Member 38805
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I've owned a double set trigger Hepburn rifle in .40-70SS for a handful of years now. When I bought it the previous owner had sadly cut 8" off the original barrel, leaving it at 22". A bummer, especially considering it was a special order extra heavy barrel! Wider that the receiver, and probably was a great BP gun in the day. It was cheap, so I bought it, and planned to have it rebarreled. Took it to a well known gunsmith who told me he could lengthen the barrel by welding on 8" of donor barrel, and then reline it all back to the original .40-70SS again. Long story short, he did it, and it looked great. But after about 6-8 shots the chamber bulged, and brass wouldn't extract. Tried to get it fixed under "warranty", but got excuses for a long time. So gave up.
Fast forward, and a friend was asked about it, and agreed to take a look. He told me the liner was off center at the breech by .012", and it could never be fixed to shoot well. So he's going to build up a new barrel to fit using a Green Mountain .40 cal. barrel, in a #4 weight to match the old barrel. But I told him to make it a .40-65 Win. chamber this time, and to leave the 35" barrel finished at 34" long.
He's going to cut the front sight dovetail, plus the lug for the forearm hanger. And once it's done he'll give it back so I can remove the barrel to polish it out, and then I'll have all the Remington stamps redone on it. After that I can rust blue it, and then reinstall it again. Hopefully around Christmas, depending on ship time for the new barrel from GM. Then I'll start working up black powder loads using my Snover 420 gr. bullets, and Swiss 1 1/2 fg.
I'll post some pictures when it comes home, and as it gets done.
Fast forward, and a friend was asked about it, and agreed to take a look. He told me the liner was off center at the breech by .012", and it could never be fixed to shoot well. So he's going to build up a new barrel to fit using a Green Mountain .40 cal. barrel, in a #4 weight to match the old barrel. But I told him to make it a .40-65 Win. chamber this time, and to leave the 35" barrel finished at 34" long.
He's going to cut the front sight dovetail, plus the lug for the forearm hanger. And once it's done he'll give it back so I can remove the barrel to polish it out, and then I'll have all the Remington stamps redone on it. After that I can rust blue it, and then reinstall it again. Hopefully around Christmas, depending on ship time for the new barrel from GM. Then I'll start working up black powder loads using my Snover 420 gr. bullets, and Swiss 1 1/2 fg.
I'll post some pictures when it comes home, and as it gets done.
