Barrel bedding

[ltdann]

While building my current Jaeger, I was reviewing Mike Brooks wonderful tutorial and saw that he was using a barrel scraper for contouring the cheek piece, which got me curious so I went looking for one.    Found one at Brownell's, but then I saw an Octagon barrel scraper made by Gunline.

As often the case on the internet, one thing lead to another and I found myself trying to get on Gunline's website.  It appears to be down and it doesn't seem that a lot of their products are available.

Does anyone know if they're still in business or if anyone has an octagon barrel scraper in stock?

I don't need it for the current project, just looking ahead.

Thx

[SingleMalt]

Give Brownell's a call.  Their customer service is pretty good.  They should be able to tell you something.

[Scota4570]

Make one.    Take an old  1" chissel, heat and bend the end over . About an 80* angle, but make an "L" shape about 1" long.    Grind the octagon shape.  Heat, quench, temper.  Sharpen the cutting edges. 

Being impatient and a cheapskate I tend to make this kind of thing. 

[Hungry Horse]

I made mine out of an old spade bit, that was the same size as my barrel. I put the bit against the end of the barrel, and marked around it with a pencil, then ground it to shape. I then heated the shank of the bit up near the spade, and bent it 90 degrees. I ground some grooves across the shank to keep the grip from coming loose, and stuck it in an old wooden handle full of epoxy. I didn't even mess with tempering,and drawing, and it seems to be fine

  Hungry Horse

[ltdann]

huh?  That easy?  either of you have a picture?

[rsells]

I have a couple of the Brownell's scrapers that I use a lot.  They work good with one flaw.  I still have to use carving tools when I get within a half inch or so from the breech end of the barrel grove.  The design of the scrapers I purchased will not reach into the corner at the breech end of the grove.  No big deal, but one thing I would change if I were making my own scrapers.   I use the ones I purchased to some extent on every rifle I build.  Handy tools to have around.
                                                                         Roger Sells

[thecapgunkid]

I cut a 13/16 barrel down, taking off about two inches, and jammed/glued the stub  on a wooden handle.  I keep the edge sharp and have used it again since working on that original gun.

I have even used various sandpaper grits on it with a butterfly clip and it seems to work. 

Soft hands works best with it, as well as a lot of patience.

I'd like to go on over to Brownells for a round, tho.

Capgun

[deepcreekdale]

To answer your original question, I heard somewhere that Gunline was not currently active but there was some talk about someone buying it. But that was quite a while ago and I have not seen many of their products for quite a while. Sadly, there is no longer much call for gunsmithing tools, it is a tiny hobbiest market now since most modern guns are made of plastic. Like Scota and HH say, just make your own. It is fun and you will just learn more about working with metal. If you can ever make it to the CLA show, Dixons, Friendship or whatever, there are usually some very high quality, well designed tools available from gunsmiths specific to longrifle building, I got a sweet set of 12 scraper blades with an interchangeable handle from Dennis Priddy at the CLA show, much better than the Gunline ones I have. Cheaper too.