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Colerain barrels

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Kentuckyjed

.45, .50, .62 cal.
MLF Supporter
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Location
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Got a barrel that was sold to me as a Colerain but there were no stampings on it. Does Colerain stamp their barrels? It was a 42inch cut and crowned to 36inch octagon to round .62 caliber. It looks good and I have already installed but not shot it as of yet.
 
Got a barrel that was sold to me as a Colerain but there were no stampings on it. Does Colerain stamp their barrels? It was a 42inch cut and crowned to 36inch octagon to round .62 caliber. It looks good and I have already installed but not shot it as of yet.
My Colerain is stamped, on the underside by the breech plug. (Faint, not bold)
Larry
 
I keep seeing barrels sold as made by X or Y but with none of the markings typical of those makers. Either the sellers are uninformed or they’ve been deceived.
 
Gotta look close, maybe scrub it with some steel wool. It's a faint stamping on a Colerain but it's there.

Screenshot_20221121-211936_Gallery.jpg
 
You lucky dog. Planning on killing some turkeys, I see!
Yes sir. If I can get it built in time for Spring season. Got the walnut plank in a couple weeks ago. And this last week the barrel rib and a couple barrel lugs. I should have enough parts now to roll with it as soon as deer season winds down a little here.
 
You can load the Colerain turkey choked barrel with soft wadding like wasp nest or thick soft felt like used in a saddle pad and it will open up the shot pattern considerably to where you can use it to hunt small game like squirrels and rabbits. The soft felt I have is about 5/8" thick and can be compressed to about 3/8" between fingers. I shot two squirrels the other day at about 20 to 25 yards and there was no more than 5 to 8 pellets of #5 shot in each. I was quite happy since I have never hunted turkeys before, and I primarily wanted a gun with some versatility to where I could load it similar to the "Skychief" load to knock out those squirrels in the tops of tall oaks, especially early season when the trees haven't dropped all their leaves. I like the fact that you can load heavy if you really want to knock the snot out something with a Colerain suggested maximum load of 2 ounces of shot over 100 grains of FFG. In an email I received from Colerain, I was informed that the barrel and choke will handle shot up to #4 shot, which would be sufficient to handle coyotes of which we are over blessed with. I have been using 1 1/4 oz #5 shot for the tree top squirrels.
 
You can load the Colerain turkey choked barrel with soft wadding like wasp nest or thick soft felt like used in a saddle pad and it will open up the shot pattern considerably to where you can use it to hunt small game like squirrels and rabbits. The soft felt I have is about 5/8" thick and can be compressed to about 3/8" between fingers. I shot two squirrels the other day at about 20 to 25 yards and there was no more than 5 to 8 pellets of #5 shot in each. I was quite happy since I have never hunted turkeys before, and I primarily wanted a gun with some versatility to where I could load it similar to the "Skychief" load to knock out those squirrels in the tops of tall oaks, especially early season when the trees haven't dropped all their leaves. I like the fact that you can load heavy if you really want to knock the snot out something with a Colerain suggested maximum load of 2 ounces of shot over 100 grains of FFG. In an email I received from Colerain, I was informed that the barrel and choke will handle shot up to #4 shot, which would be sufficient to handle coyotes of which we are over blessed with. I have been using 1 1/4 oz #5 shot for the tree top squirrels.
That's the other plan with that turkey barrel and you put it words quite well. The 150 ft tall oaks around here is where you'll find the bulk of those fox squirrels during the early season and I just can't bring myself to launch a 22LR up at that angle, and I absolutely hate a regular smokless scatter gun.

Skychief Load, I like that........
 
Gotta look close, maybe scrub it with some steel wool. It's a faint stamping on a Colerain but it's there.

View attachment 177250
I have found using a piece of old chalkboard chalk like they used when many of us were in school works well at bringing out and highlighting weak/light stamping and engraving. When rubbed over the metal surface, the chalk helps make any markings much more visible, and it’s easily cleaned up leaving no evidence anything was done. As an example, both the following photographs were taken at about the same distance with the same camera and lighting (handheld, so slight difference). Before the second photograph was taken, chalk was rubbed into the engraving. Believe you can see that one is significantly easier to read than the other. No other adjustments or funny business between the two photographs.
1653771847750.png




1653771865152.jpeg
 
That's the other plan with that turkey barrel and you put it words quite well. The 150 ft tall oaks around here is where you'll find the bulk of those fox squirrels during the early season and I just can't bring myself to launch a 22LR up at that angle, and I absolutely hate a regular smokless scatter gun.

Skychief Load, I like that........
What I like about using soft wadding is that if you wanted to, you can go into the woods with just a plain 3/8" hickory rod and load fairly quickly, just tamp the wadding good and tight. When loading with 20 gauge cards or wads, it is a real pain, and there is no such thing as a fast reload due to the tight choke, and you must have a rod with a shotgun tip that will just pass through the choke. If not, with a plain rod, no tip, you will flip the card and run past it, then your having to fiddle with the rod trying to flip it square in the barrel to seat it down on the powder. It's just a lot of fun tinkering with various loads.
 
I have found using a piece of old chalkboard chalk like they used when many of us were in school works well at bringing out and highlighting weak/light stamping and engraving. When rubbed over the metal surface, the chalk helps make any markings much more visible, and it’s easily cleaned up leaving no evidence anything was done. As an example, both the following photographs were taken at about the same distance with the same camera and lighting (handheld, so slight difference). Before the second photograph was taken, chalk was rubbed into the engraving. Believe you can see that one is significantly easier to read than the other. No other adjustments or funny business between the two photographs.
1653771847750.png




1653771865152.jpeg
Soap stone as well.
 
What I like about using soft wadding is that if you wanted to, you can go into the woods with just a plain 3/8" hickory rod and load fairly quickly, just tamp the wadding good and tight. When loading with 20 gauge cards or wads, it is a real pain, and there is no such thing as a fast reload due to the tight choke, and you must have a rod with a shotgun tip that will just pass through the choke. If not, with a plain rod, no tip, you will flip the card and run past it, then your having to fiddle with the rod trying to flip it square in the barrel to seat it down on the powder. It's just a lot of fun tinkering with various loads.
Yep, ordered a brass shotgun tip and a 7/16" hickory ram rod when I ordered the barrel rib and under lugs.
 
Brand new barrel in NWTG from Pecatonica. No markings on it at all. They told me over the phone when I asked, said it was a Colerain barrel. Also said they were having supply issues. Didn't think to question, it was my first purchase from them. It around 4 months for me to get the parts ordered in April 2022 received in August. Also the lock was sold as a L&R and it has L&P clearly stamped on back, L&R was emailed and said that it could be theirs and that they have mis-stamps on locks (quality control?) quite a bit. Confused but would guess its past the point of no return at this point.
 
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