Shorten a 32" 50 caliber Lyman Great Plains barrel

[Junior1942]

The brown goodie truck just delivered me a new 32", 1 - 60" twist, 50 caliber Lyman Great Plains barrel. ($235) I plan to send it to our member goodsteel / Tim and have him shorten it 8". That will make my 32" Great Plains Hunter become a 24" Great Plains Rifle. Yes, I could shorten and recrown it myself, but a shade tree gunsmith such as me ain't putting a hacksaw on such a beautiful rifle.

Question: why did they send a new tang? It's even serial numbered to match the new barrel.

I've pondered doing this for several years, and the recent purchase of a marvelous Lyman Plains Pistol ended the pondering. I'll have a Lyman 50 caliber RB rifle to match the Lyman 50 caliber RB pistol.

If y'all wonder why I just don't just use the 32" RB barrel as-is, the answer is, It's hell to use a 32" barrel in a thicket.

[SPRINGFIELDM141972]

Yep. Fine idea.

[johnson1942]

i had a 34 in. cast bullet gun years ago started by a starter and one day i short started it. got distracted by a low flying airplane in this wilderness. well i rung the barrel near the muzzle and after crying tears over it i cut it at 26 inches and recrowned it and it drives tacks even better than before. have gotten 6 deer with the shortened barrel even out to 150 yards. the gun is as powerfull as a 45/70 carbine. you will like your gun and it will still drive tacks. you may go one furthur and put a shot gun butt plate on that arm buster. i did my fast twist lyman before i gave it to my son in denver. more comfortable to shoot now. its a good gun.

[Nobade]

Just hope the hole is close to the middle when it is shortened so it will still zero.....

-Nobade

[Junior1942]

Just hope the hole is close to the middle when it is shortened so it will still zero.....

-NobadeWell, if it isn't we'll whack off another 4". But I can't see it being so far off both front and rear adjustments won't zero it.

[KCSO]

GPR barrels are really closly bores and you should have no troube with the sights. I think you wil lose a lot of ballistics from that short a tube but de gustibus. You can always carry it with your southern dragoon outfit.

[Fly]

Why Junior?Is it you just want a short gun?With slow twist barrel, would not
a longer barrel be more accerate?Just asking.
Fly

[Junior1942]

I've changed my mind about cutting off the barrel. It's eight months until muzzleloader season opens, which gives me time to play with it.

[Good Cheer]

Well, you might be right Junior. You'd just have to get a matching coup de gras pistol put together if'n you had that extra piece of barrel!:smile:

[Junior1942]

I already have one, Good Cheer. It's a Lyman Plains Pistol with added Lyman front and rear sights. They fit perfectly except for having to file down the notch in the elevation-adjustable rear sight.
http://www.castbullet.com/shooting/photos/plains/pp014s.jpg

Here's a pre-file-down look through the added Lyman sights. I took a small chainsaw file and deepened the rear sight U notch a tad, making a trapezoid out of the white triangle. You can also see the added Lyman white bead front sight. If you'll notice, the rear sight elevation slide is all the way down. Filing the U moved the POI maybe 3" down @ 30 yards. The pistol is now death on beer cans at 25 to 30 yards.

http://www.castbullet.com/shooting/photos/plains/pp14.jpg

[bigted]

i gotta say that the thing that bugs me about the "cutting down" thing is the thought of losing oomph.

if it is true ... black powder explodes and uses up its glory in a very short length of barrel ... such as in the first 6 or 8 inches of barrel ...

if such is true ... and there be no reason to believe that all the edumacated folks are wrong ... then it follows that the the velocity begins to degrade fairly fast after the trigger is pulled. soooo if this be so then it follows that the shorter barrel ... to a point ... is best for the velocity and therefore the longer barrels do something else for the accuracy.

i think that the longer barrel is responsible for the longer sight radius and therefore the bit of better accuracy. so if a feller could shoot accurately from a shorter barrel ... it follows that the shorter barrel which makes it a bit easier in brushy real estate ... would be the better choice.

now i have proved this to my satisfaction ... i have a new fangled smoke pole with a short barrel and the ability for mounting a scope ... which i did at first and ... WALLA ... the accuracy and power seem to NOT have dwindled. instead i think it is the better for the shorter barrel length ... ballistics wise. tis a hideous looking thing but it sure shoots!

so there you have it from the peanut gallery. i say the only reason for the longer barrels now is nostalgia and the longer sight radius.

[Junior1942]

>i say the only reason for the longer barrels now is nostalgia and the longer sight radius.

I say you're mostly right. According to Fadala's Lyman book, I'd lose a little over 100 fps by chopping a 32" barrel to 24". But the point is moot--I'm leaving it 32" . . . for now.

[Nobade]

so there you have it from the peanut gallery. i say the only reason for the longer barrels now is nostalgia and the longer sight radius.

Don't forget you don't have to bend over so much to load a longer one!

-Nobade

[Omnivore]

The barrel came with a tang because they're fit together as a unit. Otherwise you may not get a tight fit, or you might be prying the tang out a little bit as you lay the barrel down into the stock if it's too tight.

I've been killing the heck out of deer with a 50 cal 24" barrel Lyman Deerstalker for years. It's a 24" twist which doesn't come in the GPR barrels, but your 60" wtist will do just as well or better with PRB. It's good for climbing trees and getting through thick brush, and anyway you can lengthen the sight radius a lot by installing a tang sight.

[Beerd]

There used to be a guy around here who shot a TC or CVA rifle that he cut down to 17 or 18 inches. He wacked the barrel off with a hack saw and dressed up the muzzle with a file. He could really hold his own shooting targets out to 50 yards or so. Some of the custom gun boys weren't real happy to see him show up at a match. Could be it had something to do with the jerk behind the trigger as much as anything.
..

[Lefty Red]

I remember in the mid 80's, I was a kid, that the older guys in the club my Dad belongs to would arrive early to the turkey shoots and play around with their muzzle loaders. I still remember my first smell of the holy black smoke. And one of the gentlemen had a left handed GPR! A firearm made just for us mis-fit South Paws!

Anyways, he had a pistol too. And I remember that that Lyman pistol out shot every T/C and CVA pistol ever brought in. Hell, it hold its own against some centerfires! But Lyman just didn't whack off a piece of rifle barrel and slap it on a hand gun stock. They carefully made a 1 in 20" twist barrel for its pistol. Its was a target pistol for the get go!

But to your GPR.......how about a compromise and cut it to 28"? When I hunted woodcock, the thicket and a 28" repeater was the worste mating since me and my ex! But I had a H&R in 16 and with q 28" barrel and it swung nicely! Just 4" less then its repeater counter part, the single shot was great in the brush. Just saying......

Lefty