doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DIY Gunsmithing @ doublegunshop.com Barrel striking

I have an acquaintance who had two sets of barrels sleeved at Briley for his Parkers, to 34". He convinced Briley, after Briley fitted the sleeved barrel sets to the actions, to send them back to him so that he could strike them himself until he got the "feel" he wanted. He did the filing and polishing himself, then sent them back for bluing.

Got me to thinking about a set of new 32" barrels I will have fitted to a Philly Fox action. I understand that barrel filing/striking is not for a total novice but I have done a lot of filing on delicate gun parts and even have made some parts from chunks of steel with a hacksaw and files. So, I have some experience with filing.

Is there any published literature anywhere that describes the process/procedure of barrel striking? My 32" set will be fitted to a Fox that already has a 30" original set. It'd be nice to duplicate the balance and handling by striking the 32s to match the 30s. Sound reasonable?

Thanks in advance, SRH

Stan,
it's not hard to learn the technique or "Engineering" involved if your task is to match the sleeves to the "hakenstuck"(?) or finish them for bluing. On the otherhand, if your task is to change the balance to get the "feel" you want; the "art" involved will be more difficult to learn. I suggest you buy a couple sets of "ragged out" barrels to practice on. Don't be afraid to grind your files to create safe edges or different shapes. Different people use different tools, but I find a couple different size Barrett files very handy. Be careful around the ribs, you can file a groove in the barrel, before you know it. Remember, they are your barrels, if you mess them up, it's none of our business.
Mike

Thanks, Mike. I understand it's "none of your business" if I were to ruin my barrel. I hope nobody here thinks I'm the kind of man that would blame someone on here if I did.

I do, however, thank you for your suggestions about files and usage to do what I'm interested in, and the precautions.

All my best, SRH

The use of file chalk will make cleaning your files easier and help prevent clogging of the teeth. If you have a barrel wall thickness measuring device it will be handy.

Thanks Mark. I've been using file chalk and file cleaners for many years. Wouldn't do fine work without them. I agree about a wall thickness measuring device, and wouldn't attempt the job without one.

SRH

What brands and types of files are yall using for striking the barrels? I feel that my files are too aggressive as I nearly spend more time polishing the file marks out than if I just had used my abrasive paper in the first place.

hereford,

Check Mark11's comment above, pinning in the file will make "gouges" that "polishing" won't get, they may have to be filed out. Loading the file with chalk helps, otherwise you might have to clean it after every stroke. A cartridge case with the neck hammered flat is handy to remove "pins" that resist a file card or instead of the card when there are only a couple pins.
Mike

I know two smiths that fit 32" small bore Fox barrels in the white to existing actions. Was a ton of striking for sure. I believe your in the white barrels are number 1's and most likely the 30" barrels are number 3's. If you go to the Fox Book and look at the chart on barrel weights you can get a pretty good idea how much steel you need to get rid off. PS. If your 32" are not matted I believe Jon Hosford has the original Fox Barrel Matting machine. Good luck.

Correct, Jon just did a set for me this summer.

Proper barrel striking is actually one of the harder things to do in gun making, that is to achieve concentricity and swept contour without ripples when looking down the tubes. Proper striking must be done prior to the two barrels being assembled, otherwise concentricity is mute. I�ve yet to sleeve an American gun that was remotely concentric.

When were these two 34� sets done by Briley?