Tapered Barrel?

[Ky-Flinter]

I have a straight 1" x 36", .54 cal. barrel and will be using it to build a half-stock plains rifle.  I have access to a mill and I'm wondering if it would be worth the trouble to taper the barrel down to 7/8" at the muzzle.

My barrel weighs right at 6 lbs. now.  Does anyone know what a tapered barrel, 1" to 7/8", 36", .54 will weigh?  I've searched TOW and others for weights and only found 1-1/8 to 1 tapers, so far.

Besides the weight savings, will the balance be much improved by tapering this barrel?

Are there any problems I might encounter in milling this barrel?

Thanks,
-Ron

[Ben I. Voss]

If i figure correctly, tapering from one inch to 7/8ths should make it weigh the same as a 15/16ths barrel?

[rich pierce]

It should move the balance point back a couple inches.  I have a tapered  42" .45 barrel on a flintlock, 15/16" at the breech and 13/16 at the muzzle.  The front sight had to be a little taller than I like.  I think tapers on plains rifles were modest.

[Acer Saccharum]

As Rich says, tapers were modest. You have to measure them to be sure they are tapered.


You also must be careful not to warp the barrel when milling. When you cut metal from one side, the stress is relieved, so the barrel will bow toward the side that was cut. Make certain you clamp it straight before you mill the opposite flat.

The milling cutter can also induce stress, especially if it is dull. This might act like rubbing, or burnishing, which will cause the barrel to bow.

Tricky business.

Acer

[flehto]

2 yrs ago I "built " a lefty Stith S. Hawken and it had a 36" bbl that tapered from 1" at the breech to 7/8" at the muzzle and the balance was excellent. The owner uses it for elk and the .54 cal. did a bang up job on his first. The bbl being tapered and .54 cal. makes for a lighter rifle than most "Hawkens". As was said...relieving stresses in the bbl when cutting the taper is a possibility so why not buy a bbl of your choice and use the present one for another project?.....Fred

[Levy]

I built a Hawken rifle some years ago with a straight 1" barrel that was .54 cal. and 36" in length and it turned out to weigh 9 lbs and 12 ozs. (as a point of reference).  If I ever do another one, it will have a shorter barrel for better handling qualities.  A tapered barrel would help some for sure.

James Levy

[erdillonjr]

After you taper it you will most likely have to strighten the barrel. This is done with a arbor press and the barrel suspended between two pices of wood. Ed

[doug]

      I think you will like the taper both from appearance and weight.  If the barrel you have is a rolled octagon, I would expect it to warp during milling but if it has been milled to shape, I suspect that you will get little or no warping when you mill the taper in.  I would guess that the barrel weight would decrease by several ounces.

cheers Doug

[Charlie B]

Cut opposite flats taking light cuts .010-.015 and you shouldn't have any problem.
Also coolant helps. That said I like tapered barrels, shooting an 1 1/8" to 1" x 37" .38 cal. that I made and had no warpage. One more thing it must be indexed precisely or won't look right at all.

[Ky-Flinter]

Thanks Boys, I really appreciate all the input.

Ben, that's so simple and makes perfect sense.... probably why I didn't think of it.  

I went back to TOW's barrel listings....  a 15/16" straight 36" in .54 cal weighs 4.93 lbs and a 1" weighs 5.95 lbs, so I can save a full pound by tapering mine to 7/8".  Wow! Can that be right?

Knocking a pound off the barrel, most of it out there on the end, is very tempting, but I hear the cautionary words.  I will have to discuss these points with my machinist.

My barrel is a Getz.  Does anyone know if they use "rolled octagon" or mill them to shape?  Don?

..... it must be indexed precisely or won't look right at all.

I'm not sure I'm following here....  Do you mean compensating for the material removed when rotating and clamping the barrel for the next cut, so each cut is in the same relative plane?

My head is starting to hurt!

-Ron

[tallbear]

Getz mills them to shape.

Mitch

[Charlie B]

Keep flats aligned and yes depending on how you are setting taper( don't know if you are using head and tailstock, vice etc to align barrel and index) you may have to compensate for material removed as barrel is rotated.
Once you start will be obvious, not complicated at all, go slow and will have no problem.

[Don Getz]

Ron.....we mill our barrels from round stock, however, it can still warp in the process you are doing, although I doubt it
will do much.   After all, you are tapering from nothing to 1/16" on a side, which isn't much.  It will drop the weight some,
but, better yet, it will make the gun balance so much better......good luck with the project............Don

[Dphariss]

I have a straight 1" x 36", .54 cal. barrel and will be using it to build a half-stock plains rifle.  I have access to a mill and I'm wondering if it would be worth the trouble to taper the barrel down to 7/8" at the muzzle.

My barrel weighs right at 6 lbs. now.  Does anyone know what a tapered barrel, 1" to 7/8", 36", .54 will weigh?  I've searched TOW and others for weights and only found 1-1/8 to 1 tapers, so far.

Besides the weight savings, will the balance be much improved by tapering this barrel?

Are there any problems I might encounter in milling this barrel?

Thanks,
-Ron

The barrel will weight about 5.3 pounds after milling you will loose about a pound from about 6.4 (by my calculations).
But milling has its risks and it will set up stress in the steel. Barrel will need support at several points or full length to keep it from moving away from the cutter. I would do it in 2-3 passes. Be careful with the setup.
Use a brand new good quality cutter and lots of coolant.
I am looking at milling 2 sometime in the next couple of months.
Not happy about it but its gotta be done.
Dan