I have an old 1886 which is totally shot out. No two bullets end up in the same place. I am looking for a little help with

1. Anyone have an old original octagon barrel for the 1886? LOL
or more realistically
2. Anyone have experience with having a rifle sleeve inserted and if so who did the work for you? Are you satisfied?

I think this may be the only way to put this one back in the game.
Thank you,
Frank

What is the caliber? Is there enough "meat" in the barrel to re-bore? I ask because sleeving most of the rounds that were available in the 1886 wouldn't be possible. Maybe step up to a different cartridge.

BB

A rebore would be both better and cheaper. I had a Marlin 38-40 taken to 44-40 and it worked perfectly.

Green mountain has new barrels that are made to the same specs as the old original , I got one and it's awsome , Shotgun news has several places to send your rifle to have it rebored , I have an old .40/65 but decided to get a new barrel .

I have had several rifles relined. An original .38-55 winchester in an 1885 and several .22s.
This generally works well if done properly. Mine was done by a local guy that just works for friends. But there are many gunsmiths that do these sorts of things. Lee Shaver, John King, Dave Casey, Glen Fewless to name four. You might want to check out any of the more popular bpcr sites like bpcr.net/forums for example. They can provide addresses and opinions.

I believe either Green Mountain or Badger, or both are profiling barrels for lever repeaters like the 86. You could check with the folks at http://www.buffaloarms.com and see if they have any in stock. They would be good to recommend a smith also.

The last option I would consider would be to rebore.

Brent

Several people reline, I think if you cleverly asked one of the tech guys at Brownells, who buys the most liners...you'd probably get an answer(last I knew they couldn't give recommendations).

I can enthusiastically recommend Badger if you want to rebarrel. Ernie's a BPCR competitor, and a lot of guys are winning with his barrels. http://www.badgerbarrels.com Not to mention he's a wealth of information, their shop is breathtaking to me.

Dennis Olsen lines barrels. His price was $250 just a few years ago.

I doubt that it has gone up much.

He is a very reputable gunsmith, and his turn around is very quick.

Tip Burns in Canyon Lake Texas does relining. I saw a nice old winchester he was finishing up a few weeks ago. I've been very pleased with his work. 830-935-3338. Bob

There are a lot of people who reline old Winchesters. However the important distinction with that is most of them are relining pistol calibers, NOT rifle calibers.

BB

If the rebore/reline options aren't to you liking you could always rebarrel with a the barrel shaped to your old barrels contour. Turnbull will roll the proper lettering into the barrel for a small fee.

I believe that John King will do the lettering too. I forgot that. Not sure about the others.

Brent

Wow, you guys are awesome.
The rifle is in 40-65 and I think I would prefer a new barrel to re-bore. I had that done by laBounty some years ago on a different rifle and it was extremely well done. I understand he is no longer doing this work. I like the idea of going to a different caliber like 45-70 but think it best to stick with the 40-65 to avoid feed work and the like.
I am having Dennis Olsen do some other work for me so I will go to him first on this as well.
Thank you all.
Frank

Frank, when I owned my own shop I use to reline quite a bit. In fact for a while is was one of my main sorces of income. You can reline most 1886 rifles. It is a great option if you want to keep the original barrel and the original caliber. The liner is almost completly hidden and they shoot very well. I had a client that won several off hand matches with a 38-40 Maynard that I did for him. The total cost was a little less then a new barrel but not much. I charged 330.00 plus the cost of the liner. You can get liners for the rifle cartiges up to .50. The last time that I looked in Brownells they only sold .22 liners and then some liners for the pistol/rifle calibers. i.e. 25-20. I got my liners from Mike Sayers of TJ's.

I thought I had an 1886 45-70 barrel but I have recently moved and I could not put my hands on it tonight. If you are interested let me know and I will look harder. Also if you go from 40-65 to 45-70 there are no changes that you need to make to the action.

Take Care, Michael

John King Machine Service 100 Dusty Trail Kila,MT 59920 1-406-755-5352 Bore , reline ,& chamber $325.00 Brownells have new from Green River $152.00 John King has the lettering to make it as original , he also does case hardning , Call him for prices .

Question to posters...is the Dennis Olson mentioned the gunsmith from Plains, Montana?
I have had lots of work done by him...all very fine work.
Best Regards, Tom

quote:

I thought I had an 1886 45-70 barrel but I have recently moved and I could not put my hands on it tonight. If you are interested let me know and I will look harder. Also if you go from 40-65 to 45-70 there are no changes that you need to make to the action.

Thank you Michael. Yes please do look. I am learning more about the lineing process and it is especially good to know that there aren't action changes needed if I go to 45-70.

It is also good to know that there are others like John King able to add the letters back. Everything is still faily sharp except the caliber stamp. That may not matter if I change though.

I checked out Buffalo Arms and they do have the Badger Barrel for the '86. I guess I need to make a decision.
Frank

Michael....good to hear you've landed somewhere. Hope the move went well and is a better business move than you guys even dreamed it might be!!

Jim