Omega X7 - A QLA-Ectomy
 

Pillow bedding my Omega X7 improved groups slightly, giving me an average group of 2.5” for five shots at 100 yards instead of the 3 to 3.5” average I was getting prior to bedding. But I had hoped for greater improvement. So I got to wondering if removing the QLA would improve things.

How does one go about cutting off the tip? Now I’m not Jewish, and don’t know the religious persuasion of my Omega X, or how it would react to having its tip cut off. But I know what a brit (“briss”) is. And I know the cutting is traditionally performed by a trained mohel. Are there mohel gunsmiths? I checked the Yellow Pages under “mohel gunsmiths” and “gunsmiths-mohel” and didn’t find anything.

Anyway, good gunsmiths are becoming a rare breed. Besides that, gunsmith work is expensive. There’s no reason to go to a pro for something simple like cutting and crowning a barrel. So I tackled the job myself.

Here’s how I went about it.

The first step was to mark the barrel for the cut. I used a copper tubing cutter to do that. These things are about $8 from Ace Hardware.



It made a nice little shallow groove around the barrel perfectly square to the bore.



Then I used a fine cut six-inch three corner file to carefully deepen the grove., laying the barrel across my lap and rotating it slowly as I filed.



I wanted a groove deep enough to serve as a starting guide for a hack saw blade



Then I wrapped the barrel with tape to protect it from any slips when I went at it with the hack saw blade.

\\

With the barrel across my lap once again, I began the cut using a new 32 tooth per inch fine cut hack saw blade held in my hand. I could probably have mounted the blade in a handle, but figured I would have more control holding the blade. I started off with very light cuts, rotating the barrel as I went.



Here’s what it looked like after about ten minutes of careful work.



It was going slowly, but nice and even. I could probably have mounted the blade in a handle at this point and proceeded at a faster and easier rate. But I was in no hurry and stuck with the handheld blade. It took longer to get all the way through but I ended up with a nice even cut.



Then I began dressing the face of the muzzle with light strokes of the fine three corner file, making sure to keep the file flat and rotating the barrel as I progressed.



It didn’t take too long to remove all of the lines and scratches left by the saw blade.



I then used 240 grit emery paper backed by a flat piece of aluminum to continue dressing the muzzle flat and smooth, keeping it flat against the muzzle and using a circular motion. I followed the 240 grit paper with a final polish of 400 grit paper.



Once it was flat and smooth I used the 240 grit, then the 400 grit the to slightly chamfer the outside edge, removing the sharp corner.



Then used one-inch squares of 240 grit and 400 grit paper and my thumb to slightly chamfer the inside of the muzzle.



The final product was quite satisfactory. I don’t know how a smith could have done any better.



As you can see, I managed to keep everything flat and square.






By the way, I did all of the work sitting on a chair in my man cave. :s2:

Am I going to get better groups without the QLA? We shall see.

.

Practacing surgery without a license can get you in big trouble in most of the U.S. but I guess in LA it is perfectly acceptable. I hope you disposed of the QLA in a sanitary manner.
BTW - You did a nice job. But I'm not too sure removing the QLA will improve things. But who knows.

Looks great!! Now you will have to try some conicals and see how it does, maybe those maxi balls even.

Are you going to put a crown on it?

How does it load now?

I'll be doing that Devil. I'm out of bees wax. Need to get some more and mix up a batch of my bees wax/Crisco/olive oil lube.
I don't think so TX. The way it is now I can easily thumb start .452/300 grain bullets in Harvester short black sabots. This thing seems to have an unusually large bore for an Omega. I wish it were a little tighter.

Quite easily Muley. That QLA was not needed at all. I can't see that it served any useful purpose.

I did get to shoot it today. Results were OK. At least it didn't do any harm. I didn't do any real load development but so far it looks as though the groups are a little better. I'll put the targets in another thread after I get a chance to scan them.

Now that is what appears to be a very very nice looking job. A job done with care, and respect.

Yeah, maybe muzzle protection, and a sales gimmick is all.

Nice job you did.

Very nice job. It will be interesting to see if that helps anything.