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I have an old side-by-side, 12 ga, ERA shotgun (made in Brazil) that I inherited from my Grandad. It was his bedside gun for as long as I can remember. Grandad sawed it off to 19" (plenty of room to be safely over the BATF's arbitrary limit). He did it himself with a hacksaw and never bothered to reblue the end or clean up the cut. So, what would be a reasonable expectation for a gunsmith to charge to chop another 1/4' or so off the end, clean up the cut and reblue the end?

While I'm at it, what can be done to lossen up the break open action of this gun? It is REALLY stiff! I'm not sure what (if any) maitenance Grandad did on this gun over the last 30 years. Also, the ejectors don't actually eject the spent hulls, but just lift them out far enough that you can manuall extract them yourself. Is that normal?

Thanks!

I have a Stevens double barrel about 30 years old, sounds like the same thing. It's always been stiff to break open. Took it apart and greased it and it helped a little. Same thing too with extractors and no ejectors, just the way it was designed. Maybe so you can pull the empties out and put them in your vest and not have to pick them up off the ground. It is slow though.

Warhammer,

I cant help with the cost of cleaning it up but just a word of warning... Make sure you measure that barrel the way the ATF would measure it. Remove any ammo and close the action Then put a wood dowel down the barrel until it stops. Mark the end of the barrel on the dowel and pull it out. Then measure the dowel from the end to the mark. Make sure you have the required, and totally stupid/arbitrary, 18" length. Better safe than sorry!

and if its shorter than 18" I will dutifuly tell the ATF I have no idea who you are

Thanks, guys. I think Andy's right about it being filthy AND not broken in. Grandad kept this gun beside his bed and I bet he didn't shoot it or clean it more than once or twice in the last 30 years. I took it apart and gave it a really thorough deep cleaning last night. There was old, congeled gun oil in there that was so thick it looked like cosmolene. After a really good scrubbing with Break Free and a tooth brush, it looks a lot better. I oiled and reassebled it and, while it's still really stif, any trace of grittiness is gone.

As for shooting it... I went out to the LBJ National Grasslands with a group from church yesterday to shoot skeet for a while. With only 19" barrels, I figure that I would just shoot it a few times for grins and then use a different gun for the rest of the time. However, this little gun surprised me (and the other 6 guys shooting with me)! I was able to consistantly break clays despite the short tubes. I did notice that my ability to reach out a break a clay that has gotten further away suffereed. But as long as I got on it quickly, I did better than I would have ever dreamed (especially since I haven't shot skeet in about 6 years).

Granded never put a bead on the front of this gun after th chop, so I got a Champion Easyhit from Cabella's for $20. It's a stick on fiber optic bead that works amazingly well. I'm happy enough with it that I'm not going to drill and tap the rib for a new bead when I clean the end up.

I definitey need to add a recoil pad. This shotgun just has the standard thin plastic butt plate, and after about 75 rounds, my shoulder is really feeling it! I think I'll just get a slip on pad for it.

Thanks for the concern, Syntyr. I have measured carefully and Granded cut it to 19". I told me he left in 1" long on purpose to be extra sure that he was on the legal side of the minumum. I think I can clean it up nicely by only taking about anothe 1/4" off. After researching it a bit, I think I'm just going to do it myself. I can chop it on my cutoff saw and get a really clean, straight cut. Then I'll deburr the cut with a hand file and use some cold blue on the end.

If it were me... which it obviously isn't... I would take the gun to a qualified smith for examination. SxS guns can be very different in their construction, particularly the barrel welds. I have seen barrel seperation at the muzzle end of guns that haven't been altered (particularly lower priced SA imports), and cutting a few inches off may just be the ticket to a catastrophic failure. Just a thought


surv

I have previously used a fine file, then various grades of aluminium oxide paper wrapped around the file, then a flat knife-sharpening stone to progressively true-up and clean/polish a cut shotgun barrel after cutting with a disc in an angle grinder (sounds horrible, but it worked fine !).

Then regular bluing.

I was very pleased with it and it took no more than an hour.

Not typically a problem with your older shotguns - but a lot of newer guns are overbored / backbored. If you cut them off you potentially will have a .800 barrel at muzzle. Shot will be bouncing around all over the place. As stated, careful you don't weaken the strength between barrels on a SxS or O/U by cutting. Nothing wrong with shortening most barrels if your intent is to take a cheapish shotgun and making a defensive weapon (for home or business maybe) out of it - but if you are thinking you want to use it for upland game or clays - get another gun or buy another barrel to fit it. As far as finishing it - just as you said, clean up the cut as even as possible, file then sand smooth, then cold blue if you want. Hacking off the barrel is going to pretty much ruin the value and maybe even the ability to sell it again (if the original value was in an older intact gun) - why spend extra dollars having someone pretty up the pig.

I'm curious - how would a professional gunsmith clean up the end of a hacksawed barrel like that?

Rex B wrote:I'm curious - how would a professional gunsmith clean up the end of a hacksawed barrel like that?

Just cut it a little bit shorter and do a better job than Grandad did with his hack saw.

Cut with a bandsaw and finish by hand, or with a milling machine?

From what I've been told, typically they'll just use a chop saw with a metal cutting blade. I'll be going the DIY route this one and I'll clean up the cut by hand. I suppose a gunsmith might use a reamer and/or a hone to clean up the insides. For my purposes, doing it by hand with files and emery cloth will be good enough.

The smith at Elk Castle will do it professional for you for about $40.