Capture gun barrel

I was given an H&R barrel that is a "32 gauge special" - AKA a capture gun barrel that is used to shoot "Tranquilizer Darts". It happens to fit and lockup as good as a factory barrel on my NEF 243 winchester frame. I want to use this barrel, it is 26" long,1.110 dia. at the breach for 3.50". Has a .750 transition to .980 dia. and tapers to .815 at the muzzle. Bore dia. is .506, twist is around 1in24". Chamber is 2.75 breach face to origin of the rifling. Mouth dia. is .561 and base dia. is .570. That is close to a 50/90 case. Is it possible to use this barrel to shoot lead boolits, round ball or ?, 32 gauge shotgun case or modified 50/90? I have been reloading for about 50 years, and I know how much I dont know and I am just throwing out the idea for others thoughts.

Can we assume it's a smooth bore? If so I doubt it will have any accuracy, no matter what you shoot in it.

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Originally Posted by marlinman93

Can we assume it's a smooth bore? If so I doubt it will have any accuracy, no matter what you shoot in it.

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Rifled, 1 in 24" twist, .506 grove dia.

The real question IMO is what pressure was that barrel designed for?

Tranq darts while bulky are not heavy. And they just have to hit hard enough to drive the needle through the skin.

I suspect if you try to turn that into a rifle you will at some point be sorry.
I have no idea how heavy or light those were loaded. What their pressure capacity is.

But I would find out before trying much of a load in it.

I wonder if that barrel may be a good candidate for reline to a pistol caliber, 32 H&R Mag or 38/357.

wcp

Try the handi rifle forum at Graybeard Outdoors. Quickdtoo (a moderator over there) is very knowledgeable about all things handi.

I had a American Arms O/U shotgun in 32 ga. It was a smooth bore with chokes and I made a set of reloading dies for a Mec 600 shot shell loader and reloaded the Fiocchi plastic hulls I had. I shot all sorts of lead projectiles out of it, round balls, maxi balls, saboted bullets etc. I never found anything that shot accurately enough to be useful for hunting and I eventually sold it.
I now have a old H&R huntsman muzzleloader that was originally a 58 cal. Muzzleloader but I chambered it for 24 ga. shot shell hulls and shoot a 54 cal. round ball in a 24 ga. Plastic wad and it shoots quite well. It has slow twist rifling and seems to work well with the round balls. I tried naked 58 cal. round balls but they weren’t as accurate.
I bought a Lyman mold for 58 mini balls with a hollow base that I haven’t tried yet but that may be interesting to play with.
Your 32 ga. barrel should be safe to load with lead balls or bollits in if you don’t try to push them to fast.
Ballistic Products sells , hulls, wads, shot cups and all you need to load for it. For a .490 ball in a plastic wad I used Unique powder and it worked well. If you try some big slugs for a 50-70 in it I might try something a little slower such as blue dot, 2400, 4227.
Have fun and be safe , Jedman

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Originally Posted by Jedman

I had a American Arms O/U shotgun in 32 ga. It was a smooth bore with chokes and I made a set of reloading dies for a Mec 600 shot shell loader and reloaded the Fiocchi plastic hulls I had. I shot all sorts of lead projectiles out of it, round balls, maxi balls, saboted bullets etc. I never found anything that shot accurately enough to be useful for hunting and I eventually sold it.
I now have a old H&R huntsman muzzleloader that was originally a 58 cal. Muzzleloader but I chambered it for 24 ga. shot shell hulls and shoot a 54 cal. round ball in a 24 ga. Plastic wad and it shoots quite well. It has slow twist rifling and seems to work well with the round balls. I tried naked 58 cal. round balls but they weren’t as accurate.
I bought a Lyman mold for 58 mini balls with a hollow base that I haven’t tried yet but that may be interesting to play with.
Your 32 ga. barrel should be safe to load with lead balls or bollits in if you don’t try to push them to fast.
Ballistic Products sells , hulls, wads, shot cups and all you need to load for it. For a .490 ball in a plastic wad I used Unique powder and it worked well. If you try some big slugs for a 50-70 in it I might try something a little slower such as blue dot, 2400, 4227.
Have fun and be safe , Jedman

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Thanks for the information. I have a bullet mould for a 450gr. 50/70 bullet, with the approximate 1 in 24 twist i may have to look for a 50 cal hollow base to get a longer bullet. Also i may have a problem with case neck thickness if i try to use brass cases. We shall see. The experiment will start. P.S. the barrel has a shotgun bead front site and a leaf rear, am adding a blade/post front for my eyes. Barrel weights 3.24 lbs. its good and stout.

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It's a no-go for CF rifle cartridges if it has a cast/shotgun receiver, unlike the forged steel/rifle receivers that rifled guns do.

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The iron shotgun receivers are OK for low-pressure rounds which don't exced about 23,000 psi. I have used them in .38 Special +P, .44-40, .45 Colt, .45 ACP. If you can find a case which fits the chamber you can load it similar to a .50-70 Trapdoor, just keep the loads mild. The 24-inch twist would stabilize a heavy 450-grain bullet even subsonic. Relining to a more common caliber like .45-70 would also work fine with Trapdoor loads. John Taylor did my several barrels for me.

That sounds like a prime candidate to be a stub. Chop it, drill it, thread it, screw on new barrel, shoot. Your biggest question should be what caliber you want it to be when you stick a barrel in the stub.

I agree with WestKentucky. Perfect option for a stub project.

Ten or fifteen years ago there seemed to be a lot of talk on the internet about using 32 gauge brass shotgun cases to use these guns as rifles. A search may turn something relevant up.

H&R used their basic cast iron receiver to make quite a few low(ish) pressure rifles from. As long as you treat it as a trapdoor, I think it would be okay as a .50 caliber rifle.

I would not try for any type of elephant repellent loads, but it should be suitable for most North American game.

Robert

The way I read your post, it is just the barrel- not a gun. Since it fits and locks up correctly on your .243's frame, you should be fine at 50-90 load levels. The steel frames were used for high pressure cartridges, not the cast frames.
What puzzles me is how could a tranq dart work in a rifled barrel? Our darts are aluminum with a o- ring threaded cap for filling. That one must have its own different system?
Our gun is a smooth bore AYA Cosmos single barrel( unmarked for gauge/bore) but is probably around 32 gauge. It uses a steel chamber insert that holds .22 rimfire industrial blanks to launch the dart.
BTW I have 25 unprimed Magtech 32 gauge brass hulls- PM if they'll help your project.

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Thanks to Texas By God for the cases. What I learned with Magtech cases in hand for measurements - Basic case volume and diameter equals 28 gauge shotgun. Bore is .028 undersized, so I am going to ream it out to 28 gauge bore specifications (including a fixed modified choke). Will work up loads as a 28 gauge, just a brass case 28 gauge shotgun. Why? Cause I can.

Just for the record the cast frames are malleable iron. Iron castings that have been soaked for hours at high temperature in an oxidizing matrix, which pulls most of the carbon out. They have mechanical characteristics of soft steel. They will stretch under excessive loads, but they are not brittle.

You might be able to have it rebored to use .530" round balls in a rifled bore. But I have loaded .530" balls inside plastic 28 gauge shells by removing the wad petals and sealing above the lubed ball with gulf wax.From a 28 gauge Pardner,
They shot to the bead at 40 yards well enough to kill a deer but I never tried it.

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Originally Posted by Texas by God

You might be able to have it rebored to use .530" round balls in a rifled bore. But I have loaded .530" balls inside plastic 28 gauge shells by removing the wad petals and sealing above the lubed ball with gulf wax.From a 28 gauge Pardner,
They shot to the bead at 40 yards well enough to kill a deer but I never tried it.

Sent from my SM-A716U using Tapatalk

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If what I want to do does not work out, I am going to have it rebored to.577 and use the cases from Track of the Wolf, using a round ball or a square bullet. With a 26 inch barrel it should do a good job on these Florida feral pigs.

After a lot of measurements my stock H&R " 32 gauge barrel special " barrel is - 36 gauge rifled bore( .506 ), 32 gauge chamber( paper case .570 ), And the inside dia. of the brass 32 gauge cases is .550 which is the bore dia. of a 28 gauge. i guess you could call the barrel "special". Bore dia. of a 32 gauge shotgun is .526 . This barrel will def. get some type of rebore, bore is to tight for Me to shoot 32 gauge shotshells (.020 ) to small.