Gunsmithing Back boring muzzle end of barrel

[Average guy]

My father has a Winchester 88 308 pre 64 with a slight bludge about an inch from the muzzle. He wants to bore the bad area out of the barrel, in order to save the original barrel and front sight. I was thinking about reaming oversized then lapping the crown. Any suggestions

 

[OneMoreNoMore]

I saw an article in precision shooting mag about something similar. They were testing different crowns to check for changes in accuracy. One was called a quiet crown and similar to what you are asking. They basically counter bored the barrel back from the muzzle end about an 1” or so. A big benefit was it made the rifle noticeably quieter.

 

[Average guy]

I saw an article in precision shooting mag about something similar. They were testing different crowns to check for changes in accuracy. One was called a quiet crown and similar to what you are asking. They basically counter bored the barrel back from the muzzle end about an 1” or so. A big benefit was it made the rifle noticeably quieter.

I really want to save the original barrel and front sight. Just thought I’d see if I was on the right track

 

[Average guy]

It would be interesting to see the difference in report. Probably act similar to a blast can. Might be an unexpected benefit.

 

[FisherT&C]

Reaming it without porting it could cause a weird gas push on the bullet once it breaks the seal against the rifle and gasses have no where to go except around the bullet. With the barrel being bulged or reamed it brings down the value. I would cut it off and have the sight reinstalled and enjoy it as a heirloom.

 

[bkincaid]

I'd give it a shot...my TC Omega 50 cal. bp has an inch or so at muzzle end opened to remove rifling like you are wanting to do....seems to work fine for bp.

If it doesn't pan out, you could always go to plan B.

 

[smoooth1]

Why do you want to ruin a classic / vintage rifle?? The bulge is character and I'd bet there is a good story behind how it got there.

LOTS of other guns out there to hunt or shoot cans with.

 

[longshooter]

Richard Franklin does that very thing to his 800 yard varmint rifles. Called quiet muzzle. And accuracy can actually improve. Go for it!

 

[Wannashootit]

Yep, counterbore it to remove the rifling ahead of the bulge- and I would probably extend it to clean up the "good rifling" on the other side so that the end of the rifling is perfectly concentric. Never done it, just my thoughts. Correctly sized reamer would be ideal, but a teeny tiny boring bar would get er done as well.

Often done on older milsurps that had their muzzle ends trashed from steel cleaning rods hastily shoved through the bore muzzle-first, seen many Finnish Mosin-Nagants where this was done and they shot accurately.