Cutting down a barrel
 

I am in the middle of cutting down a Mosin-Nagant barrel to about 18" so that I will have a truck/trunk gun. I have a JMeck scope mount with a burris scope and a bent bolt.

My only thing is cutting down the barrel. I would like to do it myself in my shop but do not want to spend the money on the tools for this one time thing. I am looking at a hacksaw, a few metal files, brass round head screw and valve lapping compound.

I do plan on cutting this a little long for that "Oh S#!+" moment so that I have the option of taking it to a smith and just dropping the money but has anyone else done this.

I am a military armorer but have never cut down a barrel before.

I think the boyz will tell you ; it's the crown work that's the hard part !

If your gonna do it. Do it right, and have someone else do it. Get a professional to do it right.

This guy does all his own machine work, personally i would take it to a 'smith.

http://www272.pair.com/stevewag/bob/bob4.html

I've done several to remove the cleaning rod muzzle funnel. Use a loop of masking tape to get a good square line all the way around . Cut it w/your hack saw about 2 blades long of your line ,incase the blade wanders or otherwise gets out of line. The cut will be much easier than you think its going to be. After you've made the cut grab your. Flat file and square the muzzle back up to your tape line. Roll the out side of the bbl to a desired shape. I like a 9/16 drill bit here to ,by hand, bevel the crown . It only takes a couple of turns . Now you can hit it w/some emry cloth to clean up the tool marks and use your brass screw to lap and polish.

I've done a 12ga,30-06',8x57,and an sks. All had groups tighten up w/negligable changes in poi.

The best part is the current bbl length will give you the chance to practice a couple of times before you make that final cut for keeps. Which I will also suggest you do if metal work isn't part of what you do often.

buy the crown cutting tool, I think you can have all you need for less than $60?

harter66 pretty much says it all. Unless you mess with chrome lined barrels it is fairly easy.