This first take is roughly styled after early Oberndorf barrels. Not having one handy, and not being able to find someone who would lend me one, I measured and guesstimated from a large collection of pictures of Oberndorf sporter rifles.

I personally believe the rib is too tall, but let me know what you think.







The next barrel will be a octagon with no integral rib, swamped, not sure dimensions yet. Then I will do a barrel that has an integral quarter rib and front sight. Then a full length integral rib.

I do not know what it is about a full length rib on older sporters that just strikes my fancy!

Have you started on mine yet?
Butch

Looks real good, I'm starting to really take a likin' to the whole 1/4 rib thing.....maybe I'll go that route on my 404J when I decide to get it started

One thing about your picture....the bbl. looks too short!

Full length ribs just look great on an octagon barrel. They are easier to do as well, just leave one flat tall.

Rich

quote:

Have you started on mine yet?
Butch

I have not. I am still waiting on your blank (1.250dia) to arrive.

quote:

They are easier to do as well, just leave one flat tall.

Rich

Quite the opposite! At least in my experience.

quote:

One thing about your picture....the bbl. looks too short!

I had this at the Ohio Gun Collectors Association show in November, I WAS worried about the ATF. Sadly!

I did have one gentleman pick it up and ask "is this some kind of pistol?" I had to work very hard not to chuckle.

Is there any taper in it?

quote:

Originally posted by gunmaker:
Is there any taper in it?

Yes, not much though.

I am going to experiment with some different radii, some different tapers, and some more aggressive swamping. I've drawn up barrels with everything from a 1" radius to a 5" radius at the tulip, straight tapers, swamped tapers, and straight barrels.

The rib is just bothering me. Maybe once I get a full rib cut on a full barrel it will not look quite as weird.

I saw an awesome gun, I think I posted a link, that had a octagon to round with full length rib, very cool. I do think the rib is a bit high to my eye, but hard to say without it being in wood maybe. I hate how the express sites often seem too wide (not your fault). While this one is a bit short for my taste you could just use real fast burning powders I guess.

Red

Uh, I hate to be the village idiot, but why is the barrel so short?

It's not that the rib is too high, it just looks that way. IMO actually the initial round-to-octagon tulip transition is perhaps a little too deep, making the rear of the rib appear to be higher than it actually is. May be OK for a lighter plains-cartridge chambering but IMO a slightly thicker octagon over the chamber area will improve the looks and the added weight will benefit a heavier-recoiling chambering.
Regards, Joe

quote:

Originally posted by Sevens:
Uh, I hate to be the village idiot, but why is the barrel so short?

It is a piece of 1018 CRS, 1.250 bar stock. I cut a piece sufficient to practice, but no longer. It is actually not a barrel, just a solid piece of steel. I am raising some capital to purchase a number of barrel blanks to cut. The more you buy the cheaper they are!

Joe, I agree, I do not build much in the way of big bore or heavy recoiling chambering. Not so much as a matter of preference, more a matter of neither being able to hunt anything necessitating a big bore, or being able to afford to travel anywhere necessitating a big bore.

The barrel above is what I am roughly planning for a .257 Roberts. Though it will be a swamped barrel with no rib.

Dago Red, I agree 100%, the sights irritate me too. I will either be heavily modifying an existing sight or making my own for a 9.3x62 that I have planned.

Boy I am glad you clarified that is a piece of bar stock. You probably should have said that in the text of the pic with that little shorty. I cringed when I saw it but didn't want to mention it to bring attention to it. The alphabet guys are a little stiff about such things!

It looks great. I like the rib but agree with you on the height. I would want it just a little lower to the barrel.

Terry

Take a look at Lothar Walther's dimensions... IIRC, they are about 2mm on the rib.

new_guy, you are correct, .079 or roughly 2mm. One problem I run into is the rear sight. Now personally I do not like most of the rear sights available. The sight above is made by NECG. It is too wide, too tall at the base, and frankly in my opinion needs improved.

So, the issue is, the NECG base is .125, I can thin the base, and narrow the sight to make it slimmer. That may be enough to allow the rib step down slightly and make a shorter rib. Or make my own rear sight to match the rib.

JD had a point too that I will be interested to see the effect. Once the barrel is stocked, it may change how it looks.

I think your off to a good start, and I like how it looks. It would have been better to finish it full length to get a better understanding of the over all length and finished look.
I like the looks of a smaller "sporter" octogon barrel for the smaller actions or lighter rounds. The problem you run into is useing after market sights, to damn wide for such projects!
The intergral quarter rib on my "light sporter" octogon is only .375 wide. I spent last week makeing 4 rear sights for it and I think #4 will be the one I use. It is a single standing rear sight that will be dovetailed into the rib...Custom barrel...Custom sight.

I was wondering if I could get somebody to tell me what "swamped" means.

I could tell right away from the thread title and the picture that it was a piece you were making tests on and not a full barrel. Thus my joke.

I really like the win pre-64 safari sight, wisner did/does? make replicas (improved), they seem much more practical for use in the field.

Red

Great first-time effort. Ralf Martini does alot of swamped ribs, may have some pics on his website. I had a pre-war JP Sauer that had a tapered rib with a narrow beveled top at the point where the octagon became round at the forend tip to the front sight ramp where it widened out again, very beautiful and complex.

srtrax, I originally was going to do a full length practice, but really the first was to get the process down for the rib and to see how the dimensions turned out. My next "practice" will be a 24" "barrel", again, a piece of CR. Then I will start making chips from nice barrel blanks.

Any suggestions on rear sights? What differs about your four rear sights that you picked one over the other?

I would love to be able to make custom sights for every project. As a new name and new face in the game usually customers do not want to pay me to make a sight. Someday.

Red, I caught your joke I meant my response more for stevens since he had asked about it.

Swamped means, in short, the barrel is actually a radius, not a straight taper. Someone correct me if I am wrong, but it was originally used with muzzle loaders as a way to lighten a barrel. Usually with muzzle loaders the "swamping" was much more evident.

I will take a look and see if I can find a wisner pre-64 sight or something similar.

fla3006, do you have any pictures? I would be interested to see. My real interest in these barrels is replicating early Suhl, Sauer, Oberndorf style barrels but also to take the classic look and enhance it slightly.

First photo shows the forward faceing slant of the sight.

Will cut ends of sight to fit rib dovetail.

Sight is slightly wider than bottom fitting in rib.

Needs to be polished out and machine groove down middle for gold line. Time to mill this out around 1/2 hour, but then I did do 3 before this one. What I like about this on is the sight is wider than the base...better look and not so skinny.
Had a loud mouth riflebuilder at the Tulsa gun show tell me the sight would fall off every shot because the rib wasnt wide enough... Give Me A Break!

FAl,

correct on the swamped barrel origins. Those old rifles, and modern custom made replicas often sport a 40"+ barrel. It makes them just a wee bit muzzle heavy, which is supposed to make them hold a bit better.

Take a look some time at Tennessee Valley Muzzleloaders.com some time to see some very nice examples.

Rich

Didnt mean to highjack thread. Just thought I'd show another way for fitting a sight to a smaller rib, as you have found out the aftermarket rear sights are on the wide side. You could at some point on the rib make it come out wider and the length to make after market sight fit then finish up at the same contour you started with.
Anyway...like what you have I'm in the learning process myselfe...Thanks for posting!

No worries sir! I have been very busy and have been contemplating how I want to go about the sights.

I think I am going to copy the NECG roughly and make a few sights of various widths. Put them on this barrel and see how narrow I can go and still have a visible sight that does not look goofy.

To be continued...

In making an octagon with a rib.

Are the sides of the rib swamped?
Are the top two 45 degree angles swamped?
How many flats are swamped on a swamped ribbed barrel?
Timan

Everything is swamped on the one I made. The rib and all faces follow the same radius.

Now if I wanted I could make the rib a straight taper, and swamp the faces.

You have to keep in mind, the swamping is minimal. When I do a full length barrel (hopefully next month) I will post pictures.

Dont have a picture of the swamping close up, but this one had been done just behind the sling stud. Draw fileing and polishing has hide where the two had intersected.

Nathaniel

The barrel looks great.
How do you set up to cut the sides of the rib ?
Do you have any pictures??

Thanks
Hal