Once again, I'm looking for suggestions (some of you may notice a pattern here). I need to establish the capability to mark barrels with calibers. I don't like stamps as I just can't get them to be square and true, so what do you folks recommend? How would you/do you mark your barrels and what equipment recommendations do you have?

Thanks again.

New Hermes engraver... You'll have to get a set of fonts and you'll be good to go... You should be able to get the engraver and fonts in the neighborhood of $350-400.. Look on Ebay.

Pat

Stamps work fine, you just need to practice with them.

Don't freehand them, you need to use a jig that holds them inline and square to the barrel.
I use something I made which is two pieces of angle aluminum with two big U-bolts gripping it to the barrel.

Practice, practice, practice.

-Spencer

Find a good engraver and let him do the lettering. Of course I'd say that.

But it's true. A good hand lettered caliber and/or maker designation really dresses up the rifle.

In my opinion, forget the pantograph. If it doesn't have a rotary cutter you are just scratching the lettering in. If it does have a rotary cutter you are stuck with single line lettering styles. It's better than stamping, but doesn't add up to hand cut lettering. You can get an ass load of barrels lettered for what a rotary cutter panto will cost you.

Acid Etch

I agree with Pat B. New Hermes engraver is a great system, however not cheap! We used Chem etching (Acid Etching) and it worked great and inexpensive until we jumped to the New Hermes System, the nice thing about that is that you can do just about ANY graphic you want- pictures, fonts, whatever.

Which system from New Hermes do you recommend? I've looked on Ebay and there seems to be several. Which ones work on the curved surface of a barrel or action?

Stamps look cheap no matter how straight they are.

My riflesmith engraves them, very nice.