doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DIY Gunsmithing @ doublegunshop.com Non ejector to ejector barrel 16 ga.

I had seen where someone had posted about making a non-ejector barrel to an ejector barrel. I did do using my shop tools, radial drill press and a 16" drill press. I am just a hobbyist gun smith who likes to work on my own L.C. Smiths. This one is for a 16 ga. Field Grade that had a Hunter One Trigger and ejectors but the barrels were cut on the original gun.
hope you enjoy them, I had fun doing it and would do it again.
The hardest thing I have done so far is to take a stock that was not for a Hunter One Trigger and make it for a HOT. You think there is not much wood on a side lock shotgun, well there is even less once you remove the wood between the locks to accommodate the HOT. I used my mortising chisel and used the original stock as a template to guide the mortising chisel down through the inlet for the top tang to the bottom of the trigger plate. Tried it many times and finally put the good stock in and then took me about 20 minutes to get the nerve to pull the handle to the mortising chisel. Worked out great but I wouldn't try it again.

Excellent pictures, David. I admire your resourcefulness. Well done.

Thanks Stan. I have some degree of mechanical skills and like to work on my own guns.

Well done. More guts than I have! I have lots of machines in my shop, including that same drill press which I only use for polishing and wood work. You would really enjoy having a good vertical mill.

I've worked on a Bridgeport for many years and yes that would be the right choice except it would not fit into my basement as to height. A few years ago I was thinking of buying a small mill from Grizzly but now I do not do as much as I used to. My shop is really set up for woodworking, but I do have a small Grizzly metal lathe that lets me make small projects. On my 20" drill press I bought a XY table and made a barrel wall thickness gage like the one that Glazan had. There are two rods one for 10-12 ga and the other for 16 ga., and I can get repeatable readings taking the barrels off and back on. As shown in the picture I can reach 16" into the barrel from breech up, but on a tight choke 12 ga. the muzzle end will not fit over the rod. (5/8" rod.625 plus half diameter of ball .0625

Great post, David. Your comment about the Bridgeport reminded me of an experience I had as a teenager working in a local instrument shop. I was working late, by myself, when a delivery person beat on the door. He had the Bridgeport vertical mill that we had ordered months earlier. The driver was alone, and not well versed in material handling. We had a narrow driveway and a high dock, about useless unless the truck had a side door, which this one didn't. We took about 45 minutes getting the truck situated so we could move the mill onto the dock. I took another 45 minutes accumulating broom sticks and steel stock, enough so we could roll the big machine into the shop, about 25 yards or better. Short story was that my boss couldn't figure out how the big Bridgeport got set in place the night before. I'm not sure I ever explained it to him.

Would you happen to have more pictures of how it is assembled? This is really neat!

Bill, great story on moving the Bridgeport. They are so top-heavy that the best way to move one was the way you did it.
When I was working, our shop was getting remodeled and there was this massive Fosdick Radial Arm drill press that had to be moved. It was moved just as you described.

journeyman, what pictures would you like on the assembly? If the barrel wall measurements I didn't take any using the xy table on the big drill press. What I will tell you is even though the table is big it is only supported by the 4" column with a rank for up and down. Table is still shaky so I used two 2x4'a on each side of the table and lowered the table onto them and then locked the table to the column. This really helped in stabilizing it using the 3/4" drill chuck with a 1/4" ball end mill.
I also had to mill out an area for the spring loaded arm that is tapered to accommodate the brass arm so that when compressed into the slot the rod that the barrel goes over has to measure .625 Also and the ball has to be right across from the spring.

Someone, not mentioning name, said that this type gage and the Hosford gage will not work because of flex. I can't believe that because if it did you would not be able to repeat your measurements within .001-002 reading in the same exact area.

When moving a mill, it is best to lower the table as much as possible and turn the head upside down. If a large machine starts to turn over, you can't stop it; run out of the way.
Mike

You are 100% correct in your description of the amount of wood that is relieved for accomodating the HOT system on an L.C. Smith shotgun. Very nice project indeed, great close-up fotos, just wondering in today's market, how available are the parts required for such an endeavor?? RWTF

David, the fellow whose name you will not mention installed a set of non ejector Smith barrels on an ejector Smith for me. I don't know how he did it, but the ejector barrels eject and the extractor barrels extract. He didn't act like it was much of a problem.

Francis, there are used HOT's sometimes on eBay, Gen Broker and probably more. The average price I see them for is between $400-$500, the cheaper ones you might see who knows if they work and who knows if the higher priced ones work also. There are a few people I know that if they buy a gun with a HOT they will send it out to Buck Hamlin and have it converted to double triggers. I own a few with the HOT and like them, the one I bought was a Specialty Grade with the Trap Options, ventilated rib, twin ivory beads and a recoil pad. It was ordered as a REO with 32" barrels, Regular frame, ejectors and a HOT which was other option. On this particular gun the HOT works from right to left barrel but not left to right on the selector, but both barrels have the same constriction so no need to switch.
The biggest problem I see with a HOT is when the gun is sent to a gunsmith that does not know or understand on how the HOT works. The lock plate connecting screw can be a half turn too tight or too loose and the trigger will not work right. The top tang screw under the top lever can be off by one full turn. (this screw head is tapered like the top tang and not being tightened correctly if will not work. When these guns were sent out by the factory all the screws were timed. When I take the lock plates off a HOT I always use a dial caliper and take measurements before and then after to confirm my original readings.

Oh and Buck will not work on guns with a HOT, but Jerry Andrews will.

Bill it would be much easier to do the job if you had a Bridgeport with a digital readout instead of using a dial caliper to scribe the lines for the extractor/ejector stem and a few other places. If I'm not mistaken and if this is the same gun, the pusher for the extractor/ejector was not put in. That is there if is a problem with the extractor/ejector not working, the fore-end will move it. It wasn't much of a problem just took time laying it out for the different operations.