I am asking if it's possible to do a reasonable job of shortening a HW barrel on my own using hand tools and easily purchasable and affordable crowning tools.
say GOOD BY to the choke and Goodby to shooting most pellets well ... while it may shoot a particular pellet well with some testing, near guaranteed tho it will be a step backwards accuracy wise overall.
Inspired by Mark 611's photos of his short barreled HW50, I thought I'd post this topic.I'm not asking WHY shorten a barrel since I'm convinced of it's benefits based on testimonies of: No loss in accuracy, No loss of pellet speed, Shorter can be more manageable and mostly 'because you can' I am asking if it's possible to do a reasonable job of shortening a HW barrel on my own using hand tools and easily purchasable and affordable crowning tools.May I present some info I found from...MidWay USA https://goo.gl/NpbF4JBrownells https://goo.gl/4i5Z5EPrecision Machine Shed (recrowning by hand vs lathe) https://goo.gl/vPuxjk[/li][/list]
I have prior to buying tooling chopped and crowned barrels with good success. But as Ed has explained the bore and the OD of the barrel are not parallel with each other. Yes you can chop with a hacksaw and do as pipe fitters do and get close to square. But again, the bore is on a different degree vs the OD of the barrel. That leaves you with an off center crown. Simply put you have a have an off set. Many lathe the face and crown with the lathe and it works for them. I have lathe cut and faced and then applied machine die to the face. Then taken my barrel tooling and had to reface the face with the bore. I use the pilot centering and keep fresh pilots. I even make pilots that fit different bores. Many frown on this method. If you have lathe and can index the bore vs the the barrel OD that is great. Many do not have the means to index. JMOSEENS THE SAME topics appear off and on. Just look up many of posts other the many years and you will see my honest results.