This has to do with black powder rifles. Hope that is ok.
I studied Gunsmithing at Trinidad State Jr College in 1960-63. we did work for the locals and one job that comes to mind that was very common. Many a rancher or oldtimers grandkid would come by the shop with a black powder rifle of some sort with the barrel cut off with a hack saw to have the barrel re crowned. Here is the story on this the old black powder guns did not get cleaned as often as they needed a lot of the time. A barn gun that was used to dispatch a varmint was just put back in the corner after the job was done. Or if grandma shot some meat out the back door she shot it had the kid clean up the buck but well the rifle went back to its spot by the back screen door. As for the cut off barrels it seems like uncleaned blackpowder barrels erode bad from the muzzle. Cut off the corrosion back to rifling and it will shoot again. So in comes the hacksaw. A lot of them were cut off to the sight and some had front sight gone and some sort of bead sight affixed to the barrel end. Usually a hole drilled with a screw in the hole that was filed to a sight of the owners liking. We ended up cutting a lot of dovetails for new sights during the two years at Trinidad and saw some really fine old rifles and shotguns from the very early years on the Western slope. Some of the old big bore single shots used by buffalo hunters that started off as long barrel rifles ended up cut off back to the stock forearm.
I studied Gunsmithing at Trinidad State Jr College in 1960-63. we did work for the locals and one job that comes to mind that was very common. Many a rancher or oldtimers grandkid would come by the shop with a black powder rifle of some sort with the barrel cut off with a hack saw to have the barrel re crowned. Here is the story on this the old black powder guns did not get cleaned as often as they needed a lot of the time. A barn gun that was used to dispatch a varmint was just put back in the corner after the job was done. Or if grandma shot some meat out the back door she shot it had the kid clean up the buck but well the rifle went back to its spot by the back screen door. As for the cut off barrels it seems like uncleaned blackpowder barrels erode bad from the muzzle. Cut off the corrosion back to rifling and it will shoot again. So in comes the hacksaw. A lot of them were cut off to the sight and some had front sight gone and some sort of bead sight affixed to the barrel end. Usually a hole drilled with a screw in the hole that was filed to a sight of the owners liking. We ended up cutting a lot of dovetails for new sights during the two years at Trinidad and saw some really fine old rifles and shotguns from the very early years on the Western slope. Some of the old big bore single shots used by buffalo hunters that started off as long barrel rifles ended up cut off back to the stock forearm.
