Spaceghost Posted April 13, 2007 Share Posted April 13, 2007 Ok, someone other than me has thought about this... Rather than buy a barrel, have it fit, match it to the contour of your existing slide/comp.. etc.. Has anyone tried milling out the chamber of a .38s and inserting a bushing to rechamber it to 9mm? Had to ask. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HSMITH Posted April 13, 2007 Share Posted April 13, 2007 You could if you really wanted to but I wouldn't. Not with the potential to have 50K psi needing to be contained in it. There is nothing that would make this impossible but I just don't think it is a good idea when another barrel is only $200 or so. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris Keen Posted April 13, 2007 Share Posted April 13, 2007 Sounds like a jam-o-matic fer sure. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aircooled6racer Posted April 13, 2007 Share Posted April 13, 2007 Hello: It could be done. You would bore it out then silver solder in a sleeve. Then you would ream it to 9mm. You could also bore the barrel out and thread the inside and then make a threaded sleeve to fit the barrel. Then ream to 9mm. Hope this answers your question. Thanks Eric Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spaceghost Posted April 13, 2007 Author Share Posted April 13, 2007 Keep the ideas (and criticism too..) coming. I thought about a threaded insert.. my gunsmith thought it would need only be a press fit.. As far as being just $200.. well, if you have a Schueman barrel and it is fit to the gun and the slide and there are cosmetics involved as well.. you could be looking at $400 or more. At that price the idea of sleeving the chamber sounds more interesting. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DougCarden Posted April 13, 2007 Share Posted April 13, 2007 I know it has been done, but it is a dicey proposition. Just because it "can" be done doesnt mean that it "should" be done, IMHO. I just dont want to be shooting when Murphy decides that whatever "fix" to keep the spacer in the gun lets go. I have a buddy that tried that with a Revolver and he said it wasnt fun and he wouldnt do it again. He is a smart guy and what he did sounded smart and feasible, but he now says that he wouldnt do it again and told me cause we had both talked about doing it...... Your money, your face and hands, but it scares the hell out of me. Figure how much a new barrel, fitting, cosmetics, etc it will cost and then buy that much super brass and keep going for a couple more years, that might be another option too. Good luck in whatever you decide to do! DougC Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Patrick Sweeney Posted April 13, 2007 Share Posted April 13, 2007 Been there, done that. Buy the new barrel. The problems: We're dealing with lots of pressure, and significant axial loading. Press-fit won't cut it, and I wouldn't bet on Loctite, epoxy or J-B Weld. You'll be threading things. You'll need a good machinist with a first-rate lathe to keep thing concentric. If you don't, and the chamber is tilted, reliability will suck. If you are axially correct, but off-center, accuracy will suck. All that will add up to more than the cost of a new barrel. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Radical Precision Designs Posted April 13, 2007 Share Posted April 13, 2007 In an earlier thread somewhere here, a suggestion was made to insert a small "mouth" bushing in front, to take up the cartridge differential in length. This could be "press fitted" and "cyanoacrilate" bonded. The result would be a "correct mouth spacing" for the smaller 9 mm case, but with a slightly larger "freebore". A new chamber "reaming" would be advised for the slightly larger/tapered 9mm case base. I don't know if anybody here has done such a conversion. Personally, I would stay away from it as this "bushing" would be rather thin, and I can not see it standing up to the repeated erosion, vibration and heat before that "bond" would be gone, etc. As for the press fitted or threaded complete chamber, it would work fine if properly done, but the "extra freebore" issue would still be there. Of course I would use it only for no more than "standard/low" factory target loads, rather than for 9mm "Major". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AK74 Posted April 13, 2007 Share Posted April 13, 2007 “In an earlier thread somewhere here, a suggestion was made to insert a small "mouth" bushing in front, to take up the cartridge differential in length. This could be "press fitted" and "cyanoacrilate" bonded. The result would be a "correct mouth spacing" for the smaller 9 mm case, but with a slightly larger "freebore". A new chamber "reaming" would be advised for the slightly larger/tapered 9mm case base.” I have no idea if its been done to a IPSC race gun or how well it would hold up, but this modification has defiantly been done to many old military surplus pistol cambered for odd ball cartages in the past. I have seen pistols in 7.62 Long (old French military cartridge) modified to fire 32ACP, and I have a Star military pistol in 9mm largo modified to fire 9x19 that works just fine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TONY BARONE Posted April 13, 2007 Share Posted April 13, 2007 M2I has done a few of those conversions and they work quite well. Matt is a talented guy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
adiksaputok Posted April 13, 2007 Share Posted April 13, 2007 try JV Dynamics. there is a local shooter who used to shoot 38super and converted it to 9mm using a sleeve same guy who shoots open without any scope i saw him shoot it with no problem...... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jim Watson Posted April 13, 2007 Share Posted April 13, 2007 I have an old article describing how one of the bullseye gunsmiths bushed the chamber of a .38 Super... back to .38 Super. But cut to produce the first case mouth headspace barrel for the caliber. He set it up for light loads for target shooting with better reliability than a .38 Special conversion. Most of the Swedish 1903 9mm Browning Long guns had the mouth bushings to convert them to .380 for sale in the colonies. I don't know for sure, but think that was how the Germans converted the Steyr Hahn from 9mm Steyr to 9mm P. Nonte's book gives methods and procedures. I don't know if I'd want to put a hundred thousand major caliber loads through a bushed chamber, but it might work ok. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Radical Precision Designs Posted April 13, 2007 Share Posted April 13, 2007 I have an old article describing how one of the bullseye gunsmiths bushed the chamber of a .38 Super... back to .38 Super. But cut to produce the first case mouth headspace barrel for the caliber. He set it up for light loads for target shooting with better reliability than a .38 Special conversion.Most of the Swedish 1903 9mm Browning Long guns had the mouth bushings to convert them to .380 for sale in the colonies. I don't know for sure, but think that was how the Germans converted the Steyr Hahn from 9mm Steyr to 9mm P. Nonte's book gives methods and procedures. I don't know if I'd want to put a hundred thousand major caliber loads through a bushed chamber, but it might work ok. In my "old" Shop in New Jersey we turned out a few of these conversion/rechamberings, and they all worked fine. Since this is the "Open Gun Technical" Forum I assumed the end result was intended for an OPEN GUN most likely to shoot 9mm Major. I wouldn't recommend a "short thin bushing" in the freebore throat of a firearm destined to shoot several thousand + of nasty (way over SAAMI specs.) rounds in such chamber. I might as well just fit a tight extractor and shoot it that way. Example the Astra 600 designed from factory to shoot all of the above without a hiccup. A better recommendation ( which I have done several of ) would be to create a bushing out of the rear area (including the locking area) and make a new "chambered" insert barrel, machined to a press fit from the front. Many current barrels are built that way. Browning HP's had barrels originally built that way. Many frame-fixed barrels are also manufactured that way. There is no loss of strength lost that way. But a "paper thin, narrow" bushing for a 9mm Major Open Gun???? What do you think? Maybe for a "Steel" Gun shooting 9mm Minor, one that is not expected to be shot a lot. You can't ask an USPSA/IPSC or IDPA shooter to just put an ocassional round through that gun. If that is the case, then just tune up the extractor and go shoot away. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G-ManBart Posted April 14, 2007 Share Posted April 14, 2007 Keep the ideas (and criticism too..) coming.I thought about a threaded insert.. my gunsmith thought it would need only be a press fit.. As far as being just $200.. well, if you have a Schueman barrel and it is fit to the gun and the slide and there are cosmetics involved as well.. you could be looking at $400 or more. At that price the idea of sleeving the chamber sounds more interesting. It sounds like you'd be paying someone a fair amount to do the conversion since, at the very least, it's going to take a talented smith with good equipment...at least if you want to trust it. I say go with the new barrel and sell the old one...since it's a quality barrel someone will want it...that'll offset the cost somewhat. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gino_aki Posted April 16, 2007 Share Posted April 16, 2007 +1 on Bart's suggestion. Or whatever money/time was being spent on gunsmithing of chamber insert/new barrel could also be spent on more .38 Super loading components and practice. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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