Here is a pretty good thread on practical machinist about barrel making.
https://www.practicalmachinist.com/v...-lathe-291506/
Here is a pretty good thread on practical machinist about barrel making.
https://www.practicalmachinist.com/v...-lathe-291506/
quando omni flunkus moritati
Grizzly tools has a couple of gunsmithing and barrel making books on their website. Frank
2nd Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. - "A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed."
"Before you argue with someone, ask yourself, is that person even mentally mature enough to grasp the concept of different perspectives? Because if not, there’s absolutely no point."
– Amber Veal
"The Highest form of ignorance is when your reject something you don't know anything about".
- Wayne Dyer
There is at least one guy on YouTube that makes buttons to rifle his barrels using a hydraulic ram to force them through.
I had the same yen about 20 years ago. Did a lot of reading, learned how it was/is done, realized that it would use up far too much of my time and resources to justify actually doing it. Unless you're as obsessive as Harry Pope, who did almost nothing else, you won't begin to match what you can buy.
BTW the book The Story of Pope's Barrels makes good reading.
Cognitive Dissident
Just finished reading it. Good book but the hero worship was a bit over the top.
And I agree, it would be easy to dedicate your life to doing barrels for almost no pay when you could be doing something else that is much more lucrative. I think it's going to depend on how much actual work I can generate once the shop is up and running hopefully I'll be busy enough to not have time to think about making barrels.
Pope certainly was lionized, but like some others in the gun world he was also a relentless self-promoter, which accounts for some of it.
I've come to the conclusion that he was chronically depressed. Something that has almost never been talked about is that for some time before it was made illegal he had a cocaine habit. Self-medicating? Have known the type, all too well.
Given the cost of tooling up, you either have to make commercial quantities of barrels, or you have to charge an arm and a leg for each one, or you live like Harry. Does the book admit that the whole time he was in New Jersey he never paid rent? The guy who owned the building made him a charity case.
Last edited by uscra112; 04-22-2021 at 09:01 AM.
Cognitive Dissident
BP | Bronze Point | IMR | Improved Military Rifle | PTD | Pointed |
BR | Bench Rest | M | Magnum | RN | Round Nose |
BT | Boat Tail | PL | Power-Lokt | SP | Soft Point |
C | Compressed Charge | PR | Primer | SPCL | Soft Point "Core-Lokt" |
HP | Hollow Point | PSPCL | Pointed Soft Point "Core Lokt" | C.O.L. | Cartridge Overall Length |
PSP | Pointed Soft Point | Spz | Spitzer Point | SBT | Spitzer Boat Tail |
LRN | Lead Round Nose | LWC | Lead Wad Cutter | LSWC | Lead Semi Wad Cutter |
GC | Gas Check |