useing old shotgun barrles

[2nd artillery]

Does anyone have know of a good way to take an old shot gun barrle and put a breach plug in it and use it that way? Do you just put some good threads ibn is and screw in a plug or weld one in or both? Does one type of barrle work better than others?
I want to make flintlock shot gun with interchangeable chokes. And I want to build it from just about nothing. Well I"ll buy a lock.
Thanks for any ideas

 

[longfowler]

I once took 12" off the end of an old savage single 12 ga and had a friend in a machine shop thread it to fit a breechplug I bought from dixie gun works. then I used a flint lock from a lyman trade rifle to build a dandy little squirel & partrige pistol, based on a cva kentucky pistol stock. It shots nice with lite loads(30 gr fffg, wonder wad, 40 gr of bird shot)and I've never had a problem with it- but I also don't dare to shot a full power 12 ga load!

 

well
what you have to do is make sure when you breech the barrels you breech them to the forcing cones on a cartridge gun .
these can be 2 3/4 to 3 inch at the end of the chambers , if you make improved breeches you can cut the chambers in about half and make up the rest with the new breaches to keep the overall length .
you can also cut the chambers completely off and re breech but this will shorten the length some. Now if your barrel is some what thinner then desired that

 

[quote}And I want to build it from just about nothing.[/quote]


Have you ever heard the saying?:

Nothing from nothing leaves nothing!

The parts for a gun are not cheap and to build one it is going to cost you something. :results: but i doubt it.

Woody

 

[talon]

Talked to a custom builder the other day. He said he tried breeching old shotgun barrels, both single & double by the method that Brockway's book shows. Said he had slow ignition & misfires due to the design of the long narrow powder channel. Even using 3f powder. He started making his own barrels with a Nock style breech & never had any further trouble. I am just repeating his experience in regards to the books breeching design. Have'nt tried it myself .

 

[Henry]

I did just that !


I took an old 20 ga barrel , cut the chamber off ,
drilled the new breach from .62 to .65
on the drill press , tapped 3/4 -10 ,
made a breech plug from a grade 7 bolt .


Now I ended with a ridiculously short
PB barrel .... so I silver soldered another
piece from another old 20 ga barrel .

Made a stock from a inexpensive piece of yellow
birch , added a Silex kit flint lock etc.

Of course I would not shoot a solid bullet
from that contraption , I tried it once with a light
shot charge , but it is now used only to shoot
blanks in historical re-enactment events .

 

[Bill Brockway]

Guys -

It can be done. Here's a couple of doubles made from modern Damascus tubes. They're neither short (about 29 - 30" each), nor slow to fire (The coned touch hole is very similar to Jim Chamber's "White Lightnin." For another finished gun, search on this board for "Daisy's Double," by Captchee.



Honest to goodness, it can be done.

Bill

 

Bill

I never said it couldn't be done. Most anything can be done if you set your mine to do it. One of favorite saying is:
Saying you can't means you won't.
But the original post was explicit in that he said,"I want to build it from just about nothing". and my opinion is still nothing from nothing leaves nothing.
For anyone to think they are going to build a gun for about nothing is not realistic in todays world.

By the way very nice work Bill and I bet you a dollar to a doughnut you didn't build them from nothing.

Woody

 

[robinghewitt]

Here's a couple of doubles made from modern Damascus tubes.

They are lovely, a pleasure to see the guns as they would have been in the shop. Not sure about the front triggers, but how picky can you be ::

 

and as bill states they are anything but slow. i have been building for years and just built a double for a friend and tried bills method out as a guide .
do a seach for daisies double , you will see the product of my efforts . ignition is fast reliable and sweet to shoot
i have 2 more on the table to be finished by mid summer that "will " turn out better then my last

 

[2nd artillery]

Guys, thanks for the help and ideas.

 

[Cjcalls]

Instead of chopping up a shot gun barrel. Couldn't you build a barrel out of seamless tubing? What kinda material would work best?

 

[Metalshaper]

<<<<Instead of chopping up a shot gun barrel. Couldn't you build a barrel out of seamless tubing? What kinda material would work best? >>>>


:results:
FWIW, might try 4130 chromoly aircraft tubing. I've helped make three or four barrels from this material 1" od X .156 wall. <a bit more like a 15 gauge at .688 ID >

For a test run we breeched a 1' section and loaded it with 200 grns powder and a 2.5 oz slug. ( that we aslo made a mould for) The tube was mic'd at four positions, around the circumference and down the length. fired three times with this load, there were no changes to any of the measurements!

and this is a lot more, than the 85/90 - powder/shot load I'd shoot at a turkey.

Respect Always
Metalshaper

and there was a CVA aftermarket barrel 1" acf X 12 gauge, for the St. Louis Hawkens.. Now that's a thin barrel!!! :hmm: