those hole can't be welded shut and the bore relined with a smaller bore rifled liner. I'm not sure that you could safely reline it to 8x57R, which can be a very potent cartridge, but a milder, but still big game-capable rimmed cartridge should be possible. How about .30-30? Or 7-30 Waters? Or 6.5x57R? Not cheap, but doable, at least here in the US.

I leave it to the "metalurgically literate" to decide if you weld first and line later, or vice versa.

Some very good ideas and advice here.
On the other hand, I wouldn't touch it. My reason is, similar drillings (with good barrels) are plentiful here in middle Europe and don't cost much. But such a repair/restoration if done by a good professional could cost a small fortune. So here this gun would be considered a wall hanger or a parts gun. IMHO of course.

With kind regards,
Jani