CNC Gunsmith recommendation?

[hc18flyer]

I am looking for a Gunsmith with a CNC machine to turn down a rifle barrel. I bought one of the Midway/ ER Shaw Savage .358 Winchester kits. I love the rifle, but it is a full 24" long and a heavy contour. 'OK' deer hunting from a stand, but not the ideal for a 'carrying rifle'. Like to keep it, providing I can shorten and lighten the barrel. I live outside of Omaha and Lincoln, but could remove the barrel and send it anywhere? Any info or suggestions whould be greatly appreciated. Thanks, Tom

[Texas by God]

I can think of a few regulars here that could probably do that for you. I agree that the the ER Shaw barrels are too heavy in the larger calibers. Another option would be to have the barrel fluted to reduce weight.

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[Willbird]

Any gunsmith can do it probably. Most would advise against it due to the potential for bore size changes due to stress relief from the machining. If you decide to proceed anyway as I said most smiths can do it. All that is involved worst case is setting the barrel up to the proper taper, and putting the steady rest on it and machining it in sections if need be, then a little blending with a Nicholson Mill Bastard file, followed by polishing.

[john.k]

Most rifle barrels are profiled on hydraulic copy lathes,which follow a flat plate master(or a sample barrel).........old technology ,and the machines are cheap,unlike the average CNC,costing $20k for a 10 year old secondhand machine,and service techs charging $150/hr.

[PTCSmith]

It is easily a half-day's work to set up the barrel and taper it. You would be better off buying a new barrel of the contour that you want.


Bill Jacobs

[Nobade]

No need for cnc, I have profiled many hundreds of barrels on the old Clausing with it's taper attachment. But as mentioned, re-profiling a button rifled barrel can sometimes lead to unpredictable results depending on how much residual stress it has in it.

[country gent]

I have done it and the way a lot do it is to mount barrel between centers and offset the tailstock for the taper then it can be turned in passes the full length. At one time factory contours were given in either taper per foot or taper per inch so set up was easy.

The other issue with stress is how much you put into it recontouring it

[hc18flyer]

It is a full 24" heavy contour ER Shaw barrel. It is a very nice Savage, with a nice original Savage wood stock, bedded, with the Savage trigger kit, do I sell and start over, or trim this one down? I been 'stewing' on this for a couple of years, hc18flyer

[Nobade]

You can buy a new Shaw barrel for half of what I have to charge to contour one.