Modern shotgun barrel conversion

[Nor'Easter]

I think when the "adapter" and the H&R guns were introduced it diverted the thread, especially when the idea of smokeless powder was thrown into the mix. But something like what Crisco Kid built would be pretty nice indeed, and all the points you make are spot on.

 

[R Ellis]

What exactly are we even arguing here? I'm cornfuzzled.

My point was a modern barrel is going to be much better than the iron pipe profiles that most available ML shotgun barrels and stronger to boot. I don't know how many of you have ever bought a Colerain barrel but the several I've seen look like they were drilled out with a dull twist bit and not even reamed. Not to mention the walls are thick as a sewer pipe and half-octagon flats aren't tapered at all and extend way too far forward. They mount and handle like a B.A.R. on account of it. If you want sleek and thin, yet sturdy and thick at the breech end, then a modern smokeless powder shotgun barrel is a great basis. Even the cheap ones have a bore polished like a mirror for handling Nylon wads with minimal fouling. Supreme quality, half the cost. What's not to love?

So do you want to shoot black powder or smokeless in it if smokeless is not your intent then we can stop all this nonsense

 

[IanH]

I have an entire safe full of sporting shotguns of all types that take cartridges loaded with smokeless propellant. If I want to talk about them I go to a different forum.

 

[tallPercshooter]

I bought a like-new 20 ga break open barrel for $35 online. Cut off chamber, threaded for a piece of bolt for breechplug. Lots of wall thickness to thread in a drum. Left forearm mounting lug brazed to barrel and just inletted it. Shoots fine but will win no beauty prizes.

 

[Kentuckyjed]

Mine was fit with a breech plug.

I think they charge $25 to fit breech plug, I just didn't know if the barrel was already threaded where I could just install the breech plug myself. I do not know how Colerain sends them out threaded or not. I guess I just need to call and find out.

 

[Shiloh]

Isn’t this what Mike uses to build his trade guns?

 

[GREENSWLDE]

Both tubes for my own flint gun are from old b/l guns. One is12b steel,the other a 10b Damascus. Machined to 7/8"(.875") after the chambers are cut off then sleeved into a length of large dia. steel tube bored to fit and plug thread cut-7/8"x14 tpi. The extention tube had been machined to a tapered octagon with balaster rings at the front before Tin soldering on to the old tube. Pure Tin is about 40 tpsi tensile = to mild steel. Breech plug is Nocks form, made from MS and vented with 316 stainless..Worked well 1974 and has done ever since. Very OLD DOG..

 

[GREENSWLDE]

Isn’t this what Mike uses to build his trade guns?

Another Mike but mine are Game guns. O.D.

 

[Kentuckyjed]

Also what about chokes? What if you wanted to shoot a roundball, would the choked end have to be cut off as well?

 

[Jeff Latz]

I have been using a Beeson 12 ga. trap gun for years. It has an 870 barrel on it, closed action, a spring loaded bolt to hit the nipple in the solid breech. It is an in-line trap gun. I have used it on the trap range at Friendship for years.

 

[pamtnman]

Using the basic black powder rifling principles of shallow and slow for big round balls, I’ve been designing a conversion from break action db shotgun to black powder deer and bear hunter. Still playing with the twist rate. In several ways bp is superior to smokeless

 

[64Springer]

Using the basic black powder rifling principles of shallow and slow for big round balls, I’ve been designing a conversion from break action db shotgun to black powder deer and bear hunter. Still playing with the twist rate. In several ways bp is superior to smokeless

I can't think of a single thing that makes black powder superior to smokeless.

It's why gun companies and ammo companies were racing as fast as they could to make the switch from BP to smokeless.

Smokeless is superior in every respect.

 

[Dusty_Traveler]

For my salvaged 12ga rifled slug barrel build, one of my design ideas is for a modern Tige breech. There are bullet molds available for the pillar breeched Norwegian jaegers that were .72 caliber. A very short conical. The slug barrel has shallow grooves, and a twist of 1:36. I think it would work pretty well. With a barrel length of ~23" It would make an unbeatable brush rifle!

I think I would want to make the pillar removeable, with a socket and a long extension, for ease of cleaning. Also, with the pillar removed, you could lower the powder charges considerably for shooting PRB.

Haven't decided on stock profile or ignition type, yet.

 

[Felonious]

I can't think of a single thing that makes black powder superior to smokeless.

It's why gun companies and ammo companies were racing as fast as they could to make the switch from BP to smokeless.

Smokeless is superior in every respect.

I think the problem with smokeless isn't the powder, it's the people. There are so many kinds of modern powders, and the variation in them could make a few extra grains turn a gun into a pipe bomb. BP has a much larger margin for error, and a much shorter learning curve.

For your average person, trying to take game with a muzzleloader, black powder is superior for its safety margins. I could load my shotgun with 10 extra grains of FFF instead of FG, and not have any issues. 10 extra grains of fast pistol powder instead of the proper smokeless could kill me.

 

[pamtnman]

I can't think of a single thing that makes black powder superior to smokeless.

It's why gun companies and ammo companies were racing as fast as they could to make the switch from BP to smokeless.

Smokeless is superior in every respect.

Safety, ease of access, price, and for hunting deer, bear, hogs with big round ball within 100 yards, black powder matched with shallow and slow rifling makes a very easy and perfectly effective propellant. Take a solid, safe sxs percussion shotgun and rifle the barrels and you have yourself a very effective bp compliant big game gun. And on a bear drive in rifle season, it will do just fine. I’m hardly a prepper, but I do like bp for political reasons, too.

 

[IanH]

Bp is a low explosive, smokeless is not. BP is dang near impossible for most to buy locally. BP price today is nearly the same as smokeless. Every other comparison I can think of puts BP at a disadvantage except for being able to make it at home in sub-50 pound lots relatively easily and safely without an explosives manufacturer's license.

 

[2 shots]

?? does a p.r.b. in a rifled barrel create more pressure than a shot load in a smoothbore???

 

[pamtnman]

Bp is a low explosive, smokeless is not. BP is dang near impossible for most to buy locally. BP price today is nearly the same as smokeless. Every other comparison I can think of puts BP at a disadvantage except for being able to make it at home in sub-50 pound lots relatively easily and safely without an explosives manufacturer's license.

bingo

 

[pamtnman]

?? does a p.r.b. in a rifled barrel create more pressure than a shot load in a smoothbore???

good question, which was addressed way back in the days of BP only, when the question really mattered. Many British writers and gunmakers addressed it. Fast forward 125 years and Sherman Bell did a lot of testing of this and related questions in the mid-2000s for the Double Gun Journal. He also addressed Damascus/twist barrels. The BP British shotguns said explicitly "Not For Ball" if their barrels were not thick enough to handle the pressure of a patched ball. Most American guns had barrels thick enough to pound nails with, due to different cultures of gun maintenance between England and USA.

 

[The Crisco Kid]

Here, hold my beer while I dump this charge of Bullseye down the barrel and see how hard she kicks!