Chamber liner for 22rf?

17 January 2002, 12:36

Paul H

I thought I read an article about this, or maybe it was one of those bright ideas I had awhile back.

Anyhooow, I know about barrel liners for 22rfs', but was wondering if anyone had only inserted a chamber bushing to make up for a sloppy factory chamber, but otherwise good bore, and if the accuracy improved? Seems like a waste to toss a whole barrel, when only the chamber is the problem, ifn' one could just fix the chamber.

17 January 2002, 17:09

<George Stringer>

Paul, I haven't seen anything like that but a common practice in accurizing rimfires is to set the barrel back a bit and rechamber. This can be done fairly easily with most. George

17 January 2002, 19:26

<Eric>

Paul,

I agree with George. Be easier to set the barrel back than screw around with trying to bush the chamber.

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Surely we must all hang together, for separately we will all surely hang.

28 January 2002, 01:59

carcano91

Brief question to George and others:

how feasible and how expensive is it to counterbore a rimfire for about 1 to 1.5 inches as to make up for a ringed barrel near the muzzle ? I have a small Anschï¿½tz 1415 that I bought too expensively and without thorough checking (silly me !), and I am loath to throw it away if it could be made to shoot again (I can get a similar one for 100 Euro every day, though).

Thanks, Carcano

28 January 2002, 04:03

m1carbine

What model and make is the firearm.
Ray

28 January 2002, 05:54

Craftsman

Paul H

It is not hard at all for a good gunsmith to machine a bushing, bore out the chamber area, install the bushing and rechamber. I have done this many times to restore old rimfire rifles such as the Stevens Favorite when it was not desirable to replace the barrel and the rifling was good so not practical to reline the whole barrel.

Carcano 91

It is not hard at all for a capable gunsmith to counter bore the muzzle end of a barrel one or two inches to get rid of a damaged part of the bore. At the same time you can make the diameter of the counter bore fairly large, thread the muzzle end for a cap with a hole .020 inch over bullet diameter, then machine ports or holes for an integral muzzle brake. I have done this a few times for the NRA Bullseye shooters to reduce weight and reduce muzzle rise at the same time. To counter bore only so to fix your problem is not too expensive, to machine the integral muzzle brake gets expensive.

28 January 2002, 06:42

Customstox

Paul,
I think the step at the end would cause you problems. Lining the barrel is an easy task anyway, might as well have a fresh bore.

I spoke too soon, should have read Craftsman's post.

chic

[This message has been edited by Customstox (edited 01-27-2002).]

28 January 2002, 19:16

Mark

quote:
Originally posted by Craftsman:
Paul H
It is not hard at all for a good gunsmith to machine a bushing, bore out the chamber area, install the bushing and rechamber. I have done this many times to restore old rimfire rifles such as the Stevens Favorite when it was not desirable to replace the barrel and the rifling was good so not practical to reline the whole barrel.

Guys here is something funny- I still have my first 22, a Stevens Favorite my dad bought me when I was 7. I used shorts in it primarily as the chamber is worn, as is the extractor. Anyway I have always thought that one of these days I'll weld up the extractor, and that should help yank a 22LR out of the worn chamber, then not 5 days ago I was thinking about how simple it would be to bush the chamber area, though up to this point I had never heard of it being done. So here I am thinking how clever I am and Craftsman says he has done it many times, on my rifle too no less! So I'm still chuckling and scratching my head!

28 January 2002, 19:19

Mark

Oh and the reason I was thinking about this is because my own oldest son is turning 7 this March.

28 January 2002, 20:14

Customstox

Mark, a fellow named Redman, lives up northo of me in Washington, I believe in Tonasket and he builds the liners that are sold in Brownells and earns a good living building those and relining 22 rf's and small bore centerfires, like 25 -20's etc. It is actually an easy task. the drills bits for the boring are sold also in Brownells. My sons first rifle was a Stevens favorite and it is still shooting well but some day...

29 January 2002, 06:07

Paul H

I suppose I should have been more specific. I picked up one of the taurus pump action stainless 22's for the kids. Great little gun, but accuracy is mediocre. Setting the barrel back with the magazene attachment isn't what I'd like to do, and the bore is new, so no need to re-line.

Considering the kids are just starting out, the mechanical accuracy of the gun isn't an issue.

29 January 2002, 06:57

Mark

Chic,

Yes a reline would be an easy thing to do, think I would just make my own bit for it (among other things I'm a certified master machinist, which with a dollar can get me a cup of coffee just about anywhere except for Starbucks...). I also read a nice way of doing it is to just go in from the breech and stop a couple millimeters from the muzzle, then you have the barrel looking fairly untouched. I might have read that here, so if whoever wrote it reads this I'm sorry I forgot to give credit where it is due. However the gun never shot that poorly so I'm not initially going to do anything drastic for it. It just was a pain to eject 22 LR shells, and initially that is all I'm worrying about. Maybe after I do it and can't hit the barn from the inside I'll monkey with doing a reline.

29 January 2002, 07:03

Mark

Paul H,

Sorry forgot to post this with my other reply, but have you taken a cast of the chamber to verify that the problem is there? How do the ejected empties look? What sort of accuracy are you looking at also, say at 40- 50 yards?

29 January 2002, 07:48

Paul H

Mark,

I haven't done a chamber cast yet. My assumption is it has the typically sloppy production chamber.

I'd like to get 1" 50 yd groups, it struggles to shoot 1" at 25 yds.

The technique you mention of drilling the barrel short for the liner is mentioned in one of the Brownell's Gunsmith Kinks books.

[This message has been edited by Paul H (edited 01-28-2002).]

29 January 2002, 11:07

m1carbine

If you have the kinks book then, you hhave all of the directions you need. I have only the first three and in three some were is a tip to reline a 22 camber and there are a compleate set a directions for relining a barrel. I think the hint for relining the chamber in in the first book.

Second question, what kind of mechanical ablitiy do you have? By this I was wundering if you have a lathe or mill or just some hand tools?
Ray

29 January 2002, 12:03

wildcat junkie

quote:
Originally posted by Craftsman:
Paul H

Carcano 91
It is not hard at all for a capable gunsmith to counter bore the muzzle end of a barrel one or two inches to get rid of a damaged part of the bore.

I have a 30/40 Krag that belonged to my dad. The bore is fair. The throat is good, but about 3/8" of the rifling is worn on one side @ the muzzle. (from improperly cleaning from the muzzle I think) I do not want to rebarrel it, but I would like to get as much accuracy as possible from this barrel. Can this be done without removing the barrel?

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Life is more exitin' when yer stickin' suppositories inta a wildcats behind!

29 January 2002, 13:58

Paul H

quote:
Originally posted by wildcat junkie:
I have a 30/40 Krag that belonged to my dad. The bore is fair. The throat is good, but about 3/8" of the rifling is worn on one side @ the muzzle. (from improperly cleaning from the muzzle I think) I do not want to rebarrel it, but I would like to get as much accuracy as possible from this barrel. Can this be done without removing the barrel?

Depending on the length of the barrel, it is possible the barrel could be run through the headstock of the lathe, with the action hanging out the back side. Typically you remove the barrel, zero the muzzle in a 4 jaw, support the tail with a cats head, and then counter bore the barrel as far back as needed to get to good rifling.

This will be be a fairly economically repair, just make sure that who ever does the work knows how to run a lathe, many "gunsmiths" don't.

29 January 2002, 14:17

m1carbine

You have answered my question partialy. i would say that if you wanted you could make a short liner to replace the chamber before the rifleing starts. But for acuracy I woud say that lining the whole barrel would probably bebetter for accuracy.
ray