doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Barrel Honing Gunsmith Recommendation - Callif or?

I'm hoping someone can recommend a possible gunsmith capable and experienced in honing barrels who is easy to get in touch with. Speed of work is not necessary but prompt communication is an absolute requirement.

I have a couple of project guns with pitting that I'm considering having honed prior to possible reproof. At this point I'm looking into the viability / economics of the projects particular having them done somewhere in the USA (I'm located in California) versus shipping to the UK. They're "standard" steel and Damascus barrels from the late 1800s through 1930, nothing plated.

thanks
Jeremy

Mike Orlen ...... nobody that I am aware of is faster in the barrel business. He is good about answering my emails.

michael.orlen@verizon.net

SRH

Bartlett;

What would seem to be the less expensive route of having your shotgun barrels honed and lapped in USA prior to sending to UK for proof, is the more expensive route (up to 50% more). Been there done that.

Get in touch with a UK gunsmith such as G.M.(Malcolm) Cruxton of Price street Birmingham, England and have your the UK based gunsmith do everything for you, i.e. barrel work, putting gun tightly on face to withstand the proof(this is an important task as the chances of the action/barrels coming off face after 2 proof firings per barrel is significant) and any work after proof that needs to be done such as barrel blacking.

In order to send your gun(s) over to UK use a USA based gunsmith who has extensive experience importing/exporting such as Steven Bertram in Colorado. Significant dollars are saved with the use of the likes of a Steven Bertram here in USA. A whole booklet could be written on this subject alone.

Keep in mind that fast does not equate better, necessarily. the best shotgun barrel man in USA is Kirk Merrington trained in Birmingham as a youth at Churchill's. See Kirk's website. He had completed excellent barrel work many time for me and others o this site. And he is easy contact via his website. He lives and works in the beautiful Texas hill country.

If you do this properly, you will not need luck to be successful and meet your expectations.

removing metal from barrel walls of old guns is counter productive to safe shooting...

Actually, it is not counterproductive to safe shooting if it isn't honed too thin with sufficient MWT remaining. Problem with leaving large pits in a gun is that the rust never sleeps. It can worsen and the only way to stop it dead is to remove it. Gil

Perhaps. I understand the pros and cons of the debate and won't get into those here. Suffice to say that in these particular cases my intent is eventually to have the guns reproofed. So from the safety perspective the proof of the pudding (pun intended) is in the testing.
Thanks
Jeremy

And from what I've read here, the proof houses won't test a pitted gun.

Bushveldt,
Thank you for the reply.
What you write is my strong suspicion and the route I am likely to take.
I am weighing the costs and merits of having preliminary work done Stateside.
Some barrels are sufficiently pitted that they may need sleeving. Perhaps it would be better to have a UK view on that prior to undertaking any work. I have had Nigel Teague do similar work resulting in chamber sleeving while preserving original Damascus barrels in a very nice classic Horsley. None of the current projects are of that quality though.
Thanks again for the perspective; I will weigh your advice.
Jeremy

That�s correct; by Rules of Proof the barrels must be defect free. The requirements are available on the Birmingham Proof House website.

Jeremy

Well I said I wasn't going to get into the pros and cons of leaving pits but like public figures I am known to lie rather routinely so I'll put in my tu'pence here.
From a chemical perspective that is absolutely correct and I think the primary driver in keeping barrels smooth; it's certainly mine having done some limited doctoral level research that included consideration of behaviour of various forms of iron compounds. I also suspect that there's a physical argument to be made. Much like the weakest link in the chain the reality is that the barrels are already that thin at the pit so careful honing isn't going to make them much weaker from the perspective of a failure point. I am not a structural engineer or pipe integrity specialist but from my limited knowledge of fluid/gas dynamics I think there may be a possibility of pits allowing for a localized pressure hammer effect as well. I'd love to see input from a qualified specialist on that rather than potentially erroneous speculation like mine. I suspect that these are the reasons behind the proof house requirements for smooth barrels.
Jeremy