I have a M77 Stainless/Synthetic that was dropped in a gravel parking lot, muzzle down . The crown was mauled pretty badly, and now the rifle shoots patterns instead of groups. I took the rifle to a local smith, but he quoted me a price of $100.00 to re-crown it. I thought this was a bit high, but he said he would have to remove the barrel and re-index it, and check headspacing. Can I get a cutter from Brownell's and expect good results? I am not God's gift when it comes to repair work, but not a novice either.
Any feedback will be most appreciated.

Crow - Spend the 100 bucks. This is a small price to pay. Cutting a crown, while easy, is not a "do it your self" type project. As you said, the crown is important to accuracy - better leave this to the professionals.

Z

I think you should be able to handle the job. I have done it twice just using the head of a big brass screw chucked in a hand drill. I used 80, 120, 220 and 320 grit Clover compounds. Stay on 80 until you've done all the cutting.

You should be able to find a smith to do it professionally for about $40. There's no reason to pull the barrel.

Don

Crowrifle.

$100 is in my opinion way to much mone for a recrown!

I do some gunsmithing now and then and if a friend ask me to recrown a barrel I charge about $20 and if it�s a close friend it�s free

I need about 45-60 min to strip the rifle and put the barreled action in the lathe to do the crown and put things back together. If I could charge $100 for this job and get away I would quit my regular job tomorrow

I have not tried the metod Don G mention but I don�t se why it wouldn�t work. Give it a try and if you mess things upp badly look for another gunsmit to set things right again.

Good luck.

Stefan.

Well, $100 doesn't sound overly steep for a complete stripping and refitting.

It's just that there's no need to do that for a recrowning only. Get another smith.

-- Mats

I had a nice crown done here in Austin Texas at Mc Brides. They charged $27.50 and did a good job. The higest quote I got was for $75.00. I'd call around looks like that gunsmith has too much work..

Sounds like he thinks he's the only gunsmith around. Do it yourself following the examples given. Go slow and you won't mess it up.

Maybe I'm missing something, but what does pulling the barrel, re-indexing it and checking the headspace have to do with re-crowning the barrel. I thought I was getting ripped off when I paid $40.00 to have a rifle re-crowned. The smith I usually go to charges about $10.00.

Find a smith. This is not a job for a hand-drill and a "big brass screw." Optimally, the crown needs to be perfectly square, without burrs, and 11 degrees. You can't do that with a hand-tools and hardware notions.

No need to remove the barrel. Should be able to chuck it and recown. Find a gunsmith who knows what he's doing.

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PowderBurns Black Powder / Muzzle Loading Forum:

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I suppose that the "$100 smith" don�t have a lathe big enough to get the action into the spindle axle. That�s probably why he states that the barrel have to be pulled and re fit again.

There is another ways around the "to small spindle axle hole problem" though.

Stefan.

You made it sound as if the rifle was accurate before the crown damage, so the original crown was square and happy.

Doing this job with a big brass screw and lapping compound is easy, cheap, and works very well most of the time.

It also does not invade the bore like most hand tools made for the job, so therefore makes it almost impossible to ruin anything.

At worst you've wasted your time and learned something. At best you've fixed it and learned something.

Don

DonG is right. I have a buddy who "plays" with accurizing rifles for himself, uses 700s, rebarrels,beds, crowns them, etc. Does almost all of the simpler stuff,ie. non lathe type work, including crowns himself. Uses very similar method to one outlined by DonG. Winds up with some very accurate rifles at very modest cost. You really have nothing to lose, besides at most 1/16 inch of barrel. If it doesn't work, take it to a cheaper smith. I think most smiths really earn their money, but this one is too high, or maybe there is some miscommunication about what you wanted done. Luckily, once he finishes one, and works out some accurate loads for it, he often sells it and goes on to the next one. I own a couple of them.

[This message has been edited by Gatogordo (edited 06-12-2001).]

I'd try the brass screw and compound first, and if it didn't work then take it to a gunsmith...Finn Aagard used to do it all the time and I've done it just to see if it would work and it has every time...but a gunsmith should do it for much less than $100. Thats what I pay for having a barrel installed, chambered and crowned....

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Ray Atkinson

ray@atkinsonhunting.com
atkinsonhunting.com

Thanks for all of the advice. From all the feedback you folks gave, it seems as if the smith I took the gun to was a little too proud of his work. I think I will try to repair the crown myself and will let you know how it turned out. Thanks again for all the good advice.