A while back a fellow asked me to replace the 1:28 twist bullet barrel on his Hatfield rifle with a longer, 1:48" round ball barrel. I told him I would be glad to perform the job for him, but warned him that the cost of parts and my time would possibly exceed the value of his gun. Since the gun was an old favorite of his he wanted me to proceed. The original rifle was manufactured here in Missouri, so I thought it only natural to order the replacement barrel from DeHaas barrels, as they hail from Missouri as well!
The Hatfield rifle has a hooked breech, and the barrel is likely an import so I opted to make my own hooked breech plug for the replacement barrel. I started with a 3/4 x 16 plug from Track of the Wolf, and fitted the plug to the barrel.
Then I cut the tang and the lower excess off the back of the plug:
Then I colored the plug with a blue Sharpie and did some layout lines, and cut on it some more with a hack saw and jeweler's saw.
Then some file work with various files:
getting closer:
When I felt I was close, I started test fitting into the existing tang portion of the breech until it all fit well. I didn't get any pics of those steps, but I used inletting black to transfer interferences after it was very close.
Now some comparisons to the original:
The finished product:
This process was pretty straight forward and simple. A little careful measuring, cutting and filing, and there you go!
Thanks for looking!
Curtis
