Min Bbl Thickness - for woods usage (grouse/wc)

[David Deck]

This has been a good discussion on thinner barrel walls. Now, does anyone know a reliable gunsmith who will backbone to leave the walls a little thinner than 0.030? I have a nice 12 gauge DHE on a #1 frame that is still too muzzle heavy with wall thickness of 0.031. I would like it backboard to say 0.027-8, but can 't find anyone to do it.

[Katrina Wood]

Originally Posted by David Deck

This has been a good discussion on thinner barrel walls. Now, does anyone know a reliable gunsmith who will backbone to leave the walls a little thinner than 0.030? I have a nice 12 gauge DHE on a #1 frame that is still too muzzle heavy with wall thickness of 0.031. I would like it backboard to say 0.027-8, but can 't find anyone to do it.

I wonder how much weight that would save? Back when I worked at the pipeline company I made an excel program that could calculate this exact thing (although with somewhat larger bore sizes &#128514

[Dean Romig]

Originally Posted by David Deck

This has been a good discussion on thinner barrel walls. Now, does anyone know a reliable gunsmith who will backbone to leave the walls a little thinner than 0.030? I have a nice 12 gauge DHE on a #1 frame that is still too muzzle heavy with wall thickness of 0.031. I would like it backboard to say 0.027-8, but can 't find anyone to do it.

Have you tried Mike Orlen in Amherst MA ?





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[edgarspencer]

Originally Posted by David Deck

This has been a good discussion on thinner barrel walls. Now, does anyone know a reliable gunsmith who will backbone to leave the walls a little thinner than 0.030? I have a nice 12 gauge DHE on a #1 frame that is still too muzzle heavy with wall thickness of 0.031. I would like it backboard to say 0.027-8, but can 't find anyone to do it.

Briley does it.

[David Deck]

Thanks Dean. I'll call Mike this week.

[David Deck]

Edgar,

I know Jess Briley did this work at less than 0.030 MWT for me several times, but the last I checked his successors wanted to be lawyer-proof at 0.035.

[David Deck]

Thanks Katrina. As a rough idea, backboring by 0.005 in 12 gauge for 28"barrels saves about 0.7 oz per barrel (or 1.4 oz for a 2 barrel gun). This doesn't sound like much, but you can readily feel the difference if you will tape a 1.4 oz weight to the middle of your barrels and practice swinging it. Remember that you are removing weight from the entire barrel, hence the need to place the weight in the middle.

On this same vein, and since this is a Parker site, I'm a fan of having a much longer forcing cone bored into my Parkers. One flaw of Parkers, compare to the Fox, is their heavy and long frame. Lengthening the forcing cone does nothing to reduce the actual frame weight, but by reducing the weight of the barrels over the forward portion of the frame, the dynamic weight of the frame is reduced. Don't get me wrong, I'd rather have a nice Parker than a Purdey, but our English counterparts were not stupid in fluid shotgun design.

Thanks again
mtbirdhunter

[Garth Gustafson]

David, rather than messing with your barrels why not just add weight to the stock.

[David Deck]

Thanks Garth. That's certainly a good way to move the weight (balance point) rearward, but now at age 76 I'm not looking to carry more total weight while following my youngish GSP.