Anyone know of a barrelmaker who can make any caliber and twist?

Pacnor can and will do damn near anything.

What caliber and twist are you looking for?

Ron Smith
P.O. Box 635
Wimborne, Alberta
Canada
T0M 2G0
1-403-631-2405

Pacnor, McGowen and Lilja have said no.
Looking for a real oddball: .461/.472 1:20 or 1:18 twist, for .461 Gibbs No. 2, as used by F.C. Selous.
Speerchucker, I hear nothing but effusive praise for Ron Smith. Does he make odd ones?

Bill, perhaps one of the reboring shops could help. They might be able to take a .375 to .429 barrel and re-bore it to your spec. If you found a used barrel to start with it wouldn't cost any more than a new barrel. I've used Clearwater Reboring and Custom Barrels a couple of times. It wasn't for the kind of custom job you need but it was for custom work and I was happy with the results. You might give them a jingle.

Problem is that reamers cost a fortune and no one is going to make them for one barrel.
As for canada; it takes an act of God to get a barrel INTO canada; I do not know the process for getting one out. Might try the custom makers like Rayls. He makes some odd stuff.

You just have to claim it as a high pressure pipe.

quote:

Originally posted by dpcd:
Problem is that reamers cost a fortune and no one is going to make them for one barrel.
As for canada; it takes an act of God to get a barrel INTO canada; I do not know the process for getting one out. Might try the custom makers like Rayls. He makes some odd stuff.

Grenadier, already have an e-mail in to Clearwater.
Dpcd: I've been in contact with Dave Manson, and he has ground two of them in the past few years.
I'm more concerned about dies and Bertram brass.

I know people used to ship "go cart axles" around the world; but I don't recommend it; not since 9-11. They frown on that kind of thing these days.

quote:

Originally posted by Bill/Oregon:
Pacnor, McGowen and Lilja have said no.
Looking for a real oddball: .461/.472 1:20 or 1:18 twist, for .461 Gibbs No. 2, as used by F.C. Selous.
Speerchucker, I hear nothing but effusive praise for Ron Smith. Does he make odd ones?

I'm not going to come out and say that you're not a creative person Bill/Oregon. But you would probably have to sit and think for a while to top some of the weird stuff he has already done in the last 50 some odd years of barrel making. LMAO ROFF If you can dream it up and get him even remotely interested, I'd say the sky is the limit.




http://www.gunownersofcanada.c...791-Rebar-gun-barrel

Speer: That is some wild stuff, to steal a line from Johnny Carson!

If you can find Ross Seyfried's article in the DGJ on restoring a mini Farq, he references a maker who produced a period correct barrel complete with metford rifling. If I can find the article I'll post the name, if I can't I'll reach out Ross and ask him.

Half Moon in MOntana?

Ron can even make gain twist barrels. An awful lot of Schuetzen Shooters are using his.

quote:

Originally posted by Bill/Oregon:
Anyone know of a barrelmaker who can make any caliber and twist?

My first thought was boots, but I've been waiting since 1995 for the last barrels I ordered from him, you might be in more of a hurry than that.

New Lenox machine makes cut rifles barrels in any caliber or twist you want. New Lenox I've been to his shop, but never dealt with them. They have the capability.

Several have recommended button rifled barrel makers. You won't get a button maker to do a special one off as it is not worth the trouble to make the button. You need to find a maker that single cut rifles, they can do about anything you want, particularly if they have a sin bar rifler.

John

I work for http://www.dvhcustomguns.com We make button rifle barrels.

We have made non standard diameter and twist barrels. Right now we have on order a rifle button to make a 500 Whisper, 1 in 8".

I think the cost of a drill, reamer and button set is about $600. You need to check with Dave but I believe if you pay for the tooling we would have no issue with making a one off barrel. I am not sure on the lead time for the tooling but after receiving it the barrel could be made in little time. Like a day.


Mark

Krieger makes a .459/.468 and also a ..467/.475. I'd call them and see if they would ream the .459 a little oversize, or just cut an extra .002" depth on the first one. If they could ream the bore .002 over, they could probably use the same cutter head and still cut a good bore. MIGHT be able to lap a though or so out before rifling, but a new bore reamer is cheaper than a drill, reamer, and button!

Try Oregon Barrel Company. I know they make a lot of out of the ordinary stuff in whatever twist you want. They can be reached through the The Gun Works muzzleloading Emporium, http://www.thegunworks.com/.

Have you tried Bartlein Barrels yet? They can pretty much do any twist, and as many get barrels as they have made, they may already have the reamer and hone combo to get you there.

Ask for Frank when you call - he is into a lot of the old stuff and likely will know what you are looking for.

Have you tried Danny Pedersen (sp)? In the Phoenix area, I believe.

Clarence

Pac-nor just recently told me they could do a custom, albeit at a substantial charge.

Thanks for the additional leads, guys. Aaron, PacNor told me a button would cost about $500 and take a year ...

quote:

Originally posted by Bill/Oregon:
Thanks for the additional leads, guys. Aaron, PacNor told me a button would cost about $500 and take a year ...

They need to find a new supplier.

quote:

Originally posted by ClaMar:
Have you tried Danny Pedersen (sp)? In the Phoenix area, I believe.

Clarence

Good luck on Danny. It is now four years I have been waiting for a barrel from him in .425 Westley Richards. Lon Paul swears by him, and I respect Lon's judgment, but the fact remains, no barrel and no communication.

Fellas, considering all the scarcity and costs, I think I'll go back to plan B: a .577 3-inch BPE on a Ruger No. 1. Lots of barrels to pick from, lots of reamers out there, and I just bought a bag of Jamison/Captech brass. Dies, $212 from CH/4D.
Sometimes you just have to align dreams with reality.

You know, McGowan makes a .468/.475 barrel; isn't that close enough? Have your chamber reamer made .003 bigger, if necessary, to chamber the .475 bullets. We won't tell anyone.

DP: I could do that, but I would not be able to look Mr. Selous in the face. Rather like building a .333 Jeffery on a .338 barrel. Bad form, sir!

Pretty sure he is dead for at least 100 years. I am looking at it from a practicality standpoint and I doubt if he could tell .003 anyway; that is one hair thickness.. Most of the old hunters knew little about the technical aspects of guns.
Anyway, it is as close as you can get without paying for custom tooling.
I have a 9x57 on my bench right now that has a .358 barrel that I put on it; nothing but good things surround that one. Is Paul Mauser spinning in his grave? who cares?

quote:

Originally posted by Mark Clark:

quote:

Originally posted by Bill/Oregon:
Thanks for the additional leads, guys. Aaron, PacNor told me a button would cost about $500 and take a year ...

They need to find a new supplier.

Why would you say they need another supplier? What do you know about barrel making? Go to Pederson and ask him while you are watching, what it takes to set up for a barrel. This is assuming they already have the special reamer and button. Barrel makers produce their barrels in lots. They do not set up for one barrel at a time.

That's why I mentioned Ron Smith Butch.

He's pretty highly respected, has been building barrels for 50 years, has built thousands of barrels, but he still classes himself as a hobby/professional barrel maker. It's not his primary source of income but yes he makes money at and yes he pays tax's. But he still pretty much makes barrels to demand and he cut rifles, grinds his own reamers and can do anything including gain twisting. If I had to pinpoint someone willing to make something "hare brained", it would be Ron.

The big name barrel makers don't have much interest in doing one offs unless you happen to be the buddy of the owner. They're playing a different game and one offs are a hobbyists game.

quote:

Originally posted by Mark Clark:

quote:

Originally posted by Bill/Oregon:
Thanks for the additional leads, guys. Aaron, PacNor told me a button would cost about $500 and take a year ...

They need to find a new supplier.

Maybe they make their own buttons! Keeping up with current demand probably takes all the tool makers time. Every button made has to make a certain dollar amount. Otherwise, it is non-profitable. Weird stuff is for the hobby guys, barrel makers are in it to make a profit,,,, and for what it costs to set-up to make a quality barrel, I can't blame them one bit! That one, off sized button needs to make as many $$$ as the 'common' buttons do.

Rod,
I know there are very few like Ron. Some of these folks have made barrels, but not top notch ones. I think buttons for example are made in house and reamers also. A carbide button is a true work of art.
My opinion, you might find the person that you are looking for, but I think the expense of having a top person(company) do it would not be practical.

quote:

Originally posted by butchlambert:
Rod,
I know there are very few like Ron. Some of these folks have made barrels, but not top notch ones. I think buttons for example are made in house and reamers also. A carbide button is a true work of art.
My opinion, you might find the person that you are looking for, but I think the expense of having a top person(company) do it would not be practical.

All of the smaller guys I know who button use Danjon or Eldorado buttons Butch. When I was at Remington back in 85 they mentioned that they got buttons from an American supplier. I think you need some pretty specialized equipment to grind and polish buttons. When you look at them under a strong magnifier they make your brain do handstands trying to figure out how the hell they grind and polish them so precisely. They are like little rifled footballs about 1-1/2 inches long and polished so that they shine like a hound dogs tooth. Oddly enough they are not as expensive as one might think. I could be out of date but if memory serves most of the common ones are under $300 if you order them with the rod brazed on.

Rod,
Jim at Shilen is a friend. He has made their buttons for many years. Yes, they are just beautiful.

quote:

Originally posted by butchlambert:
Rod,
Jim at Shilen is a friend. He has made their buttons for many years. Yes, they are just beautiful.

Just out of curiosity Butch. I've looked at probably hundreds of buttons over the last 35 years. But I've never seen them ground. It's a forgone conclusion that they are cut with diamond wheels but what sort of a machine do they use to make them? Is it just a standard tool and cutter grinder or do they actually have to make a proprietary machine to grind them?

Jim has a toolroom lathe, surface grinder, and 2 T&C grinders. You know, I've really admired his buttons, but I've never asked him how he gets them ground to shape and polished. Also the lands are cut in the button. It is both for the amount of lands and grooves, but it also determines the twist. A sinebar helps to regulate the twist.
So I'll use a 6mm for instance. They do the 6 in 4 groove, 4 groove ratchet, 6 groove, and 8 groove. Now you need to have them for
- 8" Special for VLD bullets over 100 gr.
- 8" * Ratchet rifled 4 groove
- 10" For bullets up to 95 gr. and VLD under 100 gr.
- 12" for bullets up to 85 gr.
- 13" * for bullets up to 75 gr.
- 13.5" * for bullets up to 70 gr.
- 14" * for bullets up to 70 gr.
- 14" * Ratchet rifled 4 groove
- 15" * Special for bullets up to 70 gr.

As you can see, they have a tremendous amount of buttons.

Not that I ever wanted to make one, but I have given button making a great deal of thought over the years just for the sake of entertaining my little, pointed haid. The only way that I could come up with making them would be on a universal grinder with a universal dividing head with a banjo driven off the X axis. The main problem would be finding a way to feed in tenths of thousandths. I'm sure it could be done, but with the equipment that I have used it would be a little bit like planting your garden with a D12 Cat. I'd always assumed that they would make some sort of scaled down, propitiatory machine with a compound Z axis to do it.

I've got a nice Cincinnati Milicron T&C grinder. It came out of the tool room of a large, international company that closed its machine shop (cheaper to out-source). Got a pallet of attachments with the tool. I've given button making serious thought but just haven't the time or the machinery to use a button, even if I could successfully make one. I stay pleanty busy just making and shapening the tools we use in the shop and, in general, keeping things running. Specialized, low volume work can't all be done with inserts (the days of long production runs are long over,,, those are now done in China)! A guy can tie up a wheelbarrow full of money just in grinding wheels.

quote:

Originally posted by butchlambert:

quote:

Originally posted by Mark Clark:

quote:

Originally posted by Bill/Oregon:
Thanks for the additional leads, guys. Aaron, PacNor told me a button would cost about $500 and take a year ...

They need to find a new supplier.

Why would you say they need another supplier? What do you know about barrel making? Go to Pederson and ask him while you are watching, what it takes to set up for a barrel. This is assuming they already have the special reamer and button. Barrel makers produce their barrels in lots. They do not set up for one barrel at a time.

I do know something about barrel making. I work for David Van Horn and we make our own button rifled barrels. I am the one who does the work. While most are made in lots if a customer needs a long or larger diameter barrel it is no big deal.
When this thread started I asked Dave if we would/could make a single barrel of non standard diameter and he said if the customer paid for the tooling it is not a problem.
We get our tooling from Dan Jon and Eldorado and have never had to wait 6 months let alone a year.

Mark