My Barrel Suddenly Unthreaded

[jmoore]

JM............ I'm absolutely staggered at what I'm seeing........... Is this common practice? Is it definately a factory bubba? Not that I disbelieve you, but surely not? PLEASE tell me that it is the work of a saboteur in the factory quality control department or some backyard farmer getting the most dollars out of his old rifle........ Can I take it that Springfiend Inc isn't the Springfield Armoury/US Military arsenal - or is it?

Centre punching around the perhipery is worse than peening the whole edge over with a pein hammer. At least with a pein hammer you'll get an even ring of swage (albeit a bubba swage to me......) around the edge.

It is indeed planished around the periphery, but not center punched. Just regular old lightly crowned and polished hammer face. And, yah, it's pretty common esp. on Springfield Inc (Not the former US Armory!) barrels of either GI OR civilian manufacture! I know I have some in the shop that will show it better, but that one was only a couple of feet away at the time. You want more photos?

It it weren't for the requirement of keeping the sights aligned and torque induced by bayoneting bad guys, there's really no reason for an ultra tight barrel. Benchrest shooters have been known to do swap barrel guns that rquire only a strap wrench to make barrel changes. We even used to make takedown bolt rifles that were positioned by nothing more than a spring loaded ball. And they were quite accurate!



The main downside to peening for a civilain is that it can be unsightly. Or some ham-fisted lout might miss and b***** up the threads.
There's no structural reason against it- unless he wants to do drive-by bayonetings or pry open crates.