SIGforum.com    Main Page  Hop To Forum Categories  Mason's Rifle Room    Looking for a good smith to shorten a shotgun barrel
Go
New
Find
Notify
Tools
Reply
  
Looking for a good smith to shorten a shotgun barrel Login/Join 
Member
posted
Does anyone have a recommendation for a good gunsmith that will shorten a Benelli M1 Entry barrel from 14” to 10” and reinstall the front sight? I’ve contacted nearly a dozen smiths that advertise barrel work and not one can do this work. The M1 is a legit and stamped SBS, and I’m keeping the original barrel at the approved 14”, but I have a spare to cut.

Thank you!
 
Posts: 659 | Registered: February 10, 2009Reply With QuoteReport This Post
The 2nd guarantees the 1st
Picture of fiasconva
posted Hide Post
You may want to give shotgunworld.com a try and ask your question there.



"Even if the world were perfect it wouldn't be." ... Yogi Berra
 
Posts: 1856 | Location: York County, VA | Registered: August 25, 2007Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Web Clavin Extraordinaire
Picture of Oat_Action_Man
posted Hide Post
Vang Comp? They certainly cut barrels, but they say it's an add-on not a standalone service, but then say it's for customer supplied barrels.

Also maybe Agency Arms? They offer Benelli M1/M2/M4 build services, so maybe they can just cut a barrel.


----------------------------

Chuck Norris put the laughter in "manslaughter"

Educating the youth of America, one declension at a time.
 
Posts: 19837 | Location: SE PA | Registered: January 12, 2001Reply With QuoteReport This Post
"Member"
Picture of cas
posted Hide Post
Wondering what the hesitation is? Silver soldering the sight back on? That's not that difficult/. (heck I've done it lol)
 
Posts: 21052 | Location: 18th & Fairfax  | Registered: May 17, 2003Reply With QuoteReport This Post
semi-reformed sailor
Picture of MikeinNC
posted Hide Post
I think you need an SOT (class 2) NFA manufacturer….that’s why other gunsmiths won’t do the work. It’s not that they can’t, it’s you have to be a manufacturer of NFA stuff to be able to build them. It’s another license that regular gunsmiths don’t want to shovel over another $500 a year just to do business…and all the NFA hassle that goes with it.



"Violence, naked force, has settled more issues in history than has any other factor.” Robert A. Heinlein

“You may beat me, but you will never win.” sigmonkey-2020

“A single round of buckshot to the torso almost always results in an immediate change of behavior.” Chris Baker
 
Posts: 11246 | Location: Temple, Texas! | Registered: October 07, 2006Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Member
posted Hide Post
Thank you for the suggestions thus far. Why I don’t do it myself…my success rate on DIY projects is dismal. I don’t want to butcher the barrel just to still need someone more skilled to make it right…worth the pennies to get it done right.
 
Posts: 659 | Registered: February 10, 2009Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Member
posted Hide Post
quote:
Originally posted by MikeinNC:
I think you need an SOT (class 2) NFA manufacturer….that’s why other gunsmiths won’t do the work. It’s not that they can’t, it’s you have to be a manufacturer of NFA stuff to be able to build them. It’s another license that regular gunsmiths don’t want to shovel over another $500 a year just to do business…and all the NFA hassle that goes with it.


There is no firearm being manufactured. The M1 is on an approved Form 4 for the factory Entry configuration (14” barrel). I have the second barrel to be shortened, and am looking to only send the barrel to a smith for chopping (not the entire SBS), and swap it back and forth the same a SBR 10.5” 5.56mm AR can have a 8” .300BO (or any other upper) swapped.
 
Posts: 659 | Registered: February 10, 2009Reply With QuoteReport This Post
To all of you who are serving or have served our country, Thank You
Picture of Jelly
posted Hide Post
I would not do it myself. Most if not all Benelli shotguns use a industrial hard chrome lined barrel. Hard chrome is typically only .0027 - .0055 thick. However this can raise some issues.

1 It is brutal on tools.
2 It may chip chrome into the bore during the cutting.
3 It may delaminate some chrome into the bore with use.
 
Posts: 2675 | Registered: March 15, 2004Reply With QuoteReport This Post
semi-reformed sailor
Picture of MikeinNC
posted Hide Post
quote:
Originally posted by Creeping_Death:


There is no firearm being manufactured. The M1 is on an approved Form 4 for the factory Entry configuration (14” barrel). I have the second barrel to be shortened, and am looking to only send the barrel to a smith for chopping ….


I get that. But like making a new set of baffles for a suppressor, or just one baffle that’s bent, the gunsmith may feel like he can’t do the work you want because he’s not an SOT.

Did you ask the people you have approached about why they won’t do the work? Is bet it’s for the very reason I mentioned.

I once had a gunsmith refuse to thread a barrel for a suppressor because he said he didn’t have the right license. When I asked if he could thread it for a muzzle device-he said he would do that. Don’t ask me-it’s retarded….but some of them are set in their ways.



"Violence, naked force, has settled more issues in history than has any other factor.” Robert A. Heinlein

“You may beat me, but you will never win.” sigmonkey-2020

“A single round of buckshot to the torso almost always results in an immediate change of behavior.” Chris Baker
 
Posts: 11246 | Location: Temple, Texas! | Registered: October 07, 2006Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Member
posted Hide Post
Cas, I will remeasure but thank you for bringing the ring up. I’m wanting to mimic the “Hammer” M1’s made by a shop years ago, and it doesn’t appear they moved the ring…I would take a longer length to avoid moving the ring!

Jelly, thank you for bringing up the chrome lining consideration. I’m hoping to find a smith experienced with aspects such as the lining.

Mike, good point comparing this to the barrel threading. The only contact that said more than ‘we do not offer that service’ mentioned the ATF cracking down more and felt this was a grey area project. From our POV there ‘should’ be no issue with a job like this, but I see your point about why so many places are saying no!

Thanks again for everyone’s feedback, I’ll update this thread as the project progresses.
 
Posts: 659 | Registered: February 10, 2009Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Fighting the good fight
Picture of RogueJSK
posted Hide Post
cas, OP is asking about a M1 barrel, not a M4. The single barrel ring shouldn't need to be altered. There's more than 4 inches of barrel ahead of the ring on a 14" M1 barrel... More like 5 or 6 inches.


He wants to make this, the so-called "M1K":
 
Posts: 32423 | Location: Northwest Arkansas | Registered: January 06, 2008Reply With QuoteReport This Post
"Member"
Picture of cas
posted Hide Post
Wow. Scary. Doing too many things at once maybe.

Doing M4 (and M2) things I happen upon this thread and for some reason my brain said M4. Yikes. Might have been the 4 in 14, dyscalculia, my brain grabs numbers and shuffles them around. Occasional touch of dyslexia at times too, it's scary when what you've been seeing suddenly changes only when someone points is out.

As for chrome lined, Carlson's cut and choked one of my Benelli barrels, so it doesn't seem to be an issue.
 
Posts: 21052 | Location: 18th & Fairfax  | Registered: May 17, 2003Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Member
posted Hide Post
You got it Rogue…the picture sums up what I’m after! The goal is to have it looking like the M1K pictured on the bottom, iron sight variety.
 
Posts: 659 | Registered: February 10, 2009Reply With QuoteReport This Post
"Member"
Picture of cas
posted Hide Post
While not exactly what you want, I was going to suggest buying one of the used $275-ish M1 front sighted barrels on EBay, chopping it yourself to see if you like it. Then having someone put some kind of a bead on it.

But the flood of barrels from a few months back seems to have dried up, I see none now.


_____________________________________________________
Sliced bread, the greatest thing since the 1911.

 
Posts: 21052 | Location: 18th & Fairfax  | Registered: May 17, 2003Reply With QuoteReport This Post
  Powered by Social Strata  
 

SIGforum.com    Main Page  Hop To Forum Categories  Mason's Rifle Room    Looking for a good smith to shorten a shotgun barrel

© SIGforum 2024