Custom barrelmaking

Can someone give an accurate figure how many rifle smiths there are in the US, who have the equipment and knowledge to start with a solid bar of steel and will bore, ream and rifle a ML barrel from scratch. And I don´t mean big factories , but craftsmen ,working on their own , like myself here in Sweden , and Steven "Bookie" Bookout in Iowa , who work in their own small, one-man shops and turn out good rifled ML barrels , and also maybe build the complete rifles ?
As far as I know , here in Europe, there is maybe one more person , living in England , who is in that trade, and bores and rifles his own barrels.
Magnus Wiberg, Riflesmith

Unless the barrel maker advertises, there is simply no way to know how many barrel makers we have in this country. About 10-12, one-man operations advertise somewhere in this sport. But there are many others who do not- and only make barrels for themselves, or close friends. They don't want to turn a hobby into a career and spoil the enjoyment. They also don't want to have to buy the insurance needed to protect themselves from claims filed by idiots who go out of their way to destroy barrels.

Sorry we can't give you a number.

We have people who still use a furnace, anvil, swage block, and hammers to forge barrels out of bar stock, turning the flat stock over a mandrill, and then welding it. Then they use hand tools to bore and straighten the hole in the middle, and then use a hand made, wooden rifling machine to cut the grooves in the barrel. Such a barrel is made every year at Dixon's Gunmaker's fair, as well as at your friend's shop in Iowa. There are other places here in the states where barrels are still made with this kind of equipment. If you own a lathe, with the correct length bed, you can bore out a barrel on it. There are all kinds of people around this country who have the necessary equipment to make barrels if they want to.

We have even more gunmakers here, who simply find it cheaper to buy barrels made by others, to use in building guns. Most of these gunbuilders are not doing this as a full-time occupation.

I know of L.C. Rice who mills and drills his own. Colerain, Getz, Long Hammock, Green Mountain (all semi-custom or special order custom) McC Custom, Robert Hoyt (Friedschultz), Whiteacre's Machine Shop, Mark DeHass (all custom). That's just a few minutes of looking.

Heck, Brownells sells the equipment to do it so anyone wanting to with access to a long enough boring mill and steel stock can turn out a barrrel.

Also a couple like John Donelson, Herschel House, D. Casey, etc. that can forge a barrel from iron around a mandrel and then rifle it . . . for a big price and a decade wait.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=dw4o-GDVU_I
www.youtube.com/watch?v=wqovJrSsza8
www.youtube.com/watch?v=KWv45yGcoKY





Chris Laubach

i can do it. made my own deep hole drill and zerro backlash riling machine. have a mill to cut the flats.

Add Wayne Jenkins, Charlie Burton, Bob Daly, Jim McLemore, Richard Crabtree/Howard Kelly & myself, Paul Griffith. Russ Opdyke in northern Ohio is on in years but the equiptment is setting there.

shortstring said:

Add Wayne Jenkins, Charlie Burton, Bob Daly, Jim McLemore, Richard Crabtree/Howard Kelly & myself, Paul Griffith. Russ Opdyke in northern Ohio is on in years but the equiptment is setting there.

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Wayne had some of his at Bill Large's Saturday. You should see that little octagon to round .410 fowler he brought with him.

Jim McLemore is a personal friend of mine. He makes his barrels in a state of art shop in Lowell Indiana. He is starting to make his gain twist Barrels again. They are capable of 5 shot groups covered by a dime at 100 yards. With round ball and patch. I was Shooting with him on labor day and saw the shots with my own 2 eyes.The starting price is 350 or so.

I'd also add Jim McCartney, but I'm not sure if he's still active. Been a long time since I've seen him.