Building a Barrel for a H&R SB2 frame

[Hamish]

Bump, just to be a stinker,,,,,,,,

[rking22]

Group Buy ??????

[dragonrider]

Very good Swede, I have made a couple barrels for my TCR-87 and 90% of the work is in the monoblock.. and the worst part is the channel for the extractor. I use an E-head on my Bridgeport to do it but even so it is not fun. I am going to change that, also going to change the way the barrel installs, instead of a tight fitting reamed hole and cross pins I am going to thread the next one and see how that works, I have high hope for that.

[Clark]

I got an H&R 16 ga shotgun lower for next to nothing at a gunshow and built my 50CB wildcat on top with a barrel from Green Mountain. It can kill a coon with a body shot that sounds like a BB gun.

[Ballistics in Scotland]

Nice! What, if anything, do you do to keep scale from forming during the welding? I've been told that silver solder flux might work, and have also thought of using Keep-Bryte. Of course, chambering after welding could possibly solve this problem by itself. How do you provide for the extractor/ejector? This welding issue has been what has stopped me from making custom barrels for H&R handis, and contenders etc. (so far).

I believe that flux, which is mostly borax, would prevent an arc from being struck.

I wouldn't want to seem to criticize Swede's splendid work, but for those limited in welding, like me, there could be a lot to be said for silver soldering, provided that the surfaces can be shaped to a close match. Sheet or paste silver solder would penetrate all the way across the joint.


This drawing, from WW Greener's book, shows how the lumps were dovetailed in and brazed in double shotguns, and the most powerful of big game rifles, before chopper lumps, half of the lump integral with each of the barrels, came in. I'm a long way from most of my books, but Sir Gerald Burrard says that a form of silver solder was introduced during the Second World War, and proved as strong with less danger of overheating the steel. The dovetail joint doesn't count for very much, since the forces on a shotgun have only a minimal tendency to make the barrels rotate about the pin. Many a person has held a shotgun shut by hand alone while firing, although I wouldn't chance happening on one that is different. The forces that really count are longitudinal ones.

[Nobade]

Nice writeup there Swede, you do good work! Thanks for doing the hard work and making the drawings. I suspect there is going to arise a small industry to make barrels for these rifles in the future, now that the factory isn't making them any more and there are so many of them out there in the hands of enthusiasts.

-Nobade

[Ballistics in Scotland]

Why stop there? I think the barrel is the difficult bit.

[Bohica793]

Hey Swede! Now that H&R is closed down, when will you start offering your replacement barrels to the general public? Or at least to us?

[archangel2003]

I have spent a week searching the net for barrel lugs and this is the closest I have come.
So, a year and a half later, does anyone know if there are there any lugs to be found?

[NoAngel]

This will become very important in future years as the supply of 'other' barrels dry up. Currently, shotgun barrels and unwanted rifle barrels get stubbed which works very well, but one day, they will run out. It's already pretty difficult to find H&R's compared to yesteryear. Remember when you couldn't swing a dead cat in a gun show what you didn't knock over a dozen H&R's? Not any more.

[Ballistics in Scotland]

There is a very good recent thread on attaching underlugs, although it refers primarily to Thompson Center barrels. I think it confirms what I believe, that you would have to be a very good welder indeed, with just the right facilities, to make welding a better choice than silver soldering.

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/show...welding-barrel

There isn't as much information on this one, but it mentions an important difference in the metallurgy of H&R receivers made for rifles and shotguns:

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/show...Barrel-Program

[Tackleberry41]

Yea the H&R have already seemed to dry up. The little gun shop near me always had several in the rack, now they might have one. Will get expensive buying one just for the barrel. Before H&R closed I got a barrel off ebay for not to much. Now its cheaper to buy a whole rifle than a barrel. Even if someone came up with just a threaded stub it would be really nice.

[leftiye]

You're right. At Ed's T/Cs, there are plenty of barrels for t/c Contenders and Encores in calibers not generally available. AND they don't cost much if any more than Handi Rifle barrels are going for. Some greedy sellers put Handi Rifle barrels into the 400 dollars and up range. I hate to be the one to say it, but H&R went out of buziness because of their sloppy production controls.

[Hamish]

leftiye makes a good point. I've got somewhere around a dozen. Playing "Let's see what barrel fits what frame" and having to hand fit leave a bad taste. Never had these kind of problems with the Contenders.

[leftiye]

I've got about 16 Handi Rifle barrels, and quite a few receivers, so I'm not against them at all. But the calibers are boringly limited, and they are getting pricey.