Rebarreling a Dragon Slayer

[Rescue35]

This subject has come up a few times. Not much lately since they are no longer being imported. Having recently sold the Mrod that was my 30 caliber. I figured it was time to give it a go. Of course the bore of my .50 barrel looking worse for wear made the decision easy.

I kept the barrel off of my .30 Mrod and after a little machine time had it fitting like a glove. Then I made a bolt extension to match. The Dragon Slayer uses a bolt body with a seperate "extension" so basicaly I just had to make a new head for the bolt.

New hotness (.30) on the left. Old and busted (.50) on the right.


Rifle assembled and already test fired...she is loud!


The step in the barrel is for the shroud which is not finished yet. I goofed off to much today.

[Nomadic Pirate]

Cool, I always wanted to get A Dragon Slayer and rebarrel it to .357,.....30 seems a good choice too.

for a .50 the new Dragon Claw is a much better choice with much, much more power

[Rescue35]

Yes, the Slayer was using everything she had to get the .495 roundball up to speed. It did the job, but I look forward to what she can do in .30.

[Rescue35]

Some more work today. I am forgoing the shroud for now. I want to make sure she will work first.



104grn @ 2200 psi 681 fps
97grn @1500 psi 665 fps

Real chrony work to start soon.

[Rescue35]

Chrony results! I was basically looking for the top end. Imagine my wonder when I discovered I have a bell curve on my Dragon! Her sweet spot for these smaller calibers is around 2500-2200 psi.

104 grain round nose. 3000 PSI

636
652
651
651
668
680
681
690
692
688

45? grain roundball. 2800 psi
Er
Er
Er
939
949
Er
919

115 grain Rounded Flat nose. 3200 psi

534
525
560
549
(619...woops grabed a 97 grainer)
572
572
590
607
614
623
635 (2500 psi)
618
631
657
655 (2200 psi)
659
664
652
637 (2000 psi)

Well I need to cast up some more projectiles now. I wonder if I could fit those 230 grain spitzers??? Those 115 grain flat nose really put a hearting on my bullet trap and backstop.

[Rescue35]

I received a new mold for .360 EPP/UG today and just had to try it out. Since the lead was already hot I went ahead and casted some .30

97 Grain


116 Grain

[Rescue35]

Did some work getting the shroud setup.

[badredbird]

niceee!!!

[rsterne]

Have I got those numbers right. you're getting just over 100 FPE in .30 cal?.... What did it do with the .50 cal roundball?.... Nice job on the rebarrel, BTW....

Bob

[Rescue35]

I was getting 690 fps with the 174 grain roundball.

I hope to be able to spend some time with it to thoroughly test its capabilities once the weather gets nicer...winter decided to pay us another visit.

[rsterne]

So ~184 FPE in .50 cal... Just curious.... Still trying to figure out how "x" FPE in one caliber translates to what it might give in another....

Bob

[Rescue35]

So ~184 FPE in .50 cal... Just curious.... Still trying to figure out how "x" FPE in one caliber translates to what it might give in another....

Bob

Yeah, I don't know what was running through my mind at that point.

[Rescue35]

Wow, it has been a while since I've messed with the Dragon Slayer. I finally finished refinishing the stock. I have the sling stud installed on the stock, I still need to fab up a forward stud to mount on the barrel band. There is not enough wood to mount it in the stock. I removed the camo paint and now she is a nice flat black. That is a major improvement over the raw aluminum shroud. Hopefully I will have some time in the next few weeks to test her out and maybe do some tweaking.

Until then, enjoy the updated photos.

[Nomadic Pirate]

looking forward for updated reports

[airpuffhunter]

Hello Rescue, if I remember correctly your GM .30 barrel is 10:1 twist?
waiting for your updates

[Rescue35]

Hello Rescue, if I remember correctly your GM .30 barrel is 10:1 twist?
waiting for your updates

Yes it is 1:10 twist. This barrel proved very accurate when on the Marauder. We will see how it performs once I get some trigger time. I will probably try various transfer port sizes as the stock port for the .50 is fairly large.