filing a barrel

[Richard Snyder]

I have a 44 inch 13/16ths 32 caliber douglas barrel that is about 25 years old.  Should I consider drawfiling it to a swamped or tapered profile or is there too much risk of warping the barrel if I do this.

Richard Snyder

[Longknife]

Richard, I don't believe it would hurt it to draw file a swamp in it however you have a LOT of fileing to do!!! Just do it evenly, a little off each flat at a time....Ed

[Black Hand]

Sell the barrel and buy a swamped one.....or just buy a swamped barrel.

[brokenflint]

You also run the risk of removing too much material thru the wall section as you approach the small dimension of the swamp, and then you still need to install the lugs.  I agree with the guys above, buy a swamped to start with.

[Don Getz]

Rich.....you have no idea of what you are getting into......it is a bad idea.   If I were you, I would use the barrel as is,
except to shorten it...cut it back to 36" - 38".    You can still make a nice looking gun, and this will get rid of some barrel
weight..............Don

[northmn]

It will take a lot of filing.  For the waist I would use a hack saw a lot like for dovetailing and cut in a few measured depths to avoid cutting too deep.  Also work at opposing flats so that the width remains constant.  Also consider that you may not need to swamp the whole barrel but maybe start it at about 12 inches from the breech or whatever.  Don's idea is not all that bad either.

DP

[Daryl]

Richard - depends on how old you are - as Black Hand says, & I'll add, if over 30, sell it and buy a swamped barrel.  If in your 20's, have at it with a draw file, nice and long or with BIG rounded teeth like a car body file. With one of those, brand new, the teeth take off turnings, curled pieces of metal, just like a lathe - but slower, of course.  I've never filed in a swamped contour, but have made octagonal barrels out of round ones, and round octagonal out of a tapered round - lots of work - too bloody much - buy a swamped barrel.

[David Rase]

Rich,  Buy a swamped barrel.  I'll be looking for it in the for sale section soon. 
DMR

[Roger Fisher]

Don't try it!

[JCKelly]

Douglas barrels were 12L14 which was very heavily cold drawn through an octagonal die to get those flats & nice sharp corners. They have very high residual stresses in them. So you need to be very carefull to file only a small amount off a side, then the same small amount off the next side.

Myself, I would not use that barrel.

That must be near the end of their production. About 1985 Douglas stopped making, or at least stopped advertising, muzzle loading barrels.

It always amazes me that no one seems to wonder why. 

[David Rase]

That must be near the end of their production. About 1985 Douglas stopped making, or at least stopped advertising, muzzle loading barrels.

It always amazes me that no one seems to wonder why. 

I thought I had heard that they only stopped producing black powder barrels but continued to make smokless powder barrels because that was where the money was.
DMR.

[Levy]

I've used the straight 44" and shorter barrels 35-36".  I agree with Don, shorten it and use it that way without the swamping.  It'll still be long enough and be very handy too.

James Levy

[Longknife]

Richard, you haven't really  stated why you want to swamp it??? To lighten it or be more PC? I have two .32 X 13/16 Douglas  barreled guns. One is cut to 40 1/2 inches and handles a shoots very well, it weighs in a tad over 8 pounds and I can carry it all day. The other is full length at 44 inches and weighs in at almost 9 pounds. That little extra weight makes it "hang" better for target shooting. This type of barrel would be considered a "late flint" barrel and many of the later barrels had very little or no swamp (machine made) any way. Did you know that Douglas used to recommend that you cut off two inches at the muzzle? I have one cut-one not-both shoot GREAT!!!?...Ed

[Roger B]

Years ago Douglas had some barrel bursts (as did others) in ML barrels that resulted in law suits & a long running controversy on barrel steels in the ML press. That took them out of the ML business.
I've been using Douglas ML barrels my entire life along with Large & the old GRRW barrels & have no qualms about shooting any of them with reasonable loads & care.  If I ever manage to rupture one of them, it will probably be my fault.   Shoot that .32 in good health, or sell it to me & I will, if you just have to have a swamped barrel.  I'm sure that the present day barrel manufacturers use better steel for their products, but think of the decades that people used hand welded iron barrels & the fact that a lot of people still shoot 150 year old damascus shotguns.
Roger B. 

[jerrywh]

DIDO to Don Getz.

[davec2]

I am building a matched set of 3/4 scale flint rifles using a pair of Douglas, .32 cal barrels I purchased from Log Cabin back in the late 1970's.  They were originally 13/16 across the flats and 40 inches long.  I cut them down to 32 inches, milled and then draw filed them to 0.690" across the flats, and then re-breached them.  They are very slick little barrels, but most of the material removal was done with a milling machine and not a file.  I will post some pictures later.

DC

[davec2]

Pictures of the milled Douglas barrels:

[Pat_Cameron]

I agree with Don on the barrel length. 36 & 38 inches just seems to suit a 32 caliber barrel in my mind.
But that is just my personal preference. Figure out how  many hours it will take. Then multiply that by minimum wage and see if it is worth the effort. And that is only if the job comes out perfect. Not that any of this is ever based on money per hour but sometimes it does come into play.

PJC

[Cooner]

How many files do you want to invest to get this job done? It may be cheaper to just go ahead and buy a swamped barrel and save your time for inletting and carving. One big plus is that many old swamped barrels didn't have much swamp to them. Whatever you do, have fun at it.
Just my two pesos,
Cooner

[Don Getz]

Roger...you are partially correct about the reason Douglas quit making barrels.  From what I heard, they did have some
barrel ruptured, and were tired of fielding law suits over them.   The problem with using cold drawn octagon shaped steel is he fact that when they do that, you can get cracks in the outer shell of the steel.   We use cold drawn round stock, and
on occassion we would run across a piece with cracks in the outer shell.  The big difference between the old Douglas
barrels and the way they make new barrels is the fact that we turn the drilled blank on a lathe, and if there is a crack in
the outer shell you can hear it.  If that cracked portion does not go away with turning, it is scrapped......happens very,
very seldom.  I built my first rifle with a Douglas barrel and it was a great shootr.   I knew lots of local shooters who used
them and they were, at the time, a good barrel........Don

[Z. Buck]

even if there was no doubt about the strength of the barrel handling being filed down, i hand filed a 8 inch pistol barrel and that took two hours a flat, but i was in college and there wasn't a lot else for me to do other than study, and write papers, i don't even want to imagine how long it would take to swamp or taper a rifle barrel, so instead of killing yourself, either sell that and buy a swamped...or make two guns! then you can have twice the fun

[Richard Snyder]

Thank you for all of your input.  I am planning to use the barrel for a little East Tennessee squirrel rifle.  I will probably follow Don's suggestion and cut off a few inches, or I may just use it as is.  I have another rifle with a similar barrel and it shoots well but it just doesn't balance as well as my swamped barrel rifles.

By the way, Don, I still have a few barrels you made back in the 80's.