Relining the .22 Rifle Barrel: An Alternate Procedure

"ve I read a great many books and articles in the past describing the process of relining a shot-out or rusted-out .22-caliber rifle barrel. The first one I remember reading was James V. Howes’ impressive two-volume set The Modern Gunsmith, wherein he mentions the use of Parker Hale relining tubes. At the time, the relining tubes were soft-soldered into the bored-out .22 barrel, which called for an elaborate setup of gas jets playing on the barrel.

If a gunsmith found a great demand for this type of work, it might be worth building a special setup for the purpose. Many gunsmiths today, however, use the more modern method of epoxying the tubes into the old barrel. This greatly simplifies the equipment needed and epoxy seems to be as durable as softsolder.

I’ve often thought this would be an interesting project to try, and recently I had the opportunity when I was given the wreck of an old Remington Model 6 "boy’s" rifle which had been in my son-in-law’s family for generations. The little Remington was in deplorable condition, covered with rust, Right top: Made from 5/16-inch drill rod, this homemade drill was used to bore the barrel for the Redman relining tube.

Right bottom: With a custom pilot made by the author, this drill from Travers Tool Co. could also be used to bore a barrel for a relining tube. and with a breechblock that was loose and rattling around. The stock wasn’t in any better shape. It was covered with scratches and dents, and the wrist was cracked in four places. The through-bolt for the stock was badly bent, and the buttplate was bent and dangling by one screw.

Keeping in mind that restorations should not be done to make a rifle look like new, but rather to preserve it, I set out to try to put some life back into it. I cleaned up the metal by polishing with stones and abrasive cloth, and made some new pins for the hammer and breechblock to tighten them up. Next, I made anew stock bolt and straightened out the badly bent buttplate. The stock was quite a problem, since someone had attempted to repair it by driving nails through the wrist.

I repaired the cracks one at a time by gluing and clamping with rubber tubing stretched and wrapped tightly around the wrist. The nail holes were repaired with little walnut plugs dipped in glue and tapped into the holes and then trimmed flush. I steamed the many dents out, but made no attempt to sand out all the many nicks and scratches. After the metal was rust blued and the stock was refinished, the little rifle looked quite presentable and I was pleased with it.

I fired it a few times just to make sure it functioned properly, but the inside of the barrel was hopeless, filled with rust and what appeared to be lead. I tried scouring it out with wire brushes and various solvents, but it persisted in producing all kinds of filth and corruption after every session. There were only some faint traces of the rifling still visible. I realized that, if it was to be made usable, I would have to reline the barrel. Researching the supplies required

to do such a job, I found everything I needed in the Brownells catalog, but I balked at the cost of the piloted drill. The Redman relining tubes, however, were quite reasonable in price and I ordered one. I thought of buying a 5/16-inch drill and grinding a pilot on the end, but without the proper equipment, I gave up on that idea. In the past, I’ve made a lot of counterbores for screw heads and have used oilhardening drill rod for the purpose.

These have been very satisfactory and I thought perhaps something like this might work. I made a trial counterbore out of apiece of 5/16-inch drill rod with along pilot and tried it on apiece of scrap steel. It worked perfectly, except that I had to withdraw it from the hole after about every 1/8 inch to clear the chips. So I made another 5/16inch counterbore with four extra-long flutes and a pilot about a 1/2 inch long. The reliefs for the cutting edges were carefully filed with a sharp triangular needle file.

Checking the bore of the rifle, I made the pilot a close fit at .218 inch and threaded the back end of the counterbore for an 11-inch extension. I then heat-treated it, leaving it plenty hard. I wasn’t entirely confident that this cutter would be durable enough to do the job so, for a backup, I bought a 5/16-inc om Travers Tool Co. This counterbore acc le pilots, so I made one about an inch long with a diameter of .217 inch. I also tried this one on a scrap piece of steel and it too worked just perfectly.

To use it, I would have to weld on an extension to make it about 11 inches long, but as it turned out, the homemade drill worked just fine, so I didn’t use the one I bought from Travers. Nevertheless, if you don’t want to go to the trouble of making one, the drill from Travers would be a good option. The breech end of the barrel had some milling cuts on the underside for mating with the receiver, and this interfered with holding the barrel in the lathe chuck or steady rest.

I made a close-fitting collar out of apiece of scrap steel, slipped it over the breech end of the barrel, and locked it onto the breech with a setscrew. I then mounted the barrel in the lathe between centers and turned the collar to be concentric. With everything ready to go, I mounted the barrel in the lathe by the muzzle, trued it up with a dial indicator, and put the breech end in the tailstock center.

I then adjusted the steady rest on the trued surface of the collar, pulled the tailstock center away, and replaced the center with a drill chuck. Installing the counterbore, I started up the lathe at 266 rpm, and with some trepidation, l entered the pilot into the barrel and started the drilling. Using a lot of cutting oil, the tool cut very well and I quickly learned that I could advance the cutter about 1/8 inch or slightly more each time before having to clear the chips.

I used an oil can with a pump and long nozzle to squirt oil into the working area each time I withdrew the drill. This was a slow process, but I was inno hurry and I consoled myself with Above top: This collar, made from apiece of scrap steel, slipped over the breech end of the barrel, and was locked in place with a setscrew. The collar allowed the barrel to be mounted on center in the lathe. Above bottom: The homemade counterbore drill fouled quickly and had to be removed often and cleared of chips.

This slowed the boring process somewhat. the thought that the counterbore/drill cost me very little time to make. After drilling for about 10 minutes, the barrel would heat up and the pilot would begin to bind, so I would work on another project for awhile until it cooled down. I suppose I could have made the pilot a few thousandths smaller in diameter, but the .218-inchdiameter pilot turned out to have a significant advantage in keeping the drill aligned.

Later on, when I completed the drilling from the other end, the two drillings met perfectly with

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no visible overlap where they met in the middle. I should mention that the Brownells drill has a pilot of .215inch diameter, so it would probably be easier to use without producing any binding. When I had drilled a little more than halfway through (the barrel was 20 inches long), I reversed the barrel in the lathe and finished the drilling. I was more than pleased with the results, and was surprised to find that the counterbore/drill was still sharp.

I had hardly expected that, and had planned to have to resharpen it at least once or twice during the drilling. At the same time, I suppose I should have realized that these old barrels were made of a soft steel and would present no problem. This procedure made a huge mess on my lathe, of course, with oil dripping out of the headstock chuck and gobs of oily chips all over everything. The tradeoff for having to clean up the mess was the satisfaction of knowing that the worst part of the job had been completed.

After cleaning the hole out well, I tried inserting the liner and found that it was a nice tight sliding fit. I had been almost sure that that there would be a problem with binding somewhere along the length of the barrel and that I would need to do some adjusting to the diameter of the liner, but my homemade counterbore/drill cut a very I uniform and straight hole. Now it was time to glue the liner in with the epoxy.

I turned some tapered plugs to seal the barrel ends and degreased both the barrel and the liner with lacquer thinner. I used an old cleaning rod with a slotted tip and a loose patch to coat the inside of the barrel with epoxy and then I used a disposable acid brush to apply the epoxy to the liner. The barrel slid in nicely, leaving gobs of excess on the newspapers placed to catch it. I then cleaned up the excess epoxy around the muzzle and breech with rags dampened with lacquer thinner.

After allowing the epoxy to cure for a few days, I cut the extra length off the muzzle and breech ends of the liner. The only thing left to do was to crown the muzzle, ream the chamber, and cut the extractor slot with a small file. The little rifle now has a new lease on life and will surely get better treatment than it had in the past. Conclusions/Recommendations Looking back on this project, the only part that might present a problem for some gunsmiths is the making of the counterbore/drill.

It’s necessary to have access to a milling machine (or a lathe milling attachment) in order to mill the four flutes, for which I use a sharp 5/16-inch end mill. I’ve made many of these counterbores for various projects in the past, and I’ve found that, for one-time use, it’s not necessary to space the flutes very accurately. When I first began to make these, I spaced the flutes very carefully, using a spin index, but I soon found that just eyeballing the spacing works just as well.

Keep in mind that it’s only necessary to sharpen the ends of the counterbore flutes, since the sides of the flutes do no cuffing at all. I use oilhardening tool steel for these counterbores, because I have a lot of it on hand, but water-hardening steel works just about as well. I’ve never used one of these drills long enough to notice any wear, but wouldn’t recommend these for production use. I have a small electric furnace with a pyrometer for the heat treating, but this is probably not really necessary.

The heat treating can be done accurately enough by using a magnet. To use a magnet, the part is heated with a propane torch and tested with the magnet as the part heats up to ared color. When the magnet is no longer attracted to the part, it’s reached the critical temperature and should be quenched immediately. To be certain, test the hardened part with a file; the file should skid right off. Next you’ll want to polish off some of the discoloration and reheat the part to a light straw color, and then quench again.

I have never had one of these drills chip or break after using this method of heattreating. As it turned out, my misgivings about using the counterbore type of drill were not justified and I was certainly pleased with the result. Of course, if I were to do this often, I would use a commercial drill made specifically for this purpose, since the time required to do the drilling would be much less. But, being an amateur gunsmith, I don’t have to watch the clock or worry about interruptions.