Why shorten a rifle barrel

You will need a setscrew with a point. Screw on the brake, clamp it, and mark or drill using the hole for reference. A setscrew shorter than the threaded hole is needed. You must have a recess in the barrel for the setscrew to go into! After checking fit, use a high strength loc-tite on the setscrew thread and tighten it. Might consider some on the brake threads if it's not a real good snug fit. Finally, you need to fill the hole that the setscrew is in.

Running another screw into the hole with loc-tite , and then cutting off flush, should also work. The idea is they don't want the muzzle piece to be removeable with ordinary hand tools.

They expect you to have to resort to saws and or drills to accomplish this. BTW, if this is a purchased brake, check with the maker, they may already have this situation covered, and will have the latest Gov reqs noted. Thanks guys, I'm debating a blind pin or a setscrew covered with a braze. I assume this is all legal as long as the parts are unassembled.

So a barrel off the frame does not make it a SBR, correct? I wrote to the ATF in northern Illinois about this but as regards an 18" 20 ga. They suggested I write to the national HQ for info. Here's the problem: If you have a shortened "illegal" barrel in close proximity to the mating receiver you could be declared to have the intent of making a sawed off whatever. If you are a pro-gun militant who aggravates the local establishment enough and publicly say something about pointless regulations of short barreled longarms, and if you say the whole population should be armed to beat back Arab camel cavalry attacking from forward bases in Mexico across the Arizona border, a local LE official can convince someone this is the time to act on various grounds , and polish up a case against you with perjured testimony, and with warrant in hand you could wind up with black helicopters landing on your roof and back yard.

You will be accused of rabble rousing violating state and local civil rights or race laws and will be found illegally making or conspiring to manufacture with intent to distribute illegal weapons.

All because you wanted a shortened barrel with a permanent muzzle break or flash hider. Make a perfunctory inquiry with the ATF and leave it to a gunsmith the first time around. Why don't you put your barrel in the mill and drill it in an indexing head.

I have a couple rifles with intergral brakes. I appreciate all the ideas. And I wouldn't hesitate to weld the brake on with some very judicious tig welding. I'm likely to make a muzzle brake for this rifle just because it sounds fun.

Will need to machine one to increase effective barrel OD. I came up with a way to add the new brake before shortening the barrel- so the last steps will be to bore out the end of the barrel and screw in an end baffle - never violating the min length rules. The simplest way to legally shorten a barrel is to just take it off Shorten, add extension and reinstall. If you are really worried, take receiver to a neighbor, than work on barrel. When finished pick up receiver and assemble.

Short barrels are fine as long as you don't have a long gun receiver to put them on Or an approved ATF Form 1 If the barrel dia. This brake would be almost invisible. You can legally own a rifle with a barrel less than 16", provided you live in a state that allows short barreled rifles. No way around it. The more powder that is still burning when the bullet exits the more noise and muzzle blast there will be.

If you reload moving to a faster burning powder may help some. I have a Remington short mag with 20" barrell. It holds more powder than the Noise and muzzle blast are not really that bad with it. Cutting the stock: The only reason to cut the stock is if the gun is too long for you now.

DO NOT cut the stock trying to make the gun more compact. Shooting an ill fitting gun isn't fun and can be painful depending on how bad the fit is. Study up on stock fitting or consult a good stock maker before cutting the stock. You might could find a youth rifle that already has a shorter bbl and stock. If the stock is too short your nose and thumb might meet painfully depending on how you hold the rifle.

You would also need to make sure the scope is far enough forward. Your cold weather clothing may allow you to shorten the stock more than an inch and still have a good fit. I have friend at work that recently had a squib load put a bulge in his Winchester model 70 WSM barrel at about 17 inches from the bolt face. I took a Dremel and smoothed out the muzzle and then put a nice bevel from the muzzle going into the bore. It is by no means a good quality gunsmith job We accomplished that If you're going to keep the forever leave it alone.

It ain't broke, don't be fixing it, or it might be. Richard P Senior Member Jan 31, Regarding suppressorsI'm not the expert here. But, I was under the impression that the tax stamp was a one time expense; not an annual expense. As most everyone says--you wont hurt accuracy by shortening the barrel.

You'll have to decide what the value of the rifle is and if you really want the barrel cut. Twenty five ought six Banned Jan 31, I use the word "precise" because "accuracy" entails the whole firearm system, including the sighting system and the shooter.

Precision, in this context, describes the ability of the barrel and the rest of the firearm actually to send a projectile to the same point of impact, with a certain tolerance. No sighting system or shooter is required; place the firearm in a fixture, have a large enough target that the projectiles will impact somewhere on the target, and fire repeatedly without changing the aim, such that you have enough impacts on target to measure the precision - generally somewhere between 5 and ten shots although often the military measures a lot more than that in their tests.

Accuracy describes the ability of the firearm and the shooter, to hit what the shooter intends to hit, with a certain tolerance. So, if the sighting system is iron sights then, depending on where the sights are located, the length of the barrel may affect the "accuracy" because the sighting system has a shorter length and the shooter has a more difficult time precisely aligning the sights from shot to shot.

With an optic sight, then the barrel length generally doesn't impact the sighting system. There are some other factors. It can be argued in some cases, that a shorter barrel is more stiff less likely to vibrate during a shot and will therefore have a tendency to be more precise - since it is less likely to vibrate in such a manner where the projectile leaves the barrel at a different point in the harmonics of the barrel.

This depends a lot on the design of the barrel too. I used to own and shoot an AWC G2A - my photo despite somebody else stealing it and putting their name on it - that sight has the bad habit of doing that : That rifle has an 18" barrel and will shoot 0.

The barrel is a 1" diameter SS Kreiger, and it is tensioned; the scope is located atop a "bridge" which is affixed at one end to the action, and at the other end tensions the barrel with a "nut" about two inches long which is torqued with a special wrench.

The torque value depends on the ammo you want to shoot - this rifle was tuned for gr. The tension stiffens the barrel, making it straighter and more resistant to vibration. You've probably heard of other systems that try to accomplish the same end - such as the Browning BOSS system.

I had a number of people question whether this rifle could shoot "accurately" with such a short barrel. I would then demo it for them, once at over 1 km.

It made believers out of them. IMO - the only thing you really give up with a shorter barrel are velocity, but you do gain noise and blast. Actually went and did some measuring. Standard gas port is about 7" from muzzle. Sporter gas port is a touch over 4" from muzzle. SObarrel 3. Gas tube and piston are bit shorter on the Sporter. Pretty easy to spot if you look at the amount of gas tube in front of the handguard. Otter Oregon. Messages Reactions It could affect accuracy but not because of the length of the barrel, but because the tune of the load.

You may have to develop another load, or if using factory ammo find something else. Thanks everyone for the feedback, I had already done allot to the rifle the barrel was the last, crowning and polish turned out nice. I took a Yugo stock and put the Norinco Chinese in it to have some weight as the Yugo stock is heavier. Anyways I will try an post some pictures as soon as I finish the clean up.

Silver Vendor. Messages 3, Reactions 9, Accuracy no, velocity yes! But this is a sks we are talk about. A few inches won't hurt.

Long tube equals more time for all that powder to burn and squeak all the velocity I can out of those 32inches! Short barrels are more rigid but like anything when it gets hot they move around! If you ever have a rifle with a favorite load worked up for it, chop 6" off the end of the barrel and see how that load works. Along with say a twist rate of 1 in 10 For me I tried it and couldn't get the thing to make a decent group..

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Cutting barrel down. Yes or no? Improving and repairing firearms. Rifle bedding, barrel work, stock replacement and other ways to improve your firearms. My original idea of long range target shooting has never actually eventuated so making it a bit more portable has some appeal. May want to hunt some ferals or something one day.

I realise I will lose some velocity not sure how much but is there any other pros and cons I should consider? It shoots pretty damn good as is so I would hate to jeopardize that and have the accuracy suffer. Has anyone done anything similar to their rifle and if so how did it go? Also, can anyone recommend a gunsmith in the Brisbane or Sunshine Coast area that could do the job? Re: Cutting barrel down. You will lose a little velocity but a isn't the fastest kid on the block in any case.

I think it would work well if you are shooting lighter projectiles at ranges up to metres. Accuracy could improve with the stiffer shorter barrel and a decent crown. If it turns out to be a bad idea can always get it re-barreled.