Cutting barrel down. Yes or no?

Improving and repairing firearms. Rifle bedding, barrel work, stock replacement and other ways to improve your firearms.

Re: Cutting barrel down. Yes or no?

Post by Rod_outbak » 27 Aug 2018, 10:30 am

[quote="Homer"]
G'Day Fella's,

Basically Toolup, I'd say No.
Better to sell it and buy a new one that has the features you now require.
The reason I suggest this is, most rifle barrels these days, have a slight restriction (referred to as Choke), in the last part of the barrel, near the muzzle.
If you shorten the barrel, you may loose this and no longer have the same accuracy, that you presently have at 26"???

Hope that helps

D'oh!
Homer
[/quote]

Homer, I'd REALLY like some more info about this.
The only rifles I can find any reference to having any sort of choke, are some vague mentions of some high-end air rifles, and some target .22's.

I've seen NOTHING about centrefire rifles having any sort of barrel restriction near the muzzle.
From what I've since read about the various techniques for producing a barrel and boring/rifling same, it seems a rather hard thing to achieve in a centrefire rifle without causing excessive/dangerous pressures.
Can you point me towards some online info about restrictions/chokes in centrefire rifles?

Cheers,

Rod.
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Re: Cutting barrel down. Yes or no?

Post by straightshooter » 28 Aug 2018, 7:28 am

Rod
Most production barrels today are cold forged. The predominant process is hammer forging. These processes generally can't easily introduce a taper into the bore.
It can be done on a custom basis with button rifling but adds to considerably to production cost.
So the answer is generally there is no intentional taper in production barrels but with target barrels things are different.
Where commodity production barrels might cost $50 to produce a custom target barrel might cost $250.
Don't confuse production cost with selling price.
With a custom target barrel a taper can be introduced with hand lapping in the best barrels or machine lapping in cheaper barrels. The taper will be barely measurable with normally available measuring instruments rather it will be 'felt' while lapping.
Generally speaking it has been found that with quality projectiles a bore tapering towards the muzzle does not seem to offer any advantage. Not so if the taper is in the wrong direction.
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Re: Cutting barrel down. Yes or no?

Post by marksman » 28 Aug 2018, 3:59 pm

here's what Dan Lilja has to say about what makes a rifle barrel accurate
http://riflebarrels.com/what-makes-a-ri ... -accurate/

I have had many discussions with very smart machinists who chamber barrels and have been told in the past that a slight restriction at the end of the bore is a good thing, especially in a rimfire, how it was explained to me was that when you get a hand lapped match barrel it has been lapped from one end and makes the bore slightly restricted at the end that the lap does not exit so the chamber is always put at the end that has the stamps that the lap was put in the bore, and when a bore is burning out it is looser at the chamber and tighter at the muzzle?
its what I have been led to believe for a long while :unknown:
“If you do not read the newspapers you are uninformed. If you do read the newspapers you are misinformed”. Mark Twain
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Re: Cutting barrel down. Yes or no?

Post by Rod_outbak » 28 Aug 2018, 6:01 pm

marksman and straightshooter; Many thanks.
You confirmed what little info I could find on the subject.

From what I could learn, I'd be pretty close to mark in saying that VERY FEW modern production-line rifles have this restriction in the barrel.

However, it raises a further question as a result.

Why is Homer advising against reducing the length of the OP's barrel, in a firearm that is HIGHLY UNLIKELY to have such a restriction at the muzzle end of the barrel, in case the OP loses that restriction?
I quote: "The reason I suggest this is, most rifle barrels these days, have a slight restriction (referred to as Choke), in the last part of the barrel, near the muzzle.
If you shorten the barrel, you may loose this and no longer have the same accuracy, that you presently have at 26"???"

What do you reckon the chances are that a Remington 700 Varmint has a restriction in the barrel to enhance accuracy?
Hint: Buckleys and none...

I remain confused.

Rod.
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Re: Cutting barrel down. Yes or no?

Post by bigpete » 28 Aug 2018, 7:25 pm

Sprinter firearms still make 22lr choked to .20 at the end. Nearly thinking about buying one,but I don't have a spare $600....
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Re: Cutting barrel down. Yes or no?

Post by Stix » 28 Aug 2018, 11:15 pm

bigpete wrote:Sprinter firearms still make 22lr choked to .20 at the end. Nearly thinking about buying one,but I don't have a spare $600....


Gee for that money you'd just buy a cz 452 or similar...get an entire rifle for just a little more. :unknown:
The man who knows everything, doesnt really know everything...he's just stopped learning...
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Re: Cutting barrel down. Yes or no?

Post by bigpete » 29 Aug 2018, 5:53 am

Yes,but they'd still just be a standard 22 or 17.....
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Re: Cutting barrel down. Yes or no?

Post by Toolnup » 03 Sep 2018, 7:50 pm

Got a quick price from a gunsmith today.

Cut and recrown barrel = $100
Cut and thread barrel = $110
Supply and fit new chrome moly barrel = $740

Still procrastinating about it. If I went to the trouble of changing barrels I would maybe stick with the long barrel and swap to 6.5 CM, apparently It's a fairly easy conversion? This would be my range gun.
I could then look around for a cheap more portable 308.

Hmm, first world problems.
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