Swamped barrel installation

[ian45662]

How do you guys make a barrel channel from a blank for a swamped barrel?

 

[rich pierce]

Same as a straight barrel. Chisels and scrapers and sometimes planes.

 

[kaintuck]

I plane the least depth down the center with a 1/4" plane, then the sides, then the angles cuts.....all of this with time and patience....soot black, and chisels, slow gets it done!!!!
there is a easy way......send it off to someone like dave keck~ :surrender:

remember.....most of the stock is on the floor when your done.... :shocked2:

 

[ian45662]

What's he charge to do a barrel and ramrod channel?

 

[shguns]

according to his web site $80 for barrel channel and ramrod groove/hole

 

[longrifle78]

I take a gouge and hog out most of the wood, then use flat chisels and scrapers to get the barrel to set on down in the inlet.

 

[ian45662]

I am trying to envision how I would do it and what kind of issues I may have. With the swamped barrel there is no real straight edge. How do I keep the centeline in the bore parallel with the centerline in the stock? In other words how do I keep the barrel from looking up or down once it is inlet into the stock since there is no real straight line to go off of?

 

[Elnathan]

I am trying to envision how I would do it and what kind of issues I may have. With the swamped barrel there is no real straight edge. How do I keep the centeline in the bore parallel with the centerline in the stock? In other words how do I keep the barrel from looking up or down once it is inlet into the stock since there is no real straight line to go off of?

The middle of the side flat is your "straight line." If it is at the correct height at the breech and the muzzle - both of which should be obvious by looking at them - it will be correct in the middle. I don't really think that you will find it to be a problem.

One thing that I am going to try on my current build is to inlet the barrel before completely profiling the fore-end, as last time I inlet a barrel I ended up having to clamp a 2x4 below the fore-end to give it enough stiffness to inlet the barrel properly. Without the 2x4, the magic marker I was using as inletting black was giving me false positives. Something for you to think about.

 

[ohio ramrod]

While I don't claim to be that good at inletting swamped barrels I have gotten by, by first inletting as if it was a straight barrel of the least size across the flats to give a "straight" line then removing the stock as needed by hand SLOWLY until it sets properly. There is no "quick and easy " method that I know of. :idunno:

 

[Billnpatti]

The best way I have found was to order it from Jim Chambers with the barrel channel already inlet. I'm afraid it takes a good bit more skill than I have.

 

[LRB]

John Bivens discoved one original method used to make it easier. The channel is roughed in enough to set the barrel down, but somewhat shy of seating in the sides. Then a 3/8" square mild steel rod is screwed down into the wood on each side tightly against the barrel with the screws at the extreme outer edge of the rods. The barrel is removed and the sides of the channel are sawed in with a small hand saw having the set in the teeth removed on one side of the blade. The steel rods guide the saw blade true to the barrel profile. Then the remainder of the channel is chiseled in. Bivens, and I believe Wallace Gusler both found evidence of saw cuts in the sides, and marks of screw teeth on the outer wood of a few original guns which had not been completely removed in finishing. This process is in photo detail in the book "Gunsmithing Tips & Projects" by Wolfe.

 

[Billnpatti]

A similar method is explained in detail in the book "The Gunsmith of Grenville County".