Boring a barrel to a larger caliber

I have a beautiful .50 Early Lancaster that is a good shooter. However it is a straight 42 inch barrel and it swings and carries like a telephone pole. I hear a lot about Bobby Hoyt and his work. Can anybody explain this process to me a bit? I am reaching out to him but I also wanted to see what everyone's advice is concerning re-boring a rifle. Thanks! -Larry

Drill, ream, rifle. That’s about it. Going to .54 will help some but .58 would really help. BTW I hear somebody is building a NE fowler that waves like a magic wand.

rich pierce said:

Drill, ream, rifle. That’s about it. Going to .54 will help some but .58 would really help. BTW I hear somebody is building a NE fowler that waves like a magic wand.

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I have heard the same. There is a very excited New Englander somewhere too.

There is a limit to how far out a bore can become before the barrel wall gets too thin.

Most of the people who rebore and re-rifle barrels consider a .200 thick wall to be around the limit so, to have the barrel rebored to a .58 caliber, the outside dimensions across the octagon flats would be .58 + .20 + .20 = .980. If the sights or underlugs on the barrel were dovetailed in place, the real wall thickness of the barrel wall needs to be calculated by subtracting the depth of the dovetail.

Another limiter is breech plug size. If bored out enough there may not be much shoulder left.

Magungo1066 said:

I have a beautiful .50 Early Lancaster that is a good shooter. However it is a straight 42 inch barrel and it swings and carries like a telephone pole. I hear a lot about Bobby Hoyt and his work. Can anybody explain this process to me a bit? I am reaching out to him but I also wanted to see what everyone's advice is concerning re-boring a rifle. Thanks! -Larry

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Wouldn't it be easier and more cost-efficient to just buy another barrel of the same dimensions in a larger caliber?

Jaeger said:

Wouldn't it be easier and more cost-efficient to just buy another barrel of the same dimensions in a larger caliber?

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Theres lots of options I guess. Maybe I should just hit the gym lol. A new rifle isn't an option right now but I spoke to Mr. Hoyt and he said .54 is certainly doable. I have always wanted a .54 anyway, and I do love this rifle, so maybe it is worth it even it it only takes a little bit of weight off. Does any of the muzzle need to be cut back during the process?

Try this site. I had Mr Hoyt rebore and rifle a 7/8” x 42”
straight barrel from .40 to .48. Gun is .63 lbs lighter and shoots great. 1/48 twist w .011” grooves.

http://www.gunneyg.info/html/BarrelWeights.htm

Magungo1066 said:

Does any of the muzzle need to be cut back during the process?

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Only if you request that it needs to be cut back.

Agree with @rich pierce and his suggestion of going to a 58 caliber if you are looking to cut weight (reduces weight of a 42” long 50 caliber barrel by .80lbs vs .38lbs reduction by ‘only’ going to 54 caliber). Or if you have enough barrel width, consider 62 caliber and the 1.25lbs weight reduction it would give you.

As an FYI, Mr. Hoyt has rebored a number of barrels for me and I am completely satisfied. Tell him what you want from the rebore and follow his recommendations.

Jaeger said:

Wouldn't it be easier and more cost-efficient to just buy another barrel of the same dimensions in a larger caliber?

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I'm planning to take my .50 straight barrel (15/16") to Mr. Hoyt next week. He estimated about $125 to do the job, and that .54 would be the limit on that diameter of barrel. No way could you get a good quality barrrel for that money, plus not having to match the lugs and tang, and finish it. I'll report back when it's done.

Thanks everyone! Sounds like something I am going to do. I am especially eager to hear about how it turns out @tnlonghunter

Magungo1066 said:

I have a beautiful .50 Early Lancaster that is a good shooter. However it is a straight 42 inch barrel and it swings and carries like a telephone pole. I hear a lot about Bobby Hoyt and his work. Can anybody explain this process to me a bit? I am reaching out to him but I also wanted to see what everyone's advice is concerning re-boring a rifle. Thanks! -Larry

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I have to ask...this is a reproduction gun, right? Not an original?

JB67 said:

I have to ask...this is a reproduction gun, right? Not an original?

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Haha absolutely not. Its a contemporary.

I just got my hawken barrel back from Bobby. It was a .52 with a crappy bore. He bored it out and installed a new .54 liner in it. I have not shot it yet

He also freshened up the rifling in a .40 Jack Garner rifle I have. My gunsmith friend told me Bobby knows what he is doing.

Warning be careful shipping barrels! He told me about a guy who shipped him a couple barrels to get worked on, and only an empty box showed up. You really need to pack them well. Bobby shipped my barrels back to me before he even charged me. I couldn't believe it

Magungo1066 said:

I have a beautiful .50 Early Lancaster that is a good shooter. However it is a straight 42 inch barrel and it swings and carries like a telephone pole. I hear a lot about Bobby Hoyt and his work. Can anybody explain this process to me a bit? I am reaching out to him but I also wanted to see what everyone's advice is concerning re-boring a rifle. Thanks! -Larry

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I had two barrels relined by him. He most likely can bore yours out and rifle without relining. If he relines tell him you want the hard steel liner. He does excellent work.

Zonie said:

to have the barrel rebored to a .58 caliber, the outside dimensions across the octagon flats would be .58 + .20 + .20 = .980.

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Unfortunately, the "average" straight walled .50 caliber rifle barrel is 15/16 wide, which is 0.938 and would not work going to .58.

LD

I have a question regarding re-boring. I have a .50 cal Pedersoli with a 1/48 twist that I feel the grooves are not deep enough. Would this be a “refresh” of the bore as I want to keep it a .50?

Take a soop can (not opened) or a soda can and tie two feet of string to it. Put a loop on the other end of the string and loop it around the front sight. Shoulder the gun and give the can a little swing, then try to hold the gun steady. Do that a couple of times a day for five minutes or so and after a week take the can off the gun. You will be amazed.

Magungo1066 said:

Thanks everyone! Sounds like something I am going to do. I am especially eager to hear about how it turns out @tnlonghunter

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Just to follow-up, @Magungo1066.

I just got back from dropping my barrel off at Mr. Hoyt's shop (I live about 90 minutes away, so it was easier than dealing with shipping). He looked at my barrel and made some observations/suggestions. For context, it is a 15/16" Green River barrel at .50 (for the moment). Initially, he was confident he could safely bore it out to a .58 caliber barrel, which would have made it the lightest possible and left approximately 1/8" of steel thickness on the barrel walls. However, the hang-up was the size of the breech-plug threads. In order to go up that high, it was going to be necessary to ream out the original threads and re-thread for a larger plug. While he had a plug in stock that would fit (and with a tang that was close in width to my original), I really didn't want to go through the hassle of filing, fitting, and finishing a new breech plug. I (very briefly) considered going with a .56 cal, but didn't want to bother with finding a mold for an odd in-between size. Price quoted for reboring and rifling was $125. I didn't ask about final cost if I had gone ahead with a bigger breech plug for .58.

So, as initially planned I'm going with a .54. If my math is correct, I should lose about 1/2 pound of weight and shift the balance point back toward the butt somewhat. I doubt that the difference will be immense, but I think a little change will be good. Additionally, the original rifling was very shallow, so I'm hopeful that new, deeper rifling will be able to handle fouling a little more easily. We shall see. I should have it back by the end of next week. There was only one barrel in front of mine, being worked on while I was there. He should be done by Monday afternoon or Tuesday morning, and I'll figure out a time to drive up again to pick it up. Besides, he's in a gorgeous part of southern PA, and it's a great excuse to see some pretty geography. I'll post a new thread with results once I get it back and get some range time.