Help: How to re-Crown a barrel

[thereisnospoon]

Gentlemen

I am building low-cost scout rifles out of some old mauser rifles. I have everything I need to begin/complete the project except an idea how to re-Crown the barrels once I cut them down to 20" . Any help or ideas would be appreciated.

By the way, before I get attacked for butchering surplus rifles, these were in gunsmith only bins at the last gunshow, if you know what I mean...

Thanks,
Spoon

 

[mtnbkr]

Brownells sells the bore guides and cutters to do it by hand. I've read the procedure and it doesn't sound too difficult. There's also methods of doing it wiht a ball bearing and a drillpress, but if you're going to do several, why not get the proper tools and do it right...

Chris

 

[mete]

The proper way is on a lathe but it can be done other ways. But the important thing is to cut the barrel perfectly perpendicular to the bore . The bore /crown edge must be clean cut without any nicks or burrs.

 

[Clark]

That Brownell's spud and T handle thing never works for me.

I put the barrel in the lathe, dial it in, and cut the 11 degree crown.

 

[ulflyer]

I've got a Smith 457 that I've had a good while and think right highly of. It shoots as well as anything I have, but it sure does have that ugly non-crowned barrel. Aught to have it crowned "just because"......

 

[1911Tuner]

Re-Crown

I did the same thing with an old 1916 dog-eared Mauser that had been rechambered to 7.62 Nato/.308 Winchester. No taper on the barrel made it a snap to slip thru the headstock on a lathe. I parted/faced about a half-inch
of the muzzle...Stuck a 60 degree countersink in the tailstock and cut about a
16th inch into the muzzle. Lightly cleaned up the burrs with a little-bitty
triangular Swiss file. Bedded the action and about an inch of the barrel forward of the action. Stuck a 2X Burris LER scope in a home made
mount in the rear sight rails...and the rifle would shoot into an inch point five
with the right handload. You may need to face off the barrel shoulder and re-cut the chamber for safe headspace. Mine didn't...but it barely made it.
I fire-formed the brass and sized it so that the case shoulder wouldn't set back...just barely kissed the shoulder in a FL die. Made a big difference in accuracy over the standard-dimension case.

Caveat...Keep your handloaded ammo's pressure levels close to the great, old
7X57 Mauser cartridge...The rifle liked bullets of 165 to 180 grains...Mine preferred the Hornady 165-grain boattail spire point and 41.5 grains of IMR 4064. Yours may like a different recipe, so start at about 40 grains and work up in 2 tenths increments. Muzzle velocity was in the 2500 fps range. Heap big Whitetail medicine out to 200 yards.

 

[Jim K]

If your lathe has a hollow headstock, the easiest way to crown barrels is to make a tool with a shallow "U" in the cutting edge. Then you can run it in almost parallel to the barrel and cut the crown in one pass. Of course, you have to face off the barrel first to get it even.

The problem with those "easy" crowning tools is that a barrel cut with a hacksaw is rarely (spelled "never") even, so either the crowning tool has to take a lot of metal off or the crown comes out uneven. Which means you need to face the barrel on a lathe....

Jim

 

[1911Tuner]

Hacked Crown

Jim said:

The problem with those "easy" crowning tools is that a barrel cut with a hacksaw is...
**************

ROFL! I ran into one of those once...The rifle would dang near shoot around a corner!

 

[HankL]

Like This Hacked Crown?

Hacked through and through and crowned with the Brownells gizzziecallit.
It could have been luck but I did two and the other one shoots as well.
Sighted in then a five shot group at 100 yds.

 

[CCW1911]

I've had good luck with the Brownells piloted muzzle cutter on guns that wouldn't fit in the lathe or if customer wouldn't pay for that service. I take the t handle off and put a nut on and spin the cutter with a socket and a 1/2 drive speed handle. The speed handle has a bearing in the handle that allows me to put some pressure on the cutter while turning it, the barrel is locked in a vice. Use plenty of cutting oil and you should get a good cut. You may have to experiment with how much pressure to put on the cutter to get a good chatter free cut. Also the pilot needs to fit the bore very well and have a good slick finish. I've done lots of rifle barrels this way with no loss of accuracy and even some improvement. I do use the 11* cutter most of the time.

Ross

 

[Jammer Six]

I did the same thing with an old 1916 dog-eared Mauser that had been rechambered to 7.62 Nato/.308 Winchester. No taper on the barrel made it a snap to slip thru the headstock on a lathe. I parted/faced about a half-inch
of the muzzle...Stuck a 60 degree countersink in the tailstock and cut about a
16th inch into the muzzle. Lightly cleaned up the burrs with a little-bitty
triangular Swiss file. Bedded the action and about an inch of the barrel forward of the action. Stuck a 2X Burris LER scope in a home made
mount in the rear sight rails...and the rifle would shoot into an inch point five
with the right handload. You may need to face off the barrel shoulder and re-cut the chamber for safe headspace. Mine didn't...but it barely made it.
I fire-formed the brass and sized it so that the case shoulder wouldn't set back...just barely kissed the shoulder in a FL die. Made a big difference in accuracy over the standard-dimension case.

What?