73 Springfield reline?

[MIEagle]

I have a 73 Springfield made in 1886. It is a beater, no cartouches, no cleaning rod, 13 cuts in the butt stock. I have shimmed the sear to make a nice trigger pull. Problem is that the bore is pitted and worse, the chamber is pitted which causes my brass to wrinkle in spots. I want an accurate shooter. I have Wolfe's book and am trying to follow his recipes.
Who makes a good 3 land and groove liner to original govt specs and can reline the chamber? Should I sell this rifle (paid $400.00) and move on or spend the money? Thank you.

[john.k]

If you get it relined ,the chamber will be cut in the liner,therefore new.The additional investment is up to you.

[Don McDowell]

You might want to think about contacting these folks to inquire about having a new barrel built. https://thegunworks.com Then have a gunsmith fit and chamber it.

[Outpost75]

Relining is an option. Something which I saw done once which seemed to be a fun and useful plinker conversion was relining and rechambering to .45 Colt, the revolver cartridge, with a rifle-type throat and 20 inch twist of rifling like the .45-70, so that longer, heavier bullets could be seated out and loaded to black powder carbine velocities using smokeless powder, 370 grain bullet with caseful of 4198 or RL7, and it also worked well with ordinary .45 Colt cowboy loads. Apparently the movie prop shops altered lots of Trapdoors to use the 5 in 1 movie blanks and this is where the guy got the idea.

I thought it was cool.

[fgd135]

You can often find used trapdoor barrels for sale on fleabay, and on trapdoor related collector sites, sometimes in really excellent condition, and fairly cheap. Much cheaper, perhaps, than having your barrel relined.

[varsity07840]

You can often find used trapdoor barrels for sale on fleabay, and on trapdoor related collector sites, sometimes in really excellent condition, and fairly cheap. Much cheaper, perhaps, than having your barrel relined.

Even if you find a good barrel at a cheap price, you're going to pay a smith to remove the old one and install the replacement. I'd get Bob Hoyt to reline it. He'll do it so you have a .458 groove which means you don't have to look for moulds that cast oversize. He's the best.

[38-72]

T.J. makes a 3 groove liner (859-635-5560) and John Taylor installs lots of TJ liners. John's contact info can be found here: http://johntaylormachine.com/49.0.html

[Ballistics in Scotland]

T.J. makes a 3 groove liner (859-635-5560) and John Taylor installs lots of TJ liners. John's contact info can be found here: http://johntaylormachine.com/49.0.html


Yes, those are the liners available through Track of the Wolf, and are exactly right for the rifle. I don't know if the Springfield barrel is serial numbered to the receiver, and the decision whether to replace the barrel or reline the old outside is a personal thing, but I think I would prefer the latter.

https://www.trackofthewolf.com/List/Item.aspx/637/2

But should a new chamber be cut in the liner? That leaves less than a sixteenth of an inch of metal over the .45-70 chamber. It used to be common, especially in a bottlenecked-case rifle, to silver solder a larger diameter and perhaps harder "slug" onto the end of the liner, to take the chamber. Someone like John Taylor (and I imagine also Bob Hoyt) can be trusted to make the hole a really good fit, and decide whether a chamber in the liner itself will be strong enough. My guess is that it will, but I would rather hear it from them.

Don't worry about the liner being noticeable. They should be able to make the joint disappear entirely at the muzzle, and if it is a 5/8in. liner even close internal examination at the breech shouldn't distinguish it from the edge of the rim recess.

Another alternative would be to have the present barrel rebored and rerifled to .50-70. I suppose you already have a .45-70 mould and dies, thought, and the .50-70 reamer is one a gunsmith is a lot less likely to have.

[Deadeye Bly]

TJ's liners for the 45/70 are $4.95/inch now. For the length you'll need plus shipping you'll have about $170 just in the liner then you need to pay someone to install it for another $100 or so. You should be able to find a suitable replacement original barrel for less than that. Get a complete barrelled action and it will just drop in. Over a half million of them were made so quite a few parts are available if you search.

[bob208]

reline it you will end up with a new barrel inside. after all you do want to shoot the rifle and after all you want it to hit what you aim at. a used barrel is a 50-50 chance at best.

bob hoyt in Fairfield pa. relines barrels. about for the price of the liner alone.