dakota.potts
New member
I took my Mosin Nagant stock off at one point to replace it with a Boyd's Laminate. I kept the original stock and I'm heavily considering refinishing it with pine tar for a nice contrasting finish.
Of course, to get the Boyd's stock off I had to remove the barrel bands and I got a little frustrated so I ended up dremeling them off. So now I have to get new ones.
I had a strange thought that I could maybe try forming some of my own. I don't have a lot of tooling so I'm not confident I could work with steel, but I've seen that some rifles such as the Enfield incorporated a brass barrel band. I've worked with brass before and know I can form it with a hammer fairly easily. Brass might be a nice classic look also.
If I were to consider doing so, what would be the best source material to work from? I assume something like rods versus layered sheets. Also, what's the best method for attaching it? I know that brass doesn't necessarily have the elasticity of steel so I'm not sure I can rely on spring tension, rather I would have to figure a method of peening, pinning, screwing, or potentially even brazing the band to itself.
What would be the proper method for forming the band? It doesn't seem like just hammering it into the newly refinished stock would be the best thing for the finish.
Anybody tried anything like this? Maybe classic long rifle/musket makers?
The rifle isn't supposed to be a war rifle (although it will always be ready for that), it's really just something to keep in the safe and shoot once in a while. It might go hunting with me a couple times this year. I bought it to practice gunsmithing on so I'm not too worried about historical accuracy or anything like that.
Of course, to get the Boyd's stock off I had to remove the barrel bands and I got a little frustrated so I ended up dremeling them off. So now I have to get new ones.
I had a strange thought that I could maybe try forming some of my own. I don't have a lot of tooling so I'm not confident I could work with steel, but I've seen that some rifles such as the Enfield incorporated a brass barrel band. I've worked with brass before and know I can form it with a hammer fairly easily. Brass might be a nice classic look also.
If I were to consider doing so, what would be the best source material to work from? I assume something like rods versus layered sheets. Also, what's the best method for attaching it? I know that brass doesn't necessarily have the elasticity of steel so I'm not sure I can rely on spring tension, rather I would have to figure a method of peening, pinning, screwing, or potentially even brazing the band to itself.
What would be the proper method for forming the band? It doesn't seem like just hammering it into the newly refinished stock would be the best thing for the finish.
Anybody tried anything like this? Maybe classic long rifle/musket makers?
The rifle isn't supposed to be a war rifle (although it will always be ready for that), it's really just something to keep in the safe and shoot once in a while. It might go hunting with me a couple times this year. I bought it to practice gunsmithing on so I'm not too worried about historical accuracy or anything like that.