Just aquired a 21" 44mag barrel made by TC.

It only has one dovetail on the barrel to mount a forend... <frown>

What forend do I use? If anyone has one for sale or advice on how to possibly mount one of my several Super 14 forends please respond to mr_appraiser@hotmail.com or just tell me here...

Thanx in advance for any advice or help....

$bob$

$bob$,

Some of the early carbine barrels came with only one dovetail lock. My own 7mm TCU and .44 Mag barrels are of this type. So, you can use the standard forearm but only one screw. Based on personal experience I suggest removing the washer from the empty screw hole. If that empty hole bothers you, and it did bother me because I did not want to remove that washer each time I moved the forearms, you can get a one-hole Rynite forearm from Choate Machine Tool Co . Mine was shipped promptly and I don't think that it was very expensive.

I don't see any difference in grouping ability due to the single dovetail lock. I've been told that due to how one holds a carbine and the recoil forces of the heavier recoiling cartridges the dovetail lock would sometimes pull out so TC added the second lock to spread out the recoil forces and fix the problem. Why they had this problem when they were already producing Super 14 barrels with 2 dovetail locks, and why they used a different spacing is beyond me.

FWIW, the Bullberry spacing is the same as the 14" and if you don't want to use the hanger bar you can simply screw a 14" forearm to the barrel. Works fine on my .38-55 and .218 Bee barrels and the Rynite almost looks like an old time schnabel type!

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Forgot to mention that there are a few wood factory one hole forearms out there and every once in a looooooooooong while one will come up on one of the auctions. Might or might not be a bit of a premium.

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Also forgot to mention that one removes the "washer" so that it is not removed via recoil and lost. No matter how secure you may think it is it will come out, even with 7mm TCU recoil. I know!

Another point is that it is the forward screw (if I remember correctly) but I'm at "work" and don't have one in front of me to check.

For those who don't know Choate Machine Tool Co is the vendor for TC and the quality of their Rynite items is excellent.

[ 12-14-2002, 18:58: Message edited by: Hobie ]

I wondered about that myself Bob. Is the dovetail lock located at the rear of the barrel? I think the rear one is in the same place on all TC barrels. Is it a bull or standerd taper?
You could always get another dovetail milled in for the front screw

[ 12-14-2002, 18:20: Message edited by: Jules ]

The dovetail fits the front hole.

Mike Bellm responed via email that he could mill me in another dovetail if I wanted.

The barrel is the tapered version....

$bob$