doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com making heavy barrels lighter

I may have missed it, where is the current center of balance for the gun?

Did you get the gun sleeved or did you sleeve it? (if you sleeved it what was the weight before the sleeving?)

Does the gun currently have a butt pad and if so what kind is it?

Leave it alone! Particularly so if it is shooting straight. You start screwing with the barrels you might as well take a hammer to it. If you don't like it trade it off for a different gun.

Rich only stated this was a Vintage gun. He did not list country of origin or where it was sleeved. If it is a US gun, Sleeved in the US, it was Never "In Proof".

"sleeved barrels being "heavier" is: are they really?"

Depends on what tubes are installed and what profiles are chosen. Modern high strength steels can give light and strong barrels assuming the installer wants to do some lathe work.

Richard, I have done a lot of research on shotgun handling, particularly, quantification thereof. I am working on a similar project, except a SXS sporting clays gun. I'll offer to share theories and learnings if you are so inclined.

Research tells me that handling fit should be thought of much like stock fit. The dimensions of handling are weight, balance (teeter-totter point), unmounted swing effort and mounted swing effort. We have weight. We need the length in inches from the teeter-totter point to the (front) trigger. I can SWAG a unmounted swing effort from the data base and calculate a SWAG mounted swing effort. If you have access to a typical Brit game gun you can feel the handling of a profile of about: 6 1/2# weight, 4 1/2" balance point to trigger, 1.45 unmounted and 6.4 mounted. A M-94 Winchester carbine is a fair surrogate for a game gun. If you don't have access to either of those, describe a gun you do have and I'll SWAG it.

2-p gave good info on weight change. With original balance, we can calculate new balance and new swings for various proposed weight and weight location changes. BTW, balance is not some magic number. It is a characteristic of each gun and can be changed by weight change or weight location change. The number should be what you as an individual shooter like/shoot well.

If you think this is helpful, post back.

DDA

That sleeved barrels "ruin a gun's balance" is a myth. The sleeves can be bored and struck to whatever the shooter's heart desires and his wallet will pay for. The far bigger problem is communicating to the gunmaker what is desired. I am currently working on what we need to tell the gunmaker to have a reasonable hope of getting about what we want.

DDA

I agree with Rocketman, a sleeving job by a competent gunsmith can mimic original gun balance. Kirk Merrington replicated the original proof weight of a pair of barrels on a Belgian near perfectly and the gun came back balancing beautifully.

With respect to weight removal from the barrels, I had a 12 proofed Greener hammer gun that had .783 bores as a result of extensive honing. Although it still had acceptable wall thickness, it was extremely light and whippy on the barrel end and stock heavy. My only point is that you can remove a significant amount of weight from the barrels through honing, but results may be somewhat unpredictable.

My old Omega weighs 3.5oz so if you have a heavy wristwatch you might want to just take that off and save the bore job.

just a thot

Rocketman,would you please expound further on SWAG.