This might seem like a strange question, but would there be a reason or have been a reason to alter the crown of a rifle by purposely filing a small round 1/8" slot on one edge of the crown? If the barrel were slightly tweaked and/or would a person purposely attempt to change bullet POI? Or would this make the bullet POI erratic? I do plan on having the barrel recrowned because I know it isn't correct.

I have a 60 yr old rifle that shoots well and consistently bullets impact is about 1.5" with handloads at 100 yards (prolly should leave well enuff alone). However, on the lower edge of the crown is an approx 1/8" round slot that looks like it was filed out OR worn in by repeatedly cleaning the barrel from the crown end. It might seem obvious to the casual reader that it is exactly that, but I knew the previous owner for many years and the rifle was rarely shot. The bore was only thoroughly cleaned after shooting. If not shot over a number of years the rifle was wiped down and bore punched once a year.

I couldn't possibly speculate on why it was done but I sure would have it re-crowned.

That barrel would have to be made out of a pretty soft piece of steel for a cleaning rod to cut a groove in it. Nothing is served by such damage so I would definitely second the recrowning recommendation.

People get really wierd ideas in thier heads and just have to try them out. Who knows why someone would do that, but it isn't gonna make the gun a better shooter for sure.

I had a 6.5 sweed that someone thought they would put a deep crown on, so they drilled out the last inch of the bbl with a drill bit! The BBl was already pretty short, so I didn't want to cut it. That gun never shot well. I see people do the wierdest things, but thats what they do.

quote:

Originally posted by guncurtis2:
People get really wierd ideas in thier heads and just have to try them out. Who knows why someone would do that, but it isn't gonna make the gun a better shooter for sure.

I had a 6.5 sweed that someone thought they would put a deep crown on, so they drilled out the last inch of the bbl with a drill bit! The BBl was already pretty short, so I didn't want to cut it. That gun never shot well. I see people do the wierdest things, but thats what they do.

Back when the minimum barrel length was 18 inches for rifles, imported Swedish M94 carbines had an inch long tube welded to the end of the barrel so they could be sold. You may have had one of those.

ears ago I played around with an old pull pin revolver trying to get it to shoot with the sights. Moving the axis of the crown did change
the point of inpact. This could have been along the same lines.
Good luck!

My take is that at some point in time the crown was somehow damaged resulting in a gouge or burr. Rather than having the barrel re-crowned, a fine round file was used to "repair" the dinged crown. The repair seems to have worked well enough, so the rifle never made it to a gunsmith for a proper re-crown job.

Age old wisdom "if it is working, don't fix it."
Good luck!

I'll have it recrowned. It was my plan all along. You are right. Who knows what runs through people's minds? Thanks for all the thoughts.

quote:

Originally posted by Bobster:

quote:

Originally posted by guncurtis2:
People get really wierd ideas in thier heads and just have to try them out. Who knows why someone would do that, but it isn't gonna make the gun a better shooter for sure.

I had a 6.5 sweed that someone thought they would put a deep crown on, so they drilled out the last inch of the bbl with a drill bit! The BBl was already pretty short, so I didn't want to cut it. That gun never shot well. I see people do the wierdest things, but thats what they do.

Back when the minimum barrel length was 18 inches for rifles, imported Swedish M94 carbines had an inch long tube welded to the end of the barrel so they could be sold. You may have had one of those.

Interesting. I was not aware of that. Perhaps it was. In anycase it never shot well, but it had more problems than that. I eventually sold it to a friend who wanted to build a gun on a small ring.