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Rifling for the hack and slash cave dweller

Guerillashop

Plastic
Joined
Feb 7, 2018
After opinions, experiance, knowledge ect on the cheapest easiest way to rifle barrels in the home shop. And how of coarse. Assuming you already have a drilled and reamed to perfect size blank ready to go.

Eg- button, broach, sine bar ect
 
You might want to search for HomeBrew 357 on practical machinist using google. He built his own rifle including barrel and I think discussed rifling in a separate thread.
I am sure you will find something useful if you do the search.
 
You find cheap hardend steel or carbide push buttons on ebay from east european / russian vendors.
One of those and a hydraulic press and you're ready to go.
Thats the cheapest way. Dunno what kind of results one can achieve with these but as long as it isn't for a high precision rifle it'll be ok.
 
Thanks FredC and lobito thats given me a place to start. Iv seen the carbide buttons from europe. Seem to be innexpensive. Iv also seen some even cheaper from china anyone used these before?

Anyone know if best way would be to push or pull these buttons through? Iv read that the pull method is best. Wonder if i could use an edm superdrill at work to cut a hole in carbide to attach a pull rod? 🙄🤔 or just buy a set of push rods and push it through.

Would be good to find out the kinda force il need to push/pull 🦍✊

Anyone with any experiance in barrel broaching?

May need so set up a jig to give the barrel some help in rotating. Would this need to geared and timed to perfectly rotate the barrel to the desired twist or would applying some sort of rotating force to "help" the broach/button along?

Btw not after a precision barrel at first. Just experimental to get something shootable then go from there.
 
No,but the crowd he sold out to are still going.......but again in the $500/$600 zone....Madden had some problems with steel,possibly Chinese ring in,and went out of business....there is no cheap barrel for projects on the market here like Numrich and many others sell in the US.......project guns have been just about killed by the cheap plastic rifle and scope deals for less than a unturned barrel blank.
 
Some way back on this forum? there is a lot on button rifling using cheap buttons from ebay......at least I think its on this forum......incidentally there are several barrel makers on this forum,but they dont come into silly questions or the impossible...like a beginner who is determined to start out with a 204 barrel.
 
Btw not after a precision barrel at first. Just experimental to get something shootable then go from there.

No idea what rules and regulations are like, downunder, but if permissible, you might do both.

Start with the much shorter length of a handgun barrel- "average" not snub or Buntline.

Major diff is only in the length, work takes about 1/3 the time on the shorter length, so all relevant techniques can be mastered with fewer hours and fewer tears if you have to scrap something.

No, it doesn't resolve the long drill, ream, broach/cut/button issue, but it covers all the basics - boring, rifling, chambering - whilst you 'sess out and improve your skills and familiarize with the capacity of your machinery. Single shot actions are not hard. Duplicating a barrel for an existing handgun, OK, too.

Doesn't even HAVE to be smokeless powder, does it? Walk first, gallop later.

2CW
 
Get a piece of 1/2" square stock red hot, twist for a proper helix. Cast babbit around square stock so that when you pull it thru it twists. Use a button or single point cutter to cut rifling, single point is easier to pull thru.
 
No idea what rules and regulations are like, downunder, but if permissible, you might do both.

Start with the much shorter length of a handgun barrel- "average" not snub or Buntline.

Major diff is only in the length, work takes about 1/3 the time on the shorter length, so all relevant techniques can be mastered with fewer hours and fewer tears if you have to scrap something.

No, it doesn't resolve the long drill, ream, broach/cut/button issue, but it covers all the basics - boring, rifling, chambering - whilst you 'sess out and improve your skills and familiarize with the capacity of your machinery. Single shot actions are not hard. Duplicating a barrel for an existing handgun, OK, too.

Doesn't even HAVE to be smokeless powder, does it? Walk first, gallop later.

2CW

Walk first sounds the way to go. Maybe in line muzzle loader?

Not much into the handgun side of things but still could drill out shorter stubs to practice. And also could stop me throwing a nice 24" piece of roundbar through the shed wall.

Cheers
 
Walk first sounds the way to go. Maybe in line muzzle loader?

Not much into the handgun side of things but still could drill out shorter stubs to practice. And also could stop me throwing a nice 24" piece of roundbar through the shed wall.

Cheers

24" of steel is one long gun barrel, but 3 to 5 - call it 4, handgun barrels, hence 4 times the practice. They can be muzzle loaders, same as a long gun can. Other than tests, you don't have take up the shooting of 'em. Nor even finish stock them.
 
24" of steel is one long gun barrel, but 3 to 5 - call it 4, handgun barrels, hence 4 times the practice. They can be muzzle loaders, same as a long gun can. Other than tests, you don't have take up the shooting of 'em. Nor even finish stock them.
True that. Could use these short peices and slug them to check if im getting the diameters close, bang on or way off.
 
My question is how do you lap and drill long blanks? This is something I’ve already wanted to try just because I enjoy making my own stuff but I just have so little time.
 
My question is how do you lap and drill long blanks? This is something I’ve already wanted to try just because I enjoy making my own stuff but I just have so little time.

I started another thread about the drilling and reaming side of things.
 
The ultimate cave barrel would have to be the Nepalese brunswick rifles,where it appears the rifling twist was applied freehand,And it apparently worked ,as a ball doesnt need stabilisation,but rotation to even out deflections due to defects.
 
The ultimate cave barrel would have to be the Nepalese brunswick rifles,where it appears the rifling twist was applied freehand,And it apparently worked ,as a ball doesnt need stabilisation,but rotation to even out deflections due to defects.

Round ball needs to spin on axis to the bore to fly 'straight'. If it spins on an axis across the line of flight it becomes a curve ball.
 
For an OZ Connection, you might try Tony Small. He seems interested in starting up his Youtube channel again. His barrel drilling is awesome, though not really enough info to go on. Simple set-up like Pope used to use, to the extent there is any accurate record about that. I have the Pope Barrel book and it barely scratches the surface.

Tony Small
- YouTube


Some harsh answers here for some reason. Been interested in this subject for some time. Even some very accomplished machinist making pistol barrels, like Charlie over on home gunsmithing have pointed out the difficulties. Guy Lautard has a video set on barrel making, which is about as realistic as it gets on small caliber rifle barrels, and it is something you could do yourself, but not unless you mainly wanted to do it, not as in any ware really a means to save money.

So far I haven't seen a rifle barrel length set-up for broaches from a home shop perspective. There are you tube videos on the process, but they are either devoid of adequate information, or commercial.

From the, "let's do something stupid because we live in a commonwealth country" perspective, one thought I have had was looking into whether any of the usual suspects would export un-rifled tubes. That way your only challenge would be rifling and final reaming or polishing.

There are some standard sizes of tube available with .50 holes etc...

And there are options for 4130 tubing that are close and would only require reaming, rifling, lapping... OK. most of these would require sleeving.
 








 
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