Poll: Would you own/shoot a rechambered firearm?

[Stomper]

I voted the first one. Longer answer is it depends.

If done professionally and appropriate to the firearm, I have no concerns with such conversions, generally speaking. A lot of fine guns are rechambered affairs.

There are, however, historical conversions I wouldn't shoot. Examples: Full pressure .45 ACP in "shaved" Webley revolvers and 7.92㎜ Mauser in last ditch, converted Volkssturm Carcano rifles. The former I've seen one break due to firing said. The latter I've read enough to be at least somewhat leary, even though that is being overly cautious.

So, I disagree with the two chaps I was talking too who categorically ruled out rechambered firearms.

You can win that argument merely by calling those two chaps, "puthies"!

 

[Nosferatu]

As with any other gunsmith work.

Not really. Just about anyone with a lathe and some practice can turn threads on a barrel blank.

I've been practicing doing tapers. It's not simple, but it's easy once you get the process down. Once I get my lathe back up I'm going to be cutting my own barrel.

Theres no way in hell I would ever attempt to line-bore a barrel and sleeve it without some serious in person instruction from someone who's done it a million times and can walk me through it. Getting that done accurately is very, very difficult and requires tooling specific to the task. I'm not even sure my lathe would even be able to do it, and it's larger than what you'd find in most gunsmith shops.

 

[Spitpatch]

Not really. Just about anyone with a lathe and some practice can turn threads on a barrel blank.

I've been practicing doing tapers. It's not simple, but it's easy once you get the process down. Once I get my lathe back up I'm going to be cutting my own barrel.

Theres no way in hell I would ever attempt to line-bore a barrel and sleeve it without some serious in person instruction from someone who's done it a million times and can walk me through it. Getting that done accurately is very, very difficult and requires tooling specific to the task. I'm not even sure my lathe would even be able to do it, and it's larger than what you'd find in most gunsmith shops.

Dennis Olson (Plains) talked and walked me through the process (not to teach, just to educate me), with special emphasis on things he does that Redman (the liner mfr.) doesn't do. At two-thirds their price for installation.

Rancher friend of mine has been going to CA for gunsmithing school a month each summer for a few years, has done a couple liners as well. No, its not as easy as drilling and tapping a hole for sights, but its nothing any competent gunsmith (with the tools) shouldn't be fluent with.

Any smithing (even drilling and tapping a hole for sights) can be messed up by inexperience or the wrong tools. Rechambering and relining are bread-and-butter items for any well-versed/well-known 'Smith and guns with that work should not be avoided simply because of it.

 

[Bobbygun]

Just about anyone with a lathe and some practice can turn threads on a barrel blank.

Oh, I think you greatly overestimate me. That's why I sold my lathe. Oh well, it was a wood lathe anyway.

 

[Nosferatu]

Rechambering and relining are bread-and-butter items for any well-versed/well-known 'Smith and guns with that work should not be avoided simply because of it.

We'll have to agree to disagree. I would avoid any sleeved gun that I don't know the source of the work.

 

[Spitpatch]

We'll have to agree to disagree. I would avoid any sleeved gun that I don't know the source of the work.

Certainly a personal choice, especially if one has some experience (good and bad) with liners. Mine has all been good, and same with friends and family that own such guns (I've never seen a botched job or heard of a liner that failed).

A gun that has been relined should be indicated as such when sold. (A good 'Smith can make it almost undetectable to anyone that hasn't actually installed one.)