Suppressors I need barrel help for a suppressor issue.

[sdkidaho]

I've got two Weatherby Vanguards, a .257 and a .300 WSM.

I bought a suppressor and it is a 5/8-24 thread. I'm having trouble finding a gunsmith with a lathe that can handle these 24" barrels to be able to cut them back far enough to do the thread work.

Suppressor: Archangel 30 Cal 9.25? Titanium Suppressor | Templar Suppressors, Customer Precision Rifles

The smith would have to cut the barrel back a bit to get enough thickness to make the proper thread size. He is a very good gun smith, and we even checked with another smith in the area. Both have the same issue, in that their lathes cannot go as short as needed with the 24" barrels.

Even then if they could, it would be to cut threads to add a collar to which that collar would have the correct sized threads as the barrels just do not have enough material to make the 5/8-24 threads without cutting off a lot of the barrel.

Do I need to find a different gunsmith with the equipment needed?

Do I need to replace the barrels with ones that are big enough in diameter that they wouldn't need to be cut back as far as the stock ones?

I hate to replace new barrels, but I want to be able to use the suppressor...

If the answer is to replace the barrels, what would any of you recommend? And have I given enough information for recommendations to be made?

 

[ddavis]

I have a Tikka T3 Lite 6.5x55. The barrel is pencil thin, which is what I imagine you are dealing with. At 22", it was the bare minimum length my barrel guy would thread, and even then he said he was not really comfortable with it. We threaded it 1/2x28. It has plenty of meat left for barrel thickness and a nice size shoulder. I loc-tited an adapter to it to make the threads 5/8x24 and use it with my Cyclone. My adapter is something like this:

M4 MUZZLE THREAD ADAPTER | Brownells

This would be a good solution for the .25 bore.

I've had a 300 Whisper/Blackout threaded 1/2x28 and never had any problems with it, but I did not like how thin the barrel was at the threads. I was never comfortable with it, and would be even less so with a magnum. Maybe you can do an intermediate thread size, such as 9/16, and use an adapter that is matched to the barrel contour to get 5/8x24 threads?

 

[bengineer]

bush your barrel, don't replace it!

Just bush the barrel, like in the attached pic.

Your smith needs to be indicating the bore, rather than turning between centers. The bore center and profile center of a barrel are often quite far off, in machinist dimensions.

Certainly there is someone who is knowledgeable and conversant who can chime in here.

 

[Sonic Crack]

I'm sure a lot of good smiths turn down work like this because it is "sub standard" meaning that yes 1/2-28 threads can be put on the barrel but, lack of meat around the bore, lack of a shoulder, making up adapters/spacers are not things that give you a warm and fuzzy, esp when there all together. Even tho they may all work fine, in the off chance that something was to happen it would more than likely come back on the smith.

 

[Redtazdog]

Just bush the barrel, like in the attached pic.

Your smith needs to be indicating the bore, rather than turning between centers. The bore center and profile center of a barrel are often quite far off, in machinist dimensions.

Certainly there is someone who is knowledgeable and conversant who can chime in here.

A good gunsmith will dial in the barrel from the bore to thread, crown and add a shoulder like the one in the picture, but a
gunsmith with love for the art will make that shoulder to barrel joint invisible for the eye to see.

 

[sdkidaho]

Just bush the barrel, like in the attached pic.

That is what he was trying to do. He's saying he can't get far enough back with the lathe that he has in order to do it. The other smith he recommended is in the same boat.

So now what? Find a different smith, or new barrels?

 

[bengineer]

So now what? Find a different smith, or new barrels?[/QUOTE]

In my experience, you don't want somebody to do work he doesn't want to do. The only thing I can think to tell him is that if he threads all the way back to a thin shoulder, he can make his false shoulder/bushing a tight fit (like 3A or something of that order) and solder it on, or locktite or similar, and make sure the new shoulder is indeed square. That leaves the force of the can tightening against the muzzle side of the threads on the barrel, rather than on the shoulder cut into the barrel. The stresses in the end of the barrel will be different than just tension like when you thread on a normal situation, but it shouldn't have any negative effects. At least as far as my engineer mind goes, anyway.

Again, an able smith should chime in here and put this into functional terminology.

If you need someone to do the work, PM me.

 

[the impactzone]

he needs to pull the bbl and cut and thread between centers

 

[Redtazdog]

he needs to pull the bbl and cut and thread between centers

Thats how the job gets done wrong as chances are at least one of the two barrels he needs done is shaped like a banana.
Threading between centers most of the time will not give you concentric to the bore threads and shoulder.
The last 3-4 inches of the barrel is what guides the bullet, the rest is just powder room to burn.
Spiders at both ends of the barrel and dial in the last 3-4 inches of the bore at the muzzle end then cut and thread.
This video shows how to set up a barrel on a lathe for doing a chamber but the same setup can be used for muzzle work
to get perfect concentric to the bore barrel work.
What he doesnt show is how the barrel on the other end of the machine is not turning concentric with the end he is using the bore rod in.
Barrel Chambering -- Set-Up on Lathe - YouTube

 

[Redtazdog]

Another good way to get a barrel setup for threading concentric to the bore
Turning and Threading a Barrel - YouTube

 

[sdkidaho]

I picked the rifle up yesterday. He said another issue is that it's a Howa so it's metric, so even if his lathe could handle the shorter barrel he'd have to re-setup his lathe due to it being metric. He made it sound like there weren't a lot of options because of it being that Howa action in metric.

Am I hosed? I really like these rifles. Didn't really want to replace both of them...

 

[Redtazdog]

I picked the rifle up yesterday. He said another issue is that it's a Howa so it's metric, so even if his lathe could handle the shorter barrel he'd have to re-setup his lathe due to it being metric. He made it sound like there weren't a lot of options because of it being that Howa action in metric.

Am I hosed? I really like these rifles. Didn't really want to replace both of them...

Strange as most machines you can run the barrel through the head/machine and even keep the receiver on.
Metric or standard action/receiver threads wont matter if you dont replace the barrel and have
a custom bushing shoulder with threads made on the stock barrel.
How small diameter is the muzzle on both barrels ?

 

[GrantA]

If he is bringing up metric threads and needing more money, I'd say he just really doesn't want to do this job for you. As Redtazdog stated that doesn't make any difference for cutting threads on the muzzle. You're asking for standard threads to be cut. I'm no machinist or smith but I wonder why there's such a fuss over threading the 25cal 1/2 or 9/16 and using an adapter? It seems to me that the smith could even make you a thread protector AND a custom adapter ( you know, so it's not fugly when the can is off)

 

[Killer Spade 13]

I think you need more that just barrel help . . .

 

[sdkidaho]

I agree. So are you offering help or are you just posting for self comedic value?

 

[WhiteDingo]

My suggestion is that you need to find another gunsmith to do the work. If he is talking about metric threads at this point (unless you brought up changing the barrel), then he is probably not the gunsmith you want threading your barrel.
There are a number of well reputed gunsmiths referenced in the Hide that would be more than happy to perform the work for you.

Just out of curiosity, what are the diameters of the barrels at the muzzle end? I put 9/16 threads on sporter contour barrels without much length removal at all. Granted, to be safe, I would probably do a longer adapter for a 9/16 to 5/8 adapter so the adapter has some wall thickness.

 

[wetboyz]

Who did that awesome work???

A good gunsmith will dial in the barrel from the bore to thread, crown and add a shoulder like the one in the picture, but a
gunsmith with love for the art will make that shoulder to barrel joint invisible for the eye to see.

 

[Redtazdog]

Who did that awesome work???

That is my work, I'm a little too anal and like perfection

 

[normbal]

Might check with Mike Stannard at Tornado Technologies, one state over.

He's done several threading jobs for me in the past and they've all been spot-on and his prices are right.