After market contuoring

[Garagegunner]

I have the option to buy some barrels (a mix of shilen and douglas) from a smith that is closing shop and he has several barrels of different calibers that have a super heavy have what I think is a target contour. Sorry I am new gun building so I don't know the barrel contour number, but they are heavy and have a slight taper from the chamber to the muzzle. Is it possible to have these re-contoured to a hunting type contour and if it is who would be able to do that?

 

[Broz]

Yes, and some barrel makers do it for about $40. At last I know Kreiger does to their barrels. But understand that some believe it could induce or release stress in the barrel and feel machining of this nature should be done before final lapping. I do feel it is not he best practice but could be preformed by many smiths and is a bit of a crap shoot. I also feel it would be best done in a slow process with light cuts. But I am no machineist. I am sure you will get some other replies and some varied opinions about this.

Jeff

 

[rscott5028]

+1 to what Jeff said.

It may be a good deal. But, there's probably a reason why he still has these barrels lying around.

Contour, twist, length... I'm sure someone could use them.

But, it generally doesn't cost any more to get something with the exact specs you need when rebarreling. ...unless you're simply uninformed or impatient.

-- richard

 

[IdahoCTD]

Look around at what things are selling for or post what they are here and what he is asking for them. If it's a good deal buy them and sell them off to get what you want (hopefully making some $$ in the process). Otherwise just buy what you want from the start.

 

[Bughole]

My personal experience with recontouring is if you have a pretty heavy straight stress relieved tube you might get away with it but if you want to make them super light you will upset the balance in the stress relief layers and your accuracy will suffer.

 

[J E Custom]

I have the option to buy some barrels (a mix of shilen and douglas) from a smith that is closing shop and he has several barrels of different calibers that have a super heavy have what I think is a target contour. Sorry I am new gun building so I don't know the barrel contour number, but they are heavy and have a slight taper from the chamber to the muzzle. Is it possible to have these re-contoured to a hunting type contour and if it is who would be able to do that?

Most barrels can be re-contoured or tapered to some degree. depending on how much and how it is done
there would be little if any effect on the barrel quality if it was good in the beginning. In some cases it is nessary
to improve the concentricity of the barrel to the bore for consistant accuracy.

Could be a great deal or a disaster .

I would recomend that as someone suggested look at each barrel and even post the specs.
on each barrel.

Price is your business but maybe we could help in the usefulness of each barrel.

What is important = Material,Caliber, twist rate, maker and quality level(Shilen uses a system
that rates the barrels quality that goes like this). Select match (The best they have) Match
or target and the standard barrels are called sporters.

If you list all of the barrels we will be happy to make our recommendation.

The problem with bulk buying is that you can get one or two that can't be used or quality
is very poor and the savings of buying bulk is lost on barrels that can't or shouldn't be used
or sold.

Post, and I will rate on a 1 to 10 scale of use and quality in my opinion, as I'm sure others will.

J E CUSTOM

 

[BountyHunter]

Both of those are button rifled and they do not take well to contouring after rifling. Button rifled barrels will change internal dimensions and not uniformly.

That is why all button rifled barrels are countoured and then rifled.

I had a Broughton button that had to be fluted after to make weight and Tim had to re heat treat it and we were lucky and nothing changed and it still was a shooter.

On cut rifled blanks you can get away with it.

 

[J E Custom]

Both of those are button rifled and they do not take well to contouring after rifling. Button rifled barrels will change internal dimensions and not uniformly.

That is why all button rifled barrels are countoured and then rifled.

I had a Broughton button that had to be fluted after to make weight and Tim had to re heat treat it and we were lucky and nothing changed and it still was a shooter.

On cut rifled blanks you can get away with it.

Sorry BH not trying to start a ****ing contest ,but I will have to disagree with you on this one

All good buttoned rifled barrels are double stress relieved. once from the mill as the
last operation and once after all drilling and rifling is done by the barrel maker.

When an order is placed the barrel maker then contours or tapers the barrel per the customers
needs and /or flutes the barrel.

On cut rifled barrels one stress relieving is all that is nessary because there are no new stresses
induced. If anything this troubles me more than the barrel maker doing the final stress
relieving, because the mill has less responsibility for the finished product that the barrel maker,

Dan Lilja has a good FAQ section that explains this in detail (It is under the fluting questions).

This is not a debate about which method is better (Cut or buttoned rifling) just to clear up the
perception that one can be contoured and the other should not. In truth any barrel not properly
stress relieved whether from the mill or the barrel maker should not be turned ,fluted or
contoured. So if you purchase a premium barrel with eather type of rifling there should be
no reason that you could not re-contour or flute if it is done right. And in many cases it will
or can improve the performance by making it perfectly concentric to the bore.

J E CUSTOM