rebarrel sharps rifle

[rbt50]

has anyone done this and if so what tools did you use to get the barrel off. I have rebarrel a few bolt action rifles but never a sharps.

[KCSO]

Brass lined flat wrench home made and a barrel vise. Very simple with short threaded area. My wrench was made from two 1" bar stock pieces and drilled and taped for 1/4-20 bolts.

[BrentD]

rbt50,
KCSO, suggestion for an action wrench is a good one. I use the same A 6 or 7" piece of 1' square bar stock attached to whatever was left in that piece (30"?). Polish the surfaces that come up against the action - then blue tape them anyway, to prevent marring the finish.

If your barrels are octagon, then you can cut a pair of wooden blocks with a table saw set to 45 degrees. This makes a v-shaped trough in the blocks that will grip the flats. I have a set that is about 10" long. Use a good hardwood like maple and it is best if you can cut the trough across the grain. Gluing up some 3/4" Baltic Birch plywood might be even better (less prone to splitting). Anyway, done right this will grip 4 flats of the octagon and you are good to go.

[pworley1]

I have not rebarreled a sharps, but I have other antique rifles. The only advice I would add to the above is to take your time.

[rbt50]

thank's for the information.

[doc1876]

if you need any advice, he may kill me, but contact Goodsteel, he is doing one for me right now. The only real thing to swapping, as I understand, is head spacing correctly. Shiloh are so well produced, that I would be thinking it should be a rather simple swap. Mine is being done to change a lot of things because I am making a Gemmer out of a '59, so I enlisted the expertise of a Gunsmith. being a machinist, it seems simple to me, but I have no tools left......divorce and all.

[John Taylor]

I get a lot of flack over using a large Crescent wrench but it does work. Use a piece of heavy paper to protect the finish and use the flats just in front of the breach block, the little spring loaded plunger will go in. A good barrel vice is a must and "V" block work great with octagon barrels, again use paper to protect the finish. Sharps are no harder to re-barrel than any other rifle, just have square threads. ​Make sure the extractor is out first.

[country gent]

I have made up several large crecent wrenches for gunsmith friends with soft brass or lead lined jaws for this. unless you do some mill work first on the jaws removing the thickness of the soft liners you loose a little opening.Soft yellow brass ( not bronzes or hard brass ) or medium hard bullet alloy makes good soft jaws. I have made liners for my barrel vise from lead also. Dead soft aluminum can work also byt due to the nature of aluminum it can scratch. A set of channel locks with derlin or leather faces are also handy to have. ANother thing is to make sure jaws are parralllel and true when finished bearing on full surfaces not just an edge

[BrentD]

I eventually gave up the crecent wrench. It worked but sometimes it still left a mark. Esp. with a well stuck barrel or one that needed to to be a little tighter to line up.

+100 on the extractor thing. Don't be lazy about this, it just ain't worth it. I know because I was, and it did not go well.