I have a nice old Sako AIV .375 H&H with the barrel band style front sight and rear sight mounted on a quarter rib. It is in need of re-crowning. I have had two local gunsmiths decline the job because they just wanted to chuck it in their lathe but the quarter rib and barrel band don't allow that. Is there another common and effective way to re-crown? Your advice and experience welcome.

Brownells and Midway USA sell kits for the DIY'er, worse comes to worse a fairly decent job can be had with a round head brass screw and some kind of lapping compound with a steady hand.

Steve........

It should not be a problem if the lathe has a big enough bore to accept the barrel and dial it in correctly.

I re-crown a 95 7mm with a grinding ball with a drill press.

Worked well don't know if I would try it on anything other then a free rifle.

Dave Manson of Manson Precision Reamers sells a precision muzzle crowning kit, he makes quality products and is an AR member.

+1 on the Manson crowning kit. Not my preferred method but it is very handy when the barrel doesn't fit through the headstock because of integral sights. One could also pull the barrel, hold onto the threads with a three jaw and use a steady rest just behind the banded front sight.

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Jim Kobe:
It should not be a problem if the lathe has a big enough bore to accept the barrel and dial it in correctly.[/QUOTE

Good advice from a gunsmith. jc

quote:

Originally posted by MNR:
+1 on the Manson crowning kit. Not my preferred method but it is very handy when the barrel doesn't fit through the headstock because of integral sights. One could also pull the barrel, hold onto the threads with a three jaw and use a steady rest just behind the banded front sight.

And then a re-blue! Use a spider/cathead instead!

quote:

And then a re-blue! Use a spider/cathead instead!

Jim Kobe, for those of us not in the trade, what is a spider/cathead? Thanks

That's it, second row center. It is clamped on the barrel and indicated in to run concentric with the bore. Then mounted in the steady.

Any good gunsmith can crown your barrel,under those circumstances, that is not a problem if they know what they are doing and have the proper equipment..even if the barrel band front sight is flush with the crown, which it should not be..should protrude about a quarter of an inch or maybe a bit less, unless you get real English then more, but I don't care for that look...

Living in a tiny and remote community like I do, I restored to desperate measures. Took a glass marble ( childs toy) smeared it with scope ring lapping compound, and ground the muzzle crown by hand for 2o minutes or so, refreshing the lapping compound as needed. Results were obvious and looked satisfactory. I had taken care to make sure no lapping compound got down the bore and cleaned everything thoroughly after. Four shot 100 yd. group size with the same 300 gr. handload went from 3" or so to about 1-1/2". I'm satisfied with that result, so my search is over.

I did a similar crown polish in a rifle my son tripped and fell with.
I welded a piece of rod to a couple different sized ball bearings and used an alluminum oxide grit, finished off with lapping compound. The steel rod allowed use of a high speed drill.

Sometimes your better off going DIY