Crowns

[Dphariss]

I have crowned barrels in various ways. Even a 60 degree countersink (I recommend a single flute) then polish. I have done crowns with a tool with double stick carpet tape and various grits of wet or dry paper. I originally made it to do a 67 caliber barrel and have since reduced the shaft to the interchangable pilot to work with smaller bores. The pilot is aluminum. If working on a breeched barrel is best to put an oiled patch down the bore to catch the grit. The wipe with a few more oily patches to clean out the grit. I have polished them with my thumb ala Daryl. They all work. Oh and by dial indicating both ends of the bore in a lathe. The one shown is a two angle the second cut done with a cutter I made to make a nose punch for a bullet swage I once made. Its the only one like this I have ever done. No complaints from the owner.









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[Dphariss]

Went down stairs and photoed some rifles.

This is a Kibler 54 as it came.


This is my 50 cal swivel GM barrels used a lot hunting and matches.


This is a 50 cal McLemore barrel I use a .500 ball and either a heavy ticking or a .012-.014 linen.


This is a 50 cal GM.


This is a Don King Hawken with a Don King crown. Douglas. This barrel I freshed but shoots good with a .535 and heavy linen. Some former owner let it pit pretty heavily for about 12” up from the breech. Looking at the photo I wiped it out not rust.


This is a Don King Hawken 54 Douglas that I clumsily dinged the crown on some years back and had to recrown.


The basic idea is that the crown should not cut patches.
I can load any of these with just a rod, except the heavy match rifle with the bore sized ball. But this can put  a lot of stress on the wrist. I loaded the one DK Hawken with just a rod for years and years. But I started using a starter with the swivel breech and since there is one with the pouches I use one most of the time. With larger bores, like my 16 bore rifle there is more material to compress a starter can make this easier.

So with any decent crown most rifles don’t need a starter for the typical ball/patch fit. But if you are shooting something really slim in the wrist or really tight ball fits it might be a good idea.

[Daryl]

Good thread, Dan. I like the ones that almost appear polished, like the lathe produces. The thumb can as well, from the machined cut done on most factory barrels.
The larger calibres benefit from smoother crowns. I've loaded .690's with .023" mattress ticking patches in my .69, but of course, with that much lead to move a starter
is mandatory. I will also add that you HAVE to WANT that ball and patch to seat into the bore. A mere slap as used with smaller bore rifles is not going to do anything in
regards to moving the ball into the bore.

Lathe crown:


Thumbed crown:

[Bsharp]

These are made from an old center drill on a 45 degree angle with a radius ground in them.
They are caliber specific, so I have many of them.

[Daryl]

Those tools are VERY cool.

[TDM]

Very nice job on the crowns. I don’t have the tooling so I use my thumb and sandpaper down to 800 grit.

[smoke]

I use a tapered cork fishing float with sandpaper wrapped around it works for all calibers that I have

[Daryl]

I use a tapered cork fishing float with sandpaper wrapped around it works for all calibers that I have

I did something similar in that I've used a tapered grinding stone with 1/4" shaft for mounting in an electric drill for the initial 45 degree(or so) cut in a flush cut muzzle, then used my thumb
and emery or wet/dry for the smoothing of the cut made by the stone.
The fishing cork would have some 'give' to it and likely be similar to the end of a thumb.
Note that when working on crowns, shove some patch or cleaning cloth down into the bore to 'catch' grindings, etc. It is easily removed with a dental pic, tweezers or long jaw needle nose pliers.