reling a muzzleloader?

[kcajeel]

Hello, I bought a Thompson Center Hawken at a gun show a couple of weeks ago. Someone really messed the barrel up by not cleaning it. Its a 50 cal and the old gun has probably had a lot of abuse. The lock and barrel have been painted black and I can see pitting under the paint. The stock and brass is in really good shape. I've cleaned out a lot of rust from the barrel and I can see some faint grooves but I doubt it'll be very accurate in this condition.
What about relining it to a 40 caliber? I've got a 25-20ss to a gunsmith right now being relined and am wondering it this can be done with muzzleloaders.
Thanks

[fishhawk]

probley be less of a problem just to replace the barrel that's my look at it. steve k

[docone31]

Get a new barrel.
Probably cost less than "Freshing".

[kcajeel]

I'm sure you guys are right. Thanks

[405]

I'll third or fourth that vote. It's so easy to replace with a drop in GM barrel for about $200, no need and no advantage to reline.

[Hang Fire]

Before doing anything else, make sure it is safe to shoot, then do so. Even bad bores can often give very good accuracy.

I once had an original .36 caplock with a horrendous looking bore. Accuracy was so so until I tried Crisco lubed chamois leather (shammy) patches, was then a real squirrel getter.

[mooman76]

What Hang Fire said. If you are concerned about the saftey of shooting it, use the old gun in a tire with a string to fire it. These old guns have deep rifling and are more forgiving than our modern guns. Shoot it ans see and mabe hand lap it might help too. Go to Green Mountains web site to see about a drop in barrel if it doesn't turn out.

[405]

I hate badly pitted bores- nothing but trouble for me and never could get them to shoot the way I wanted!

But worth a try to clean and lap. If that doesn't work then buy a $200 GM drop-in replacement. Don't pitch the old barrel. If you can find someone with a reamer or drill bit for deep boring might consider cutting the lands and pits out, polishing with some emery and drill. Could end up with a good smooth bore barrel as a bonus. :)

[docone31]

I had this ROUGH .45cal spanish something or other. The bore was ROUGH.
I cast some R.E.A.L.s, used valve lapping compound, and I had a good firing rifle when I was done.
The rifle had a ball stuck in the bore, full charge, and sat in high humidity for over 20yrs.
Cleaned up real nicely.
You might try that. If nothing else, you will have a R.E.A.L. mold for when you swap barrels.

[missionary5155]

Greetings
Ream it out and make a smoothbore. Out to 50 yards it will do all you need with a snag patched ball. And a well placed .50 lead ball at 1400 fps will take out most criters still walking this side of the world.

[Charlie Sometimes]

Ditto what missionary5155 said. You could get a 56 SB out of that easy. Good for 100 yards, too.

[Swampman]

I've seen some really pitted bores that shot fine.

[Charlie Sometimes]

Got to thinking about this again.
I remember reading somewhere a few years ago, where a guy took a smaller caliber barrel and turned down the outside of it to make "liner" of the proper size for a rifle that he was building.

This would be a good way to redo your barrel, and take up the extra space needed for the smaller caliber change.

Basically, you would just need a straight round barrel with the proper twist. Bore out the old barrel to a standard size, reduce the new barrel/liner to an appropriate smaller dimension to allow epoxy to be applied, fit them together, allow to set an appropriate time, and the trim the liner, crown, and rethread for breech plug. TA DA!

Go for it, but it might be cheaper to buy a replacement, though, and sell the old barrel to help pay for it.

[Charlie Sometimes]

Is it a 15/16 or 1 inch barrel?

[ammohead]

I did the green mountain replacement barrel route on my fathers TC Hawkin. It was easy to do and it shoots great. I think that there is even a choice of twist rates for if you wanted a round ball shooter or a conical/sabot shooter. I went with the faster twist rate and shoot saboted "gould" boolits intended for my marlin cowboy in 45-70. I size them .452 and they work great.

[kcajeel]

It's been a while so I thought I'd revisit this post.
Charlie, it's a 15/16 barrel.
I did rebarrel it with a Green Mountain kit in 40 cal and a 32" barrel. It shoots extreemly well. I've won our club yearly championship the last 5 years in a row.
I shoot with a Lyman 57 SML rear sight and a Lyman 20 front sight with a circle fixture. My offhand really sucks but I clean up on the cross sticks at 50 yards and 100 yards enough to win the match. Wish I could figure out the offhand, but at 70 probably not.

Thanks guys.
Jack

[johnson1942]

as to relineing a barreel. all you need is the liner available at track of the wolf and a machinest friend with a good lathe. drill out to 5/8th and use locktight to set the new liner in the bore. going to do two barrel this winter with the help of my friend and his lathe. usually relined barrels are more accurate than a regular barrel. much less muzzle whip or vibration. check out you tube on relineing barrels and check out track of the wolf on what they have to offer.

[LAGS]

I just picked up a T/C .56 SB barrel and am building a rifle on it, to see how it does.
As suggested in the thread I posted, others think I should have the .56 reamed and rifled to .58.
That is something I am considering since my barrel is a 1".
A friend has a .50 with a 13/16 barrel that was rusted really bad.
he lapped it till you can barrly see the rifling, and it is still accurate out to 100 with Round Balls and tight patches.

Good luck and let us know what you do on yours ,and how it shoots.

[HPT]

Johnson1942 is exactly right.

I did the same - relined with a liner from Track of the Wolf on a barrel that wouldn't shoot. I picked the minimum size legal where I live which was .44 cal.

The ".44 cal" liner I got (.420/.428 1:24 twist) allows me to shoot a 361 gr paperpatched bullet that is as accurate and almost as areodynamic as the 535 gr paperpatched bullet I use in my long range blackpowder ML rifle but not nearly as punishing to shoot


as to relineing a barreel. all you need is the liner available at track of the wolf and a machinest friend with a good lathe. drill out to 5/8th and use locktight to set the new liner in the bore. going to do two barrel this winter with the help of my friend and his lathe. usually relined barrels are more accurate than a regular barrel. much less muzzle whip or vibration. check out you tube on relineing barrels and check out track of the wolf on what they have to offer.