I have a contender barrel that needs to be recrowned. looks like someone may have taken a dremel to the crown? anyway I am trying to decide if I should send it to VVG or buy a hand crowning tool from Brownell's and do it myself. any opinions are welcome. dave

drichi
You could probably do it yourself, but if you really want it to shoot send it to someone who will do it aligned with the bore. I had Mike Bellm re do a crown after a slight accident & dinged up my crown on a Bullberry barrel. After a trip to him it would shoot as well or better than it did before the accident. I don't know if Mike is taking on this type of work right now but you could inquire about it. If he isn't send it to the barrel smith of choice that will do the best for your barrel no matter who it is. You might try MBMCO. So far VVCG has done good work for me as well.
Rich Jake

[ 06-04-2003, 08:19: Message edited by: Rich Jake ]

I am with Rich, if I was going to be getting anything done on a contender I know where it would go. It would be to Mike at MBMCO. Mike is going to be the one to watch,he is going to set the bar HIGH on the TC barrel chambering. The other guys will have to play catchup. Just my two cents worth. Clev

I've used the brownell hand tool to re-crown several barrels, and IMHO, it doesn't do nearly as good of a job as good gunsmith that dials in the TIR to less then 0.001" on a lathe, and cuts the crown.

If you have a beater milsurp gun that you just want to cut down the barrel on, by all means it is a good tool. If you want top rate accuracy, it isn't the tool to use.

Here is another vote for On Target Tech (MBM Co). All of his machine work that i have seen has been first rate and he is a great guy to boot!

Good luck

I dont think you should waste money when it comes to accuracy,I have seen barrels done by hand and they didnt look very good,I also dislike the thoughts of that pilot turning inside the bore,my friend had a local gunsmith recrown a rifle barrel for 30 bucks.just my .02 worth