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A gunsmith friend of mine has been teaching me some of the tricks of the trade over the last couple of months. One of the things I was most interested in was changing barrels, old for new. As it turns out it's not that difficult as long as one gets the measurements right and just takes a bit of time and care while doing the work. Yesterday with Jim's guidance I attempted by first solo barrel change on one of my own rifles.

The rifle is a Yugoslavian M48 Mauser which I picked up years ago and I shot out the barrel which was was probably on it's way out anyway. I was able to pick up a brand new replacement Zastava factory barrel in the white and still in the cosmoline for $55 from Wideners online https://www.wideners.com/itemdetail.cfm ... 7&dir=1190

It took me a couple of hours but I got the barrel on and headspaced without too much drama. The next stage was bluing the barrel. I had heard and seen some good reports and videos of a cold bluing produced by Brownells called Oxpho-Blue so I thought I'd give this a try as it seemed the simplest of the lot but with what I considered the best results for a cold bluing job. Now while I say it's a cold blue the secret to it is warming the barrel with a heat gun or the old lady's hair drier before putting on the blue.

Best aproach is to do one section at a time, I broke it up into four sections and as I was doing say section two I would also go over section one again and so on down to the end of the barrel. I have to say that the end result isn't too bad for a first time, in fact I even managed to get the colour to match the receiver. So here it is, my first ever solo barrel change and bluing job.
Barrel still in the white degreased and ready for bluing
Barrel blued up
The stuff that does the job, a good deal at $9.99 or however much it was.

I don't think the photo of the finished job doesw it justice so I'll try another photo outside in the natural light later in the day.

Blu

It looks good in the pictures Blu, as with many things the surface preparation is as important as the application of the finish. I use Acetone for final degreasing and it seems to work OK.

Good job Blu, what was required to get the barrel ready to fit?

I don't read my own signature!

That looks a good job Blu. I've tried several different cold blue preparations in the past and never really been happy with any of them. When used to touch up screw heads and scratches or even something like a trigger guard, I've had quite good results, but when I've tried larger lumps I've found the results disappointing, being patchy and thin looking and very little rust protection.

I've not tried this stuff from Brownells so I think I'll give it a try.

Being a bit of a Savage fan I just use a spanner to change my barrel, I think the locknut method Savage use is a great idea, you can set your headspace just as you want it.

Ovenpaa, I agree with the use of acetone it's what I use. I soak a new surgical pad in the stuff and wipe the barrel down.



Demonic, As the barrel came in the white and already chambered and threaded it didn't take much. I had to take off a couple of thou for headspacing but apart from that and the degreasing that's about it.

1066, Yeah I like the Savage barrels as well, if only all the manufacturers made them that way life would be so easy. BTW I don't know if you will be able to get the bluing from Brownells as it is classed as Hazmat, it's really good stuff though, it took me about 30 minutes to blue and I gave it five coats. You just have to work fast.

Blu :twisted

Looks good Blue!

+1 for acetone for just about anything you need to clean up.

Don't know about 'blueing' but good job for the DIY re-barreling :goodjob:

...that'd be well out of my home-engineering comfort zone...

Dougan wrote:Don't know about 'blueing' but good job for the DIY re-barreling :goodjob:

...that'd be well out of my home-engineering comfort zone...

Dougan, the bluing is the easy part mate and to be honest the barrel change isn't all that difficult either. As I said above it's about the numbers and by that I mean the headspacing, you might get a barrel that is spot on with the bolt closing on the go gauge and not on the no-go gauge. Or you might get (in my case) I had to trim 5 thousands off in order to get the barrel to line up properly on the final torque.

Really though, once you've seen how it's done a few times and with some guidance it's really not difficult. I've still got a lot to learn and my mate Jim is a really good patient guy who loves nothing more than passing on the skills, I'm going to make the most of what I can learn. Never too old mate and remember, everyday is a school day

Blu