Counter-boring a 22 Remington.

[303Guy]

I have a Remington 511 Score Master that I picked up cheaply a long time ago. One day a few years ago O got to firing it and it shot rather poorly. Now these rifles are supposed to be pretty accurate. Anyway, I put it away and only got to have a closer look a few days ago and what I found was rather horrifying. The bore near the muzzle is damaged! It seems that some corrosive agent got in, I'm assuming before I got it since I have ben storing it high and dry alongside other rifles.

So I am figuring that the simplest solution would be to counter-bore it. This is something I have never done before and I am concerned about crowning. My thinking is to counter-bore it then finish with a boring bar but to cut a clean square crown I would ideally need to cut from the inside out but there is not a lot of room for a rigid bar.

I could of course simply chop off the damaged section and refit a front sight but I would prefer to keep it looking and feeling original. I could alternative cut it then fit an extension to bring it back to length but both those solutions require fitting a non original front sight which is probably not the worst thing in the world. I could go a step further and shorten the barrel then bring it back to length with a slim suppressor and mount a front site on that but the problem there is that it would have to be fixed which is probably OK. In fact, I could make an offset suppressor to get some volume.

Anyhow, thoughts and suggestions would be welcome.




Here one can see where some agent has removed the bluing. That agent also got into the muzzle. The top photo is not very clear but one can make out something wrong in the muzzle. That damage goes back about as far as the bluing damage.

That sight has been bubba'd but it is actually very nice to aim with. I do have an original sight for it but I'm actually going to keep with the bubba'd style, just not that blade.

[country gent]

I would look for a small counter bore with removable pilots. turn a pilot to .218 or a nice fit about an inch long. Then by hand stone a radius on the corners of the counter bore. This will relive the sharp corner and strengthen the joint along with remove a area that will hold dirt and fouling. A 1/4" or 5/16" should be plenty.

One of the first match mods on the m14/m1a was to ream the flash hider out to .400 with a #7 taper pin reamer, You might consider a smaller 3 or 4 taper pin reamer to ream the bore in a cone shape with now edge to the transition.

[kywoodwrkr]

Research something like " 3° Taper Angle 1/8" x 5/16" x 1-1/2" LOC x 3" OAL 3 FL End Mill" and see if that would answer problem similar to solution stating "the m14/m1a was to ream the flash hider out to .400 with a #7 taper pin reamer, You might consider a smaller 3 or 4 taper pin reamer to ream the bore in a cone shape with now edge to the transition".
I'm actually looking at that reamer to use as reamer in making some special plugs for the Lee powder through die.

[indian joe]

FWIW
I counterbored a 45/70 marcheno sharps, got it cheap from a bloke who had it in storage for a long time - he had scrubbed the barrel before we dealed - that thing always leaded at the muzzle - combination of not enough lube on the boolit + me not up to speed on the job - anyway in the end we discovered two faint corrosion marks in the rifling and counterbored it rather than recut the front sight dovetail - I thought I did a decent job of it and it stopped the leading at that point - It never shot particularly well - or that bad either - but had been an accurate gun in the hands of the owner before my guy - eventually I took the plunge and sawed the counterbore of it - recut the sight dovetail - best idea I had so far. I suspect that the counterbore + big long slug + blackpowder charge was inducing a small amount of instability in the counterbored area as the boolit exited. Re doing the sight dovetail is not that big of a deal - trying to make a nice crown two inches down in a 25 cal hole would be not so easy i think.

[Cap'n Morgan]

Drilling will work just fine if you use a new, sharp drill.
Place a small piece of folded cloth (about the size of a stamp) between the muzzle and drill to prevent chatter when starting the hole.
A few shot will take care of the burrs (if any) Been there, done that...

[uscra112]

Use a .22LR chamber reamer. Preferably a true match chamber such as the Lilja, not the Bentz.

Do NOT use a twist drill!

I think you'll wind up shortening the barrel anyway.

[ASSASSIN]

If you have access to a lathe, use a center cutting end mill to cut a counterbore to the depth you want, then if you have to, regrind a boring bar to cut a very clean and sharp muzzle crown inside of the counterbore, and your "problem" will be completely and totally eliminated!

The only thing left to do would be to cold blue the inside of the counterbore. As long as you cut the counterbore with a good/sharp end mill, it should produce a very near mirror finish that will require no polishing before cold bluing.

[303Guy]

Finding suitable reamers could be a problem. I do have one or two taper reamers I should check out.

If I only needed to go in a short distance I would just use a boring tool ground for the purpose.

It is still a consideration to cut the barrel back to clean rifling then fit an extension tube complete with baffles and mount a sight on that. The effectiveness of the baffles would be limited of course but will help some. It only needs to look original.

[Nobade]

I sometimes do that with a centerfire 22 necker that has a removable pilot. A regular solid pilot one is too big for the hole.

[rockrat]

One of the reamer makers I believe, have reamers to counterbore a muzzle. Don't remember which one though

[Cap'n Morgan]

To quote Governor Michael Steele: "Drill, baby, drill..."

[Drm50]

I’ve cut off several 22 rifles which is easiest to get rid of bore damage at muzzle. I have had one case that I was forced to counter bore. With my luck it was my own gun. I had a Savage 24 in 22/410 hid in my cabin. Before deer season I always took cabin guns home for winter. Well some kind of bug crawled in 22 barrel and hatched or whatever. Ruined rifling about 1/2” in and 1/2” long. I had to fight small OD of barrel and not being able to turn in lathe. I did first plunge bore with twist drills. A buddy of mine knew machinist in local plant that ground a mill cutter to face crown. Used Dremil to relieve crown. After all that it didn’t shoot worth squat. All this done on drill press with jig to hold barrel made of angle from bed frame. To be honest I had tunnel vision at the time. It never entered my wee mind to cut off the barrels. I could have easily cut both and crowned 22 barrel.

[DougGuy]

Since you won't be gaining any velocity with counterboring vs. shortening the barrel, I would shorten it, crown it, and dovetail a new front sight. If you have or know a buddy with a milling machine, problem solved.

[indian joe]

Since you won't be gaining any velocity with counterboring vs. shortening the barrel, I would shorten it, crown it, and dovetail a new front sight. If you have or know a buddy with a milling machine, problem solved.

cut the sight dovetail with a triangle file not really a big deal .

[indian joe]

Drilling will work just fine if you use a new, sharp drill.
Place a small piece of folded cloth (about the size of a stamp) between the muzzle and drill to prevent chatter when starting the hole.
A few shot will take care of the burrs (if any) Been there, done that...

yeah I been there done it too - done it properly in the lathe - gun shot better after I cut it off and recrowned it - whatever works, works......

[uscra112]

Take practice to cut a good dovetail with files. Don't tackle the Remington before you've worked up your skills on something ypu don't care about.

[1006]

I would barrow a bore scope and verify that the rest if the barrel is worth the effort. It may be better left alone.

[indian joe]

Take practice to cut a good dovetail with files. Don't tackle the Remington before you've worked up your skills on something ypu don't care about.

of course ! ....I also forget how impatient people are these days.

[Cap'n Morgan]

The drill must, of course, be large enough to prevent any chance of the bullet contacting the hole and allow escaping gas to pass without disturbing the bullet too much.
As for chopping the end of the barrel off, it will probably increase speed slightly, the optimal barrel length being about 16".

[Drm50]

I’ve bought a couple dove tail files cheap. Guys bought them from a Brownells to save money and do their own dove tails. What I say to them is buy a ramp, that might save them money if they don’t drill into the bore.