doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Sleeved Barrels America vs English

Some of the vintage All-Americans never made it to the point of being sleeved. The hostile environment of barn and cellar dashed the hopes for a new set of barrels.

I have a sleeved Parker and have seen at least 10 other Parkers over the years. It was the thing to do when damascus wasn't safe to shoot.
bill

My buddy has a sleeved (By Westley Richards) DHE Parker vintage 1906 I believe.

Ken

I have a Parker sleeved by Lefever. It is a very good job. Too bad they don't still do it.

American guns typically had thicker barrel walls and were honed less. More American guns were of a lower value and did/do not justify the cost of sleeving. Sleeving was much less known and available here as compared to there.

Fish - you speak of a project that is a bit more complicated that just sleving. How about doing this with rifled choke tubes and one of the temporary type of sight systems. If you really like it, you can go for a gauge rifle setup. However, I'd investigate a whole new set of barrels from Belgium or Spain prior to cutting the existing barrels. I've a sneakin' suspician that you are envisioning a "on the cheap" O/U rifle and I'm doubtful that it will turn out that way. No doubt you can build it - it is the cheap part that may not work out.

I have one Sleever...I'm not sure who did it.1901 ,30' x 2 3/4" steel bbl Greener UL Pig'Gun.I got it from A G & Lang. unfortunately I had to take off the nice leather pad as it was cracked somewhere in around the baseplate, but it had WAY too much Toe sticking out...ouch!....On the underside of the pad was written ."Tony White"..the english maker, I pressume.Don't know if he Re cased the action & sleeved the bbls , or just oversaw the project..or the pad was one of his spares...but the sleeving is a good job, with proper stamp & reproof..I love it.
People say sleeving changes the balance of a Gun, it prolly does, but with the new tubes you have no idea how it felt originaly,unless your having the job done on a gun you already own.. so you just gotta decide if you like the balance as it is now.
Mine now balances with a bit of weight out front, as perhaps a 30" Pigeon Gun should...this is my main target gun, so I put a goodly few sensible PSI 1oz loads through her.....& don't even think about it
franc

Sleeving will add weight, move balance forward, and slow swing unless the gun's curent barrel wall profile is maintained - and this can be done via striking and boring. If the sleeving is to fix too thin barrel walls, then the gun weight, balance, and swing is already not as built (guns were not built with too thin walls!). Some sleeving jobs leave the walls thick. Others have the walls struck and bored to more typical game gun thicknesses. Sleeving is a golden opportunity to have a gun adjusted the weight, balance, and swing you desire. Modern craftsmen have mostly mastered welding the joint, making it basically imvisible. They are very sufficiently skilled to make proper choking and to establish proper regulation.

Sleeved barrels are a lot like a motor overhaul - you don't have a new car, but you have the chance for a lot more miles for a lot less money than with a new car.

At present, I have a 16 gauge damascus grade 2 pre 1913 L.C. Smith at Teague. Has been there over 6 months so I'm not sure just what, if anything, they are doing with it. Last I heard they were going to get back to me in a week with a delivery date, but that has been six weeks ago. Guess I need to light a fire under Nigel Teague and/or Jon Corner. I suspect that after the DBJ article, I got put in the "'round to it pile". Dr. BILL

I just sit and wonder how many mid to high grade American guns have been put to rest due to bad barrels over the years? We will never know.

How many of you have sold guns in the past that you now regret due to severly pitted barrels that could have been sleeved?

Derrick

I've owned a couple "sleevers", and would buy one again if I liked the gun and if it was a well-done job.

If guns are sleeved in England, it is required that they be so stamped. Unfortunately, that's not true everywhere sleeving is done, and it can be hard to spot a sleeved gun if it's a good job.