Thinking about a liner job

[Nobade]

I've been having so much fun with my new P-H Volunteer that it got me to thinking. I have a Miroku '63 that has a pretty trashed bore for the last 6 inches or so. I've been dreaming about having Bob Hoyt put a liner in it with his .457" bore so I can shoot normal grease groove 45 caliber rifle bullets. Anybody here have something like this? Sort of a poor boy military target rifle that should be a hammer on deer.

 

[BEP]

Have you considered the weight increase? a barrel with a .58 caliber profile but a .45 bore would certainly be fun but that's a lot of metal.

 

[Nobade]

Have you considered the weight increase? a barrel with a .58 caliber profile but a .45 bore would certainly be fun but that's a lot of metal.

Yes, it does make for a pretty heavy rifle. I was kind of surprised at the difference between the Volunteer and a normal P53 even with the shorter barrel.

 

[nkbj]

Hey Nobade.
I have a lefthanded New Englander that Mr. Hoyt relined with rifling to my specifications for 45-70 molds. I love it. It cut clover leafs at fifty yards the first time I ever sat down at a bench to sight it in.
It preserved the original New Englander barrel length and has .458" bore, .470" groove, round bottom seven groove rifling at 24" twist. And yes, those choices were compromises in all particulars due to wanting to shoot off the shelf .45 caliber rifle molds.
.458" bore was chosen due to wanting to be able to use a .457" push through sizer, reworking the casting as little as could be gotten by with. Each mold is a law unto itself so planning on shooting all the bullets as-cast just wasn't a reasonable plan. And, after sticky finger filling the lube grooves with my latest batch of LOOB, running them through the push through sizer makes them all consistently the same.

.470" groove diameter might sound a little on the big side but what it boils down to is that with round bottom grooves of width equal to the lands it gives a heptagon with bulging rounded vertices. No cut rifling style sharp angled corners that promote gas cutting, are the last places for the bullets to expand into or for lead smears and combustion products to adhere to and resist removal.
About the twist, when looking at available .45 rifle molds it was decided which would work best for my purposes at the time (hunting in east Texas) and how slow of a twist could be used. I'm in the "slower the better" camp thinking that the slowest that will work will work best. And, seeing as my intentions were not a long range target rifle, I was planning more for the neighborhood of 400-450 grains out to a 150 yards rather than 500 grains and 500 yards. However, if you punch the numbers into a Greenhill calculator then that 24" twist comes up good for some pretty darn heavy molds, especially seeing as the bullets leave the muzzle shorter and fatter than when they went in. Not that I'd planned on it but it lets me paper patch .45 pistol molds too.

Any how, that's been my .45 adventure so far.

 

[nkbj]

By the way, if I find another Armisport P53, I'm tempted to adapt it to one of these.

#470216

#502-485

Could go with a heavy .45 but thinking maybe to do something different. Or maybe not.

 

[mcknight77]

I called Bobby today and asked if he could reline my New Englander. It's a .50 cal. He said yes, but be advised he's backed up on work six months. I'll send it out in the mail next week. It will be relined in .50 cal with a conical twist. Just letting everyone know of the backlog. I'm having it done now so it will be done in time to hunt with this fall.

 

[nkbj]

I called Bobby today and asked if he could reline my New Englander. It's a .50 cal. He said yes, but be advised he's backed up on work six months. I'll send it out in the mail next week. It will be relined in .50 cal with a conical twist. Just letting everyone know of the backlog. I'm having it done now so it will be done in time to hunt with this fall.

Are you going with .500 bore or something like .512 to use off the shelf rifle molds?

 

[mcknight77]

It will be standard .50 cal specs. Just a faster twist. Probably around 1/36. I just told him to do what he thought was best.

 

[Bad Karma]

I called Bobby today and asked if he could reline my New Englander. It's a .50 cal. He said yes, but be advised he's backed up on work six months. I'll send it out in the mail next week. It will be relined in .50 cal with a conical twist. Just letting everyone know of the backlog. I'm having it done now so it will be done in time to hunt with this fall.

You should make index marks on the breech plug and barrel before you send them. The last couple of the round barrels I’ve sent him have ended up over torqued so that the front sight is no longer level with the breech. I had to fill both dovetails and then recut them level. Pain in the butt.