Barrel Scrap Ideas

[BlackPowderLove]

Not sure where to post this question but this seems to make sense. I have an approximately 6" piece of barrel I cut from an 1871 Mauser I am sporterizing and was wondering if any clever, crafty, or creative folks have any ideas what to do with it. I hate wasting stuff and the idea that this came from a 140 year old rifle is sort of cool. I thought of cutting a piece and making it into a ring (finger type). Otherwise... I am plumb out of ideas.

[Nueces]

It'd make a good pistol barrel, something like one of the larger Deringers.

[LAGS]

Use the metal to make a Flash hider for another rifle, or like was said, a BP pistol of some sort.
I have a box of barrel cut offs that I have acquired over 30 years.
They slowly get used for projects.
I even turned down the outside of some, and used them to make Barrel liners for some pistols with really bad bores as well as Cylinder liners to reduce the caliber of a revolver that wasn't in the best of shape.
Like old top break revolvers.

[PTCSmith]

You tend to collect a few cutoffs over time. The T-Handle on top of the pile is one of the better uses that I have found. The barrel section is now a handle for a rimfire reamer holder.

Bill Jacobs

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/47583710612_b2d893d5cc_h.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2fuNXnE)BarrelCutoffs (https://flic.kr/p/2fuNXnE) by William Jacobs (https://www.flickr.com/photos/161261784@N07/), on Flickr

[RED BEAR]

+1 for pistol barrel. Maybe something in a single shot target.

[country gent]

I have used sections of barrels for gages and other parts. When my .243 course gun was built the short length of barrel became a shoulder throat neck gage. Gunsmith set it up and chambered it so that the shoulder neck and throat were in it. I can use it to set the Dies bump back check Loaded round neck dia ( its a tight neck at .267). And when new the bullet length but that's changed now. LOL. This gage has been a big help.

Like any stubs a length of barrel can be used for a lot of things. Set it on the stock rack and wait to see what comes up

[pietro]

+1 for pistol barrel. Maybe something in a single shot target.


+3

In 1968, the first muzzleloader I had was a handgun I fashioned from an 8" section (muzzle) of a .44cal rifle barrel I had shortened.

I was just starting out to do my own gunsmithing, as I couldn't afford the services of a pro (I had a family & 3 kids on a military paycheck)

It was a neat project, tapping the rear of the cutoff for a breechplug I made from a large stovebolt, welding a tang onto the bolt head and installing a percussion drum to the barrel side, and carving out a "Plains Pistol" type stock from a large chunk of walnut I had on hand. (I bought/inletted/installed a commercial lock, trigger & triggerguard from DGW)

.

[KCSO]

Handles, sizing dies, breech end of barrel for lapping press, bushings, small cannons, tap holders, I just made up a set of 6 bushings for a planter from a chunk of 4140 gun barrel. Never throw away scrap iron!

[BlackPowderLove]

Great ideas. Thanks everyone!

[Reverend Al]

If the barrel is a big enough bore size a slice cut from it can make a great paperweight!

https://i.imgur.com/DA6zZ7e.jpg

:lol:

(This one is from a piece of a Canadian artillery barrel ...)

[CastingFool]

I have a piece of cut off barrel off a double 12 ga. Would really look cool as a pocket pistol.

[Shawlerbrook]

How about a lamp ?

[BlackPowderLove]

if the barrel is a big enough bore size a slice cut from it can make a great paperweight!

https://i.imgur.com/da6zz7e.jpg

:lol:

(this one is from a piece of a canadian artillery barrel ...)


boom ������

[Winger Ed.]

I had a pull off from a Rem 700 that made a pretty good pry bar.

[Markopolo]

If you like loading for shotgun, use a piece of 12g barrel as a guide for centering slug assembly

[B R Shooter]

The tapered blank you buy has to have both ends cut to some degree. The breech end can have as much as 4-5 inches cut off, depending on the weight. The muzzle end same thing, all about length and weight. But when I cut the tapered muzzle end, I always turn a straight section up to the cutoff point, so that can be chucked for use later. I can't think of everything I've used barrel drops for.

[murf205]

If the barrel is a big enough bore size a slice cut from it can make a great paperweight!

https://i.imgur.com/DA6zZ7e.jpg

:lol:

(This one is from a piece of a Canadian artillery barrel ...)

I see that the Canadians favor Micro-Groove barrels

[Texas by God]

Stubbed inside a single shot shotgun and chambered appropriately- the possibilities are many.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G930A using Tapatalk

[justashooter]

71 mauser has a .446 bore or thereabouts, so chambering it for anything modern is a no-go.

[LAGS]

Cutting a 1/2" off a cannon barrel ?
What were they thinking.
You know how much Velocity they just lost . LOL

[Jedman]

[QUOTE=Texas by God;4628091]Stubbed inside a single shot shotgun and chambered appropriately- the possibilities are many.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G930A using Tapatalk[/QUOTE

By your screen name I would think you like black powder guns. Now assuming this is a piece of barrel from a 43 Mauser and you had access to a metal lathe, I think you could make a chamber adapter to shoot a .440 round ball with a small charge of black powder using a empty primed 45 ACP case to fire it. This would be in a 12, 16, or 20 ga. Break action shotgun. Even if the OD of the section of barrel is smaller than the shotgun bore a piece of other metal or plastic can be pressed on or epoxied on and turned to the dimensions needed to center it in the chamber and bore.

I know this sounds crazy but I have made just such of a chamber adapter and it worked fine.
Just a idea to make it useful.

Jedman

[Jeff Michel]

I use shotgun cut offs for ferrules on file handles.

[John Taylor]

Having many chunks of rifle barrel I make all kinds of things. Old black powder barrels are a bit softer than modern barrels and a short barreled pistol would probably be a good idea. Modern 4140 steel barrels are good for making cutting tools like taps and router bits, they can be made very hard.

[edp2k]

Hopkins and Allen underhammer pistol
http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?297245-Hopkins-and-Allen-underhammer-pistol

https://www.icollector.com/Blackpowder-reproduction-by-Hopkins-and-Allen-of-a-percussion-underhammer-single-shot-pistol-The_i13669023

If you look around you might be able to find some parts to make your barrel stub into one, or make the parts yourself.

[Fisher]

Build a model artillary piece say, Parrott or Ordnance rifle....

[onelight]

Mount them sticking from the wall over your doorbell :p

[Southern Son]

If there is enough meat on the barrel, you could use it to make a sizing die for the rifle in question.

[Tackleberry41]

I use those old barrels all the time, often to make thread protectors, already bored out.

[EVR]

Currently a No 4 Enfield stub is used as a magazine loader for a Ruger MKII .22.

I make knives so some shotgun tubes will likely go that direction, too.

[Reverend Al]

I see that the Canadians favor Micro-Groove barrels

Yup ... and Canadian Artillery are tough too ... ours are hand-held and shoulder fired!

:lol:

[country gent]

That cut off end of the barrel used to be drilled for 2 or 3 pins then cut off and made into a false muzzle for starting bullets in top end target muzzle loaders

[SOFMatchstaff]

I sent some trapdoor barrel cut offs to Rusty to make tomahawk pipes, dont know how they came out, but sounded kinda neat. 1870's steel for a new smokin hatchet. Still have a wad of them under the lathe.

[oldred]

Modern 4140 steel barrels are good for making cutting tools like taps and router bits, they can be made very hard.


They sure can be used to make tools, I used a piece of a Green Mountain octagon barrel to make a stock/forearm inletting tool. After shaping "teeth" in it on the lathe and heat treating to harden it then attaching a handle through the hole that had been the bore it worked like a charm for those difficult to inlet octagon barrel forearms. The 4140 was reasonably soft as it came from the barrel so it machined quite easily into shape and after heat treating then drawing/tempering it a bit the knife edges of the tool sharpened and honed to a very keen cutting edge and have held those sharp edges quite nicely.

[Drm50]

I have turned 12g shells from aircraft Alumilum and used cut offs to make adapters to fire 32s with 30cal barrel cut offs.

[Fishoot]

I reinforced a fire place grate that had slumped in the middle. Barrels were made to add extra support in the widest dimension and for legs to support the middle. The grate slumps no more; and its a good conversation piece.

[Cap'n Morgan]

Go for the shotgun adapter. You didn't mention the caliber but there's a lot of different rimmed pistol cartridges out there. A small notch under the rim will allow you to lift the case from the adapter while still in the shotgun.

[Ozark mike]

Build yourself a desk top mini cannon I've built some out of steel bushings and would fire a ball bearing thru the wall with just a 22 mag case of bp