I was at my fathers house today and seen a pretty cool little thing he had done to the barrel of a 10/22. THe barrel had normal wear with some light rust(truck gun). He removed the rust cleaned it up. He then took some high quality heat shrink, with a heat activated adhesive, slipped it ove the barrel, shrunk it on and trimmed off the excess. I have to say, it was done well, clean and it looks really great. THe crown turned out nice as well by adding a small amount of protection (thickness of HS). After getting over it, and taking a good look, thinking about it, I realized that it is actually a great idea in the right situation. I thought I would throw this to the wolves and see what came of it.

Happy hunting,
JAG

Interesting idea. I'll have to try this. Thanks for the tip. - Dan

Better leave it on forever, cause when you peel it off after a period of time I bet you find a whole shitload of rust underneath it.

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there's a fine line between hobby and mental illnes

Actually Craig, if it was prepped correctly, He should have no rust. I use the shrink allot, and the adhesive is air and watertight. In if it gets a little tear in the surface, the adhesive will still protect the metal under the surface.

I wonder if liquid tape would work on the little nicks that may come up over time?

I hope the price on adhesive lined heat-shrink tubing has gone down quite a bit in the last few years!

The last time I used that stuff, a piece big enough to cover a barrel would cost about as much as a new barrel would! I do have to say, that would be about 6 years ago now so maybe it is being made in china nowadays.

I think that the price of heat shrink will be small compared to a rebarrel job. Especially when the bore is stil in good shape. Anyway in the right situation it has its benifits. I will try to track down some part numbers and prices on the HS he used.

Good day all,
JAG