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

I have noticed lately that there have been quite a few English guns for sale with sleeved barrels, but I don't hardly see any American made guns that are sleeved. So how many of you out there have sleeved barrel guns and how often do you shoot them?
Positives vs negatives?

Derrick

I have at least one that I use often. It's a Brummy boxlock and it's one of my favorites. It was sleeved by Merrington, one of the stateside masters.

Derrick IMO the reason there aren't more guns that have been sleeved in the US is that we are a "throw away society". If it's broken and its too much trouble or expensive to get it fixed, just throw it away we can always buy another. Another reason could be that very few Americans know about sleeving after all who is going to sleeve a gun (a semi or pump), that costs way less than half of what it would cost to sleeve it.

Depends on the quality of the gun (wood, engraving, etc.); it has to be pretty nice or the cost of sleeving wouldn't be worth it. I have a sleeved Coggie sideplated boxlock that was one of a bespoke pair made in 1906; it's a very nice looking, nice handling gun, and the only effect sleeving had on it was to drop the market value down to where I could afford it.

I'm going to show my ignorance here but how else does one learn?
I'm guessing here that sleeving is done by going down a ga.? 12 to 16 or 16 to 20?

My ignorant question is can a 20 ga barrel, that's in bad shape, be bored a bit and sleved back to a 20 or is there so litle metal left that it wont work?

I'm figuring it wont work but..........?

Sleeving is a way to extend the life of otherwise valuable double guns with worn or damaged barrels.

To sleeve a double gun, the old barrels are cut off just ahead of the chambers, and the chambers are reamed out. The original parts that attached to the action - hook, barrel lumps, extractors, etc. - are preserved. New barrels, with the outside of the new chambers turned down to fit, are fitted into the original reamed out old chambers. Done well, the seam between old and new sections is almost invisible.

The result is something like the monoblock construction favored by some modern gunmakers - brand new, strong barrels inserted into the old gun.

Yes, it will work. There are several companies in England which bores out a little metal from the bore and chamber, then inserts a thin metal full length sleeve, retaining the same gauge. Obviously, there has to be a minimum thickness of the barrel to begin with, and the pits can be only so deep, but this is but one of the methods of sleeving. One of the British choke tube makers (Trulock?) has recently advertised in American shotgun magazines sleeving by this method.

Another popular method is in essence "monoblocking". The barrels are cut off at the forward end of the chambers, and the chambers length reamed out. The sleeved end of the new barrel(s) are then inserted into the chambers and secured. If done by a real expert (such as gun/barrel maker Kirk Merrington mentioned above), the join between the new barrels and the stub end of the old cannot be seen without very close inspection. Jim Haynes

fishdock.
You can have a gun sleeved down a gauge but not always. The barrels are cut off just in front of the barrel flats and the chambers are bored out with a new chamber sleve soldered in place with part of the sleve sticking out of the cut off area. New tubes are then welded onto the sleves slodered together etc.

The Teague system useses the original barrels and bores them out insatlling a full length sleve into the original barrels. This method is probably more accepted that the first as you can retain a set of damascus barrels and the guns origina look.

I have three English guns that were sleeved at Briley and I enjoy shooting all of them. I do use low pressure loads as the stocks on all three are 110 to 125 years old and I don't want any wood cracking with some heavy loads.

I am sure someone will have a lot more expertise than I do but I think I have teh basics.

Regards, Gordon

In true "sleeving", the shortened monobloc is bored out a bit and a one piece barrel chamber assembly is inserted into the bored out chamber area of the (chamber length) monobloc. Another one piece barrel chamber assembly is inserted in the other bored out chamber and then the two one piece barrel chamber assemblies are then struck, then provided with ribs and soldered together like a normal set of barrels. This service is offered by Kirk Merrington in this country and several sources in the UK. In "lining", a company like Teague (UK) reams out the old barrels and installs a full length liner in the old barrels, fastens it in place by whatever method they choose to use. Presently, Teague seems to only be equipped to do 12 gauge and, by rumor, we understand they may be also doing the 16. The "sleeving" method is about $1400 and up, the Teague "lining" method is well into the two thousand dollar area. Added services mean added total cost.

The reason I ask is I have a 20 ga O/U that I'd like to try having turned into a rifled O/U for use with saboted 20 ga slugs.

I do realize that reregulating and adding sights will be a problem but is the rest as straight forward as you more knowledgable folks make it appear?