Shortening an Encore barrel?

[bigbore442001]

I have a factory 26" blued Encore .50 caliber barrel and have contemplated shortening it to 16 1/4" . I intend to use in a handgun form for the upcoming season and wondered if anyone else has used such a set up?

Thanks

 

[Lee 9]

Yes but not that long, I had only a 12 nch barrel and it was to long to shoot with out a rest,so barrel heavey that it could not be held steady. Lee

 

[AJ]

I did this exact thing 3 years ago. I bought a used barrel off the net and grabbed the hacksaw. I cut it down to 15.5" and then chucked it in the lathe and cleaned up everything. I finished the barrel at 15" so the gun will fit in my holster. Oh yeah, I finished it with a 11? target crown.

One thing I was never really fond of is the short handgun forend. Using a rifle barrel allows me to use the longer rifle forend. It also has a sling stud if I care to attach a bipod.

I was using 80 gr of 3f Triple Se7en and a 250 gr Dead Center. I was getting 2" groups at 50 yards when this crappy Leupold 2x scope was on top. I will probably get a good red dot and install it some day.

 

[bigbore442001]

I saw an ad for water jet metal cutting. I wonder if they could cut it with that process? Then have someone crown it?

 

[Corpe Nimrod]

I had a smith do the same thing with a barrel I got jipped on Ebay on. It had some serious rust/pitting 1/4 of the way down the barrel so I had it lopped off and turned it into a pistol. Here is an old picture of it, I have since added a walnut forend so that the combo looks a lot better.

I had to move up to 250 grain shockwaves over 90 grains of BM3. The 200 grain bullets would keyhole through the target consistently. I am not sure why, someone told me it was due to the turbulence generated at the muzzle due to the recessed match crown the smith put on the barrel. Shoots the 250 Shockwaves/Hornady's without a problem. I plan on using it for the early doe season in Michigan assuming it isn't 80 degrees out.

 

[BobT]

I saw an ad for water jet metal cutting. I wonder if they could cut it with that process? Then have someone crown it?

A water jet will cut it no problem, but I would NOT recommend it. The cutting is done with sand at 50-60,000 psi. I don't want to get sand in my barrel at all let alone under pressure. Better, since you will have it re-crowned anyway is to have whoever does the crown just cut it off wherever you want it with a parting tool. It can be done in the same set up and shouldn't cost that much extra.