crowning

[yukondog]

I'm about to try crowning 3 barrels 22lr,308 and 44mag. I've rented the cutter and pilots from 4-D, I know not to turn backwards and clean and oil offten, and tricks or tips?

[gunnut69]

I'm assuming you are talking about the hand tool.. Put the barrel in a vise or other support verticly. This helps keep every thing striaght with no side pressure. Isn't critical when crowning but a good habit to get into. When reaming a choke it can make a lot of difference. Remember the only critical part of a crown is the juncture between the rifling and the mahined part..this I would polish..Good luck with the project.

[STRANGE1]

I have only cut one crown, so you may not want to pay a lot of attention to me...... but, I put a couple of well oiled patches in the muzzle, just beyond the reach of the pilot, to keep shavings from getting to far into the barrel.  I chucked the cutter into a cordless drill and ran it as slow as possible, variable speed drill is a must have for this. clean and oil it very frequently, making sure that the pilot bushing doesnt get clogged with shavings.  When you think you are about done, start backing off the pressure until there is no pressure at all, this will help reduce chatter marks.  I was planning on having to polish by hand with some fine grit sandpaper; but the chatter marks on mine are barely noticable, and there are no burrs where the rifling meets the crown, so I left it alone.   Check for those burrs with a q-tip.

[gunnut69]

Polishing is alays a good idea.. Also unless doing a lot of such work I'd suggest doing them by hand. Clean the bore frequently of any chips and keep everything lubricated.. Avoid scratching the bore! Drills tend to lean to one side or the other and that is definitely to be avoided if at all possible..

[yukondog]

Thanks for the replies, I'll definitely push the chips through every time I clean the chips out and oil offten.

[yukondog]

Finely got the .308 pilot and did the crown last night, cam out looking pretty good doing it by hand. After I cut the barrel down I noticed that the barrel is thicker on one side than the other around 7 o'clock looking at the end of the barrel measuring off the lands it's .168" and around 2 o'clock it's .153" I know it doesn't sound like much and you can see it pretty good, is this common? Looking at the piece I cut off the fact. end is even all the around.

[STUMPJMPR]

I have seen several barrels off center.  Especially the old military stuff.

[yukondog]

This was a adams and benett barrel I got about 10 yrs. ago.

[gunnut69]

Barrels are deep hole drilled to produce the initial hole. Though this is carefully done there is a certain amount of wandering as the drilling progresses. I would suspect this is one possible cause of bullet impact wondering as the barrel heats since the uneven sidewalls would heat through at different rates. Wgich would cause uneven expansion of the steel and barrel warpage.. The truth is it will cause little real hurt though it is unsightly in it's worst form. Hope the barrel shoots great for all your efforts.. You might take note of the blast pattern on the crown. It should be even all the way around, which would indicate a nice cleanly cut crown.

[yukondog]

Thanks for the advice gunnut, that could be why as a 24" it never shot better than 2" at 100 yrds. I'm hoping at 18" it will shoot better with the shorter stiffer barrel, it will be awhile before I can afford my dues at the range, gotta get back to work first. I have to admit that I was impressed at how easy and good these 3 barrels came out having never done one before, the proof will be at the targets, thanks to all that replied.  Having spell check reminds me that after 50 odd yrs. I still cant spell worth a dam.

[teddybaham]

  Having spell check reminds me that after 50 odd yrs. I still cant spell worth a dam.

thats "damn" even spell check has failed you haha

[yukondog]

See, told ya I cant spell.