Has anyone cut down the barrel on their pardner?

[guvnor]

Im thinking of chopping down my 410 to a 19 inch barrel to make a compact camp gun. 

Has anyone tried this, and how did it come out?  Whats the best technique?  Any tricks to keep the cut square?  Will a plain old hacksaw work? 

Is there an easy way to replace the bead sight with epoxy or something, or should I just say forget the bead altogether since it will be a gun used for very short range (less than 20 yards) anyway?   

Thanks for the help! 

[mcwoodduck]

The only thing you need to worry about when cutting a gun down that does not have a rib is you need to mount a taller bead on the gun.
cutting the barrel short will raise your point of impact if you plan on shooting down the gun.
try this. 
put the gun in a gun vise.  use a little elmers glue or hot wax and glue a BB shot at the point where you are planning to cut the barrel.
now aim the gun at something in the garage.  The BB should be big enough to hide the front bead,  remove the shot with the back of a pocket knife and now look down the same gun you will be below the target.  Just use a large enough bead or a bead on a block.
Big mistake we made when cutting down a couple guns for kids to use.

[scout4]

I had this done to my .410. Had my smithy bob the barrel, then he milled a rifle type crown in it. I only wanted the choke removed, so I kept the barrel at 24". It was one great shooting little gun! scout4<><

[Scibaer]

i've done it on several guns. here is how i do it.
 saw off the barrel with a hack saw. i use an aluminum square to make sure the line i follow is straight.
 run some painters tape around the barrel where you want to make the cut and draw a line with the straight edge of the square around the barrel on the tape
cut on  line, slowly and carefully.
 then i use  a flat file to make sure the cut is square, i recheck with the square.
 you can use emery paper to polish out the cut or file marks, radius the edge and clean up the cut.
 then drill, tap for your new bead . you can paint or cold blue the barrel at the cut.
 i got a kit from midway for drilling , tapping and mounting the bead square.

mount your bead and your done.. its a 15 minute project really.

[Jimbo47]

I had a couple of old tubing cutters, and it works really well if you just take it slow and only adjust it a very small amount at a time.

It makes a nice clean and square cut, but it does take a little time because if you crank down you will more than likely break the cutting wheel.

Take you time and it works beautifully!

[quickdtoo]

I've cut the barrel off a 20ga smooth bore flintlock once, used a tubing cutter, then used the same trick listed in the FAQs to put a new crown on it. I sweated a front sight on it, so I can't say I've done a bead, but Brownell's sells a kit to ad a bead, comes with a drill bit, tap and the bead, or you can just order the bit and tap from them, I think H&R uses a 3-56 thread.

Tim

http://www.brownells.com/.aspx/pid=338/Product/SHOTGUN_SIGHT_CONVENIENCE_KITS

[Rustyinfla]

 Thanks Tim, posting that link like that makes it too foolproof. I've been putting off ordering that for some time but it's on the way now.