Does anyone know if the barrel can be replaced on a .44 or .455 Belgian Bulldog? I've seen numerous examples for sale that are in excellent shape and reasonably priced because the bores are wrecked. Are the barrels screwed in, or are the one-piece with the frame?
Reline the barrels.
I did that on one years ago.
I also had one that was so bad in both the cylinder and barrel , that I Relined the barrel to .38 and made adapters for the cylinder to .38 S&W
Last edited by LAGS; 01-24-2022 at 02:32 PM.
I thought about relining it. Without having one in hand I have no way to measure, but from the pictures provided, there doesn't look to be a lot of metal to work with. Was that a problem on yours? I certainly don't want to reduce it to a small caliber.Originally Posted by LAGS
I believe mine was a .45.
The one had minor rust on the lands.
The one that I Relined to .38 had pitting in the grooves too.
I can not remember what the diameter was on the liner.
But , I remember the worst one was just polished and the liner was polished down just a bit to fit into the barrel then soldered in place.
Contact Bobby Hoyt.
I bet he can give you advise on what you can use or if he can do it or recut the rifling into the existing barrel.
I still have a .32 RF "Leader" from 1907 that I rebarreled the gun to .22 lr the same way.
Last edited by LAGS; 01-24-2022 at 05:26 PM.
Perfect, thanks. I'll bag a keeper and see what I can do.
What about a stub job replacement if the frame barrel is one piece? Cut the barrel off face and bore thread the frame and screw the new barrel in place.
I've thought about that too but, again, all the photos I've seen of the ones for sale don't appear to show a lot of extra metal to work with, and 1800's metallurgy of unknown manufacture makes me leery of taking chances. I've used stub adapters on rifles, but those have a lot more steel to spare are are of known origin and quality.
On most of the bulldog revolvers I have seen, the barrel was an integral part of the frame.
Relining would be a simple operation, and by far, the strongest solution.
Cap'n Morgan
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