Dolls Head/Rib Extension Fit?

[edgarspencer]

Originally Posted by Aaron Beck

3. Any remaining "setback" is taken off the breech face which will likely result in the dolls head also being dressed a bit.

No, that's where you get into trouble. Just look at the end of a set of barrels to see all the surfaces that would be impacted.

You were doing good, with 1 and 2. Just keep smoking and removing metal from the hook until you get a good closure. The last .0005"-.001" you should be down to 1000 grit, or even crocus cloth. I like crocus cloth because you'll end up with about a 16 micro inch finish.

I can't think of any situation where you would alter any surface at the rear of the barrels. The fitters at Parker went to great lengths to get a perfect fit between the receiver and the barrels. Doing so would affect the dolls head, chamber rim depth, recoil bearing surface of the back lug, and fore end fit.

[Stan Hoover]

Edgar,

Not to disagree but,

I’ve had a few guns that were off face and I had what I would consider a reputable smith correct the problem.
Now only one of these was a later hammer gun with the rib extension (dolls head), others were lifters with no dolls head. The top lever gun dolls head had gaps before the work was done, but when the gun was finished, the dolls head was noticeably more rearward than before.
I was under the impression that the barrel breach ends were made true so to be perfectly on face again.
After being off face pretty severely, would the breach end of the barrels be completely true to the frame?

Only trying to learn,
Stan

[edgarspencer]

Originally Posted by Stan Hoover

Edgar,

I was under the impression that the barrel breach ends were made true so to be perfectly on face again.
After being off face pretty severely, would the breach end of the barrels be completely true to the frame?

Only trying to learn,
Stan

Having just said I couldn't think of a reason to mess with the breech face, you reminded me of something I had seen on a gun another member had and sent to Bachelder
The gun had been shot a lot, after it was obviously loose, and was probably shot with one barrel (right?) more than the other. Being loose to start with I suspect what Brad was describing was a hammering of the barrel face against the breech. Essentially, I'm guessing it got out of square. I can see where one smith might square it back up by machining. That would probably be way less trouble on a gun without a rib extension. In the gun that Brad repaired, I believe he built it back up with weld, then machined it square. I just remembered that the frame was cracked also, so it was probably one of the earlier lifters.