Stubbing a 26" doner .280 Rem barrel Question?????

[.375 Hawk]

With an unlimited number of wildcat and everyday chamberings that we can't buy over the counter, is it possible to take a 26" doner barrel cut the stub and have enough barrel left over to make a carbine using the left over cut off?
Can we turn a .280 Rmington into a 7mm TCU.  Or a 30-30 into a .300 Whisper by stubbing ?  Also how about a .204 Ruger to .20 VarTarg.
Just think, one barrel as the doner and the stub.....
Am I missing some thing or just being too cheap. If we buy a complete doner rifle the barrel is pre-fit at Remington.

Eddie

[tykempster]

7mm TCU and 300 Whisper would be interesting!

[krod47nw]

I've wondered about this myself.  I don't see why it couldn't be done.  If you cut the back 4 inches or so off of any handi barrel, what is left should be larger in diameter than most take off barrels from other rifles.
Larry, What's your view on it?


Kevin

[trotterlg]

The trick is to have enough wall thickness in the stub and still have enough chamber wall thickness in the barrel.  This is not a problem with the pistol and .223 diameter cases, but when you get up to the -06 diameter cases it seems thin to me.  But then I am not a gunsmith, I just don't chamber anything that looks thinner than what comes from the factory in some rifle or pistol.  Larry

[mitchell]

barrels are cheap life isnt

why risk it???

[.375 Hawk]

The trick is to have enough wall thickness in the stub and still have enough chamber wall thickness in the barrel.   I just don't chamber anything that looks thinner than what comes from the factory in some rifle or pistol.  Larry

This sounds like very good advice.  Larry thanks for your input. The .223 case head is the largest I am looking at.

Thanks, Eddie

[lee1954]

  Instead if a stub, take off the under barrel lug and reweld it a few inches down the barrel where you can cut a new chamber  of course  you would have to move the forend atachment a few inches towords the muzzle  too .... The barrel would be a little shorter ,, but no thin walls of a stub and maybe less work..
 You could ruin / cut into the barrel, were the lug is now to save the lug ,,, then cut that part of the barrel off -- so the lug is left in great shape to reatach ,, weld and rechamber about were the old throat was ..
   The lug is about 2.73 inches so that is the least that could be removed in barrel lenght -- plus what ever it took to get the room for the new  chamber.. Just my thinking ... Dan

[LaOtto222]

If you cut off the lug and reattach where the rifling starts, I do not think there would be enough diameter left . At the least, the barrel to frame would look funny with a big gap. You can buy barrel blanks pretty reasonable - under $100. This is less than half the cost of a stub project and it will more than likely be a better quality barrel, so why mess around trying to salvage a barrel, that likely will be small in diameter? If you want to make a 7 TCU here is a 26" barrel blank for less than $75+shipping

http://www.midwayusa.com/viewProduct/?productNumber=762918

You can get them in a variety of calibers and I have found that their quality is better than most factory barrels. Or you can spend more than that and get a variety of premium barrels.

Good Luck and Good Shooting

[Badnews Bob]

If you bored the stub and threaded it like a rifle barrel no strength is lost but that is hard to do for a part time machinist. It is very doable thou. There is a guy in New york who can do it.   Plenty of meat in a handy barrel.

[Badnews Bob]

  Instead if a stub, take off the under barrel lug and reweld it a few inches down the barrel where you can cut a new chamber  of course  you would have to move the forend atachment a few inches towords the muzzle  too .... The barrel would be a little shorter ,, but no thin walls of a stub and maybe less work..
 You could ruin / cut into the barrel, were the lug is now to save the lug ,,, then cut that part of the barrel off -- so the lug is left in great shape to reatach ,, weld and rechamber about were the old throat was ..
   The lug is about 2.73 inches so that is the least that could be removed in barrel lenght -- plus what ever it took to get the room for the new  chamber.. Just my thinking ... Dan

Won't work on a handy, Barrel dia wont let it.   At least in the way I am looking at it.

[LaOtto222]

I did not mean that you could not cut off a Handi barrel and thread it into the stub. It can be done, but will the root diameter of the threads be large enough to safely handle the pressures of a 222 family cartridge? I would think it would have to be at least .875" in the root diameter. This gives about .25" on a side. I consider that about as thin I would like a side wall. That is the diameter of a T/C bull barrel. The barrels I have measure some where around .950" just after it starts to taper down for a regular barrel. A Super Lite should not even be considered. You then have to turn it to an even diameter for about 3" or so and then cut the threads. It would be cutting it pretty close. The Stub I have is about .9" in diameter for a 22K Hornet, at the chamber. I do not think it is overly large. Like I said for 80 bucks you can get a barrel you know will be big enough in diameter and generally be of better quality. Considering it is going to cost you $200 or so with a donor barrel and furnishing a barrel or using one that is cut off, $80 is not that bad a price to be safe. I would not consider a stub for any thing over .375" in diameter unless it is a low pressure round. I know that .444 case based cartridges (which are almost .1" bigger in diameter) have been done in stubs, but I just do not know about them. That is just my opinion, I do not like to push the envelope. I like to know it is going to hold together, no matter what. I could be wrong, but I think that Larry uses this criteria for his stub projects.