To cut or not to cut ?

[missionary5155]

Good morning
Latched on to another 1892 SRC Winchester 44-40 (1908).
Sadly this one was badly oxidated inside & outside & was refinished brfore I got it. Barrel has good rifling up to the last inch at th muzzle. Shoots a nice 4" pattern at 25 yards. Yes the boolit is a throat filler at .432. (220 grain saeco).
So I know I can wack it off to an 18.5" and have a good shooter.. or leave it at origonal 20" and have a looker...
What-cha think ?
Mike in peru

[excess650]

As Townsend Whelen so eloquently stated, "only accurate rifles are interesting".

Cut 'er back or reline and make it useable, otherwise, its just a wallhanger. Maybe a trapper?

[bob208]

i would not cut it. instead i would do like the target shooters counterbore it. that way you don't have to worry about altering anything else.

well that is a great statement but remember it was made back when winchesters were not colletables like they are now.

[Bret4207]

Yup, counter bore it. I once foolishly hacked the last 4" off a Savage 99 barrel with that lovely machined front sight base on it. STOOPID!!! I've been kicking myself over that for 30 years. Find a way to counter bore it.

[Ragnarok]

I would tend to agree on the counterbore deal...I have a couple Mosin Nagant rifles/carbines with substantial counter bores at the muzzle..and they shoot just as good as the ones with mint bores.

One M38 carbine has a pretty worn bore..and a scary deep ccounterbore..however it too shoots very nicely. I was shocked how well it shoots.

I'm not a fan of counterbores...but I'm not a fan of bullets hitting the target sideways..not being able to hit a gallon can at 30 yards..or buying new barrels..or sawing off old barrels either.

If boring the bad rifling out of a muzzle can fix a Mosin..I bet it would fix a Winchester too.

[bigted]

ill chime in for the boring job also. had a couple winnys before the price went so high and altered em...much to my fathers shagrin. yep counter bore the rifling out first...could cut the barrel as a last resort.

[W.R.Buchanan]

Kind of depends on what kind of overall shape the gun is in. If it is nice outside and only the bore is bad then maybe having the bore relined is the way to go.

If the outside is Wallhanger grade then whatever you do to the barrel is not going to affect the value at all, because there isn't any to begin with.

I used to run into this problem with old Jeeps. I had essentially the same answer. It depends on how close it is to original condition. The closer it is to original nice condition, the more hesitant I am to make significant changes that you can't just back out of to restore the collectability. IE bolt on parts as opposed to welded parts and heavy cutting modification.

It's the same story with guns. You have to decide if there is collectability in play. If so you don't mess with it. If not then what does it matter? If You want a shooter make it shoot.

If it is a 90% or above gun with a bad bore the fixing it right is a better way to go.

If you would have posted a pic of the gun we could have told you exactly what to do with it.

Randy

[missionary5155]

Good morning & thanks everyone.
First step will be to countersink. Did a wallered out M1 Garand barrel some years ago and groups were cut in half so there I will start. Build me a drill guide on the work bench as consentric to the bore as I can guage and slow feed a drill bit into the bore about 1/2", polish that out and go for a ride out to my desert shooting sight. If I can end up with a 2.5" group at 50 yards I will be happy as that is farther than I pop at viscacha (marmots) when I can get to the rocky cliffs. THANKS !!
Mike in Peru

[rbertalotto]

I would rather you have a gunsmith set this up in a lathe to counterbore. I'm sure it can't cost more than $100 for this service.

The drill idea might simply destroy the barrel and then reline is the only option.

[missionary5155]

Good morning
I am in Peru.. South America. The only feller I know who does gun work is the man who reblued this SRC. He near "buffed off" all stampings in the effort to remove all pits. He also reblued without sealing off the bore and then did not bother to just oil the bore or inner receiver after hot blueing. His mechanical work amounts to work whatever pliers & screwdrivers can accomplish. No way I would turn over a rifle to him. Fortunately I found it 2 days after he had gotten his mits on it.
I could also drop it off at a machine shop and wait while they called the gun registry office and I begin the endless redtape why I want a rifle to shoot better...
I have no dought a lathe would do a far better job... But I will do my best and it will shoot far better than it did. And in the end I still have my hacksaw & files & diamond lap if the need arrizes to cut it too 18.25 inches.
This is no collectors item. Well worn & abused. Has "great character" & owwww the stories it could tell if it could only talk... HELP & Rescue me would most likely be the first words.
Mike in Peru

[Matthew 25]

Mike, that sounds pretty fun. It sounds like you might as well be in 1880's Utah. I hope the physicians are better than the gun smiths. Good luck with the barrel.