Thread: Making a Sharps Barrel in my lathe.

Yep, dumb question,, Who has heard of a Sharps 1874 45-70 with a smooth bore, for that you have to read the start of this thread, .
The real deal, I have just finished making a new cutter body for this barrel to cut a 1-18 twist, Homebrew.357. pic`s
[, the rifling cutter assy.

But wait there`s more. The end was cut off, and the hole out of round bit was revealed , my bit was 0.035", not to bad, machined end true to the bore, this will be the muzzle end. Bore was .444" and I reamed it to clean up some scratchers with my homebrewed reamer. I used an adjustable reamer , a small socket with a 1/4" drive was tack welded on and a square drive adapter no my rifling rod was used to push it through, lots of oil and slow feed did the trick, can out nice,, Homebrew.357. pic`s.
, Homebrewed reamer., for push through only. , ready to go.

And of cause the piece of de resistance, the barrel with a hole through it. Homebrew.357. PS, Coming soon will be the rifling cutting op., End machined to bore. , What can I say.

So Rifled bore size will be .50?

WHAT!!, I`m surrounded by imcompadence ,, No, a Sharps 45-70 cal is .458" bore, so a grove depth of 0.0065" ,= bore .445", grove .458",, well something like that, and it will be only using lead bullets. Now when a new gun drill is used a new rifling cutter body has to be made, this is because the cutter has to have a oiled sliding fit in the bore, nice and snug so the cutter can not grab when cutting. I made mine of silver steel and it must be hardened to stop whare. The cutter is made form a skill saw blade, using the T/C tips and fits in the body with a pin, a ramp assy is used to ajust it for fine cutting. The pic`s show the cutter up and in the down position , the barrel is cut from the breech end to the muzzle , going back to the breech the cutter is down. This will be done at real time, because this is where I`m at, you have court up to me. Homebrew.357.
, new cutter body and parts., The t/c cutter., Cutter up., down.

How many lands and grooves are you going to do.

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Hi, Will be cutting six groves as this is what I have made my rifling register on the barrel holder, and also it will be a left hand twist because of my gear box set up. It works ok in my muzzle loader Hawken, I`v just got to get the right sized bike sprocket for a 1-18 twist for this barrel , or some where close to it, Cheers, Homebrew.357.

They shoot BP slug guns in the US heavy barrelled bench rest guns, always wanted one, they use paper patched lead slugs, very accurate!

Yes, The Sharps rifles have a big following in the states looking at the forums over there, they shoot p/patched bullets out to 800+yards with black powder loads. I really have to get this gun working , so thinking of getting a toolmaker to cut the breech block hole for me, as I have no way of such precession with my back yard set up. Homebrew.357.

Hi guys, When out to see if I could find a sprocket near the size I wanted, got one from Whites bike shop K road, but as I through It`s not spot on, It will give me a twist of 1-21.2", or there about`s ,which is not to bad . The old Spring field 45-70 rifle twist was 1-20" and it did ok , so now I can set up for cutting the rifling ., Homebrew.357.,The new sprocket attached to the gear box.

I've got some nice 500 grain lead pills for that, funny I size my 45/70 at .451, ran out of projectiles on Sat night, so sized some of the 458 to 451 and couldn't chamber them, have to pull them and put some of the .451 in once I've mould some more. And yes the 451 with 60 grains of Holy Smoke powder is very very accurate.

Hi, So your bore size is .450"?, I thought the 45-70 was mainly a bore size of .457/8" as standed. looking at the barrel makers in the USA, but I suppose they very. You wooden`t want to pick up a round with a .458" bullet in it,, Homebrew.357.

Yer, Maca 49, I would check your bore, all 45-70 Sharps bores are .458"??, Shilo barrels and C Sharps are .458" to. The set up for my rifling register, six holes on my barrel holder are used to lock a pin arm that holds the head stock from moving. This is bolted on using the end cover screw holes. When the cutter starts cutting, all the six holes are used, with say 25 parses for each one ,then the cutter is raised up a bit and do the same again until you have your bore size. , Homebrew.357., THE home made gismo for six groves.

Originally Posted by homebrew.357

Yer, Maca 49, I would check your bore, all 45-70 Sharps bores are .458"??, Shilo barrels and C Sharps are .458" to. The set up for my rifling register, six holes on my barrel holder are used to lock a pin arm that holds the head stock from moving. This is bolted on using the end cover screw holes. When the cutter starts cutting, all the six holes are used, with say 25 parses for each one ,then the cutter is raised up a bit and do the same again until you have your bore size. , Homebrew.357.Attachment 30881, THE home made gismo for six groves.Attachment 30883

HB the rifle is a Harrington and Richardson 45/70 trapdoor, made 1971, I'll slug it but it shoots spot on!

Well it seems I`m not right also, my bore is .445" and cutting rifling out to .458" but for 45 cal it should be .450" to start with. So as I`m rifling know will finish it to .458" and then hone the bore out .450" to get it right. To set up for rifling the two ali blocks are fitted on and the base only of my x/y vice is mounted on top, to this my gear box assy is clamped. Two brackets at the back of the lathe are used to fit the length of bike chain drive for the gear box and a loop of chain is also used to wind it up and down the lathe bed ways, its bolted to the vice base and a small bearing jockey under the chuck with crank assy fitted at the far end, which drives the rifling cutter through the barrel. The barrel is set up with breech at the left end on the lathe and this is where you start cutting from, pulling the cutter through with it up, then down going back. Once you get some fine chips at number one grove, up and down 25 times and do the other 5 groves the same, only adjust the cutter after all are done. Homebrew.357.
, mounting brackets at back. , rifling head drive chain plus chain loop.., Crank drive at end, gearbox ready.,Rifling rod to g/box drive.