Sawing off a barrel

[ncmtmike]

Have any of you gents ever just took a hacksaw and shortened a barrel? Can it be done by a DIY? What steps are taken? :stir:

 

[matt denison]

Happy Birthday Mike.

What gun are you chopping off?

 

[Wes/Tex]

have done it twice by hand with a hacksaw and dressed up with fine files. The first was an old small smoothbore, the second was a Remington M.1858 with a badly rusted barrel front from being nose down in flood water a while. The revolver barrel was dressed smooth and straight with a fine file and the muzzle opening coned bask with different sized carriage bolt heads and valve grinding compound in a drill. Soldered on half-moon key for front sight et voila, instant belly gun that reminded me of Marty Robbins song, "Mister Shorty"..."the .44 spoke, it sent leaden smoke, and 17 inches of flame!" :shocked2: :rotf:

 

[ncmtmike]

Laffindog,It's an old renegade t/c :stir:


Wish I had the funds for your Canoe :idunno:

 

[galamb]

Yes, I chuck it in a vice so only the part I want to cut off is (hangin' out), that way if the hacksaw dances around a bit before it bites I don't mess up the barrel I want to keep.

Then use a coarse file to get it squared up.

There is some good tutorials on "re-crowning" so I won't go into detail but basically I use a tapered air stone chucked in a drill to get the taper I want then I chuck a bronze carriage bolt in the drill, add a little valve grinding compound (fine) and polish up the muzzle.

Any final polishing is done with very fine wet/dry sandpaper and my thumb.

Not the cut/crown you would get from a machinist with a lathe, but good enough for me..

 

[Birddog6]

Haven't done allot of them, as usually buy the length I want. Of the dozen or so I have done, sawed them off with a hack saw. Took it to my belt sander that has a 90 deg. platform attached to it. (Now have one with a 12" disc at 90 deg.) Sanded the cut end while rotating the barrel.
Took it to vice & mounted in vice Vertically
Blackened the cut end with a black permanent marker.
Put a Square on it to see what needs to come off.
Filed down high side with metal file til was square. Re-blacken as necessary to insure I didn't hit the low sides. When it is Square & you are filing all the black at the same time, it is 90 deg.

Took a beveled grinding stone (looks like the end of a huge pencil) from the welding supplier & chucked in a Variable cordless drill, ground a cone with that stone, at slow speed. Stones are ? $1-2. each. Always has worked with no issues.

When done took some 600 Wet/Dry autobody paper doubled it over a bit & using my thumb I held it to the bore & rotated the paper on the crown & worked it til it had a fine finish.

That all being said, that may be a hillbilly way of doing it, but it worked successfully for me every time & never had an accuracy issue. Not everyone has lathes & mills & etc. available, so this is how I did it.

Keith Lisle

 

[Pioneer flinter]

Have any of you gents ever just took a hacksaw and shortened a barrel? Can it be done by a DIY? What steps are taken? :stir:

Hey Mike I have done a number of bbl.'s. it is not hard just wrap the barrel with masking tape where you will be cutting and mark the tape for cut. remove barrel from stock clamp in padded vice and cut with a hack saw, try to cut as square as possible, once this is done gently file end of barrel square with the flats then polish end of barrel with wet or dry paper. for the crown I gently used a cartridge chamfering tool. then 320 wet or dry with my thumb. cut new dove tail for front sight and you are done. it is not hard, just take your time. good luck and God bless.

 

[Zonie]

IMO, cutting off the barrel with a hack saw is the easy part.

The harder part is squaring up the muzzle with the bore.

This takes a lot of careful measuring with a suitable square and filing the end until it is perfectly square with the bore.

Forming a true crown isn't necessary but forming a generous radius with no sharp edges is needed to load a patched roundball without damaging the patch.

 

[kaintuck]

Kieth did it the way I did and they turn out great~

 

[matt denison]

IMO, cutting off the barrel with a hack saw is the easy part.

The harder part is squaring up the muzzle with the bore.This takes a lot of careful measuring with a suitable square and filing the end until it is perfectly square with the bore.

Forming a true crown isn't necessary but forming a generous radius with no sharp edges is needed to load a patched roundball without damaging the patch.

This is all made even more difficult if you are dealing with either a tapered or swamped barrel. If you are it is time to find a friend with a lathe. That friend can either turn down a rod that fits the bore so you can square off of that or preferably just chuck it up and cut it square.

 

[gonzomann]

Ditto on what Kieth said!