Rolling Block #1 Barrel replacement

[marlinman93]

Yes, I mistakenly saw it as a full octagon barrel, and didn't notice it was just octagon at the chamber area. It is indeed an original barrel and caliber that's just been reblued. Likely too small a diameter for a liner in .45-70, and would be better to get a new barrel made up, or line to a smaller caliber like .38-55 if you kept this barrel.

The lining process requires the bore to be drilled out larger than the liner by a few thousandths. Then the liner is installed usually with a special Loctite these days. Then the liner is chambered, and it's ready to go.
Borchardt Rifle Co. does install barrels, but Green Mountain only sells them. I use C Sharps, and Pat Taylor is the shop foreman or super there. I can send him my action, and have Green Mountain send the barrel directly to him for fitting. Then Pat gets it to Al Springer for rust bluing. I have Al Springer do my color case hardening, and rust bluing, so he does wonderful work at reasonable pricing.
Pat barreled this project for me, and Al did the rust bluing and color case.

[wlw-19958]

Hi There,

I believe my barrel is original as it has the proper markings. It is my understanding that the Argentine 43 Spanish came with the Knox form barrel and I see them for sale all the time and I have the 43 Argentine.

"Knox form" or "knoxform" is a misnomer. It should
be Nock's Form. It is named after a British gunsmith
from the 18 century. Henry Nock made barrels with
a flat over the rear section of the barrel. Over time,
the name has become corrupted. So barrels made with
a flat or octagon section at the breach are referred to
as "knox form" but it really should be Nock's form.

Good Luck!
-Blue Chips-
Webb

[marlinman93]

My Rolling Block Sporting shotgun has the same treatment to the barrel. About 4" of octagon at the chamber end, then full round.

[marlinman93]

"Knox form" or "knoxform" is a misnomer. It should
be Nock's Form. It is named after a British gunsmith
from the 18 century. Henry Nock made barrels with
a flat over the rear section of the barrel. Over time,
the name has become corrupted. So barrels made with
a flat or octagon section at the breach are referred to
as "knox form" but it really should be Nock's form.

Good Luck!
-Blue Chips-
Webb

Did Nock's barrels have the octagon section at the receiver, or simply a top flat? I've not seen any of Henry Nock's original barrels?

[dtrsss]

I am not really familiar with black powder type rounds. Is 38-55 always a black powder type round? I see them for sale on Gunbroker as old and new production.

[dtrsss]

I will reach out to different places and see what my options are. This is looking very promising.

[dtrsss]

Another thought. Will the existing sights work with any type of ammo or are the sights specific for certain types of ammo?

DSCN1891.JPG (3.5 MiB) Viewed 13853 times

This is the style I have for the rear.

[marlinman93]

They will work, but may not be accurate for distances shown. A nice addition would be D&T the top tang and using a modern repro of the period tang sight. The one on my project gun is a long-range version built by Remington in the late 1990's when they brought back the Rolling Block rifles. I bought all the parts from Numrich Gun Parts for $135, and simply assembled them. The lower tang/trigger guard, and stocks also are the 1997 Remington items. So my project is all Remington parts, plus a GM barrel. A Frankenstein.

Numrich did have brand new Remington 30" half octagon, .45-70 barrels also! And they were finished, threaded, and blued. For a sweet $185 price tag. But sold out now. I should have bought one, but I wanted a .40 caliber for mine.

[dtrsss]

Look around at some of these sites, who would I contact if I wanted to have my original barrel relined OR have an original barrel of another caliber fitted on my existing receiver? It seems like many of these sites use new barrels. Thanks

[wlw-19958]

Hi There,

Did Nock's barrels have the octagon section at the receiver, or simply a top flat? I've not seen any of Henry Nock's original barrels?

I cannot say for sure myself. I was researching the
correct spelling of knoxform and came across this
tidbit from the British Arm Collectors' Association:

http://www.acant.org.au/Articles/NocksForm.html

Since then, I have seen several other sources attributing
the originating of this form to Henry Nock of the famous
Nock gunsmiths family of the 18th and 19th century.

Good Luck!
-Blue Chips-
Webb

[dtrsss]

I made contact with Oregunsmithing. The said they can rebore to 45-70 for $350. I don't think they have to take the barrel off. 3-4 months. Has anyone used them before?

[marlinman93]

I made contact with Oregunsmithing. The said they can rebore to 45-70 for $350. I don't think they have to take the barrel off. 3-4 months. Has anyone used them before?

If they told you a rebore is $350, that's a very good price. But I'd ask what they plan to do at the chamber since the current caliber is larger than the .45-70 chamber?
I have a friend who recently had an old Marlin in .38-55 Ballard relined to .38-55 by them and was happy with the work and price.

[dtrsss]

Thank you for the information. I will ask.

[aardq]

To your question of relining vs re-boring. Relining is when a rifled liner is inserted into the old bbl. This always means that the old bbl will have to be bored out to fit the outside diameter of the reline tube. As said above, a re-line only affects the bore, not the chamber

Re boring is when the old bbl is bored out, and then re-rifled. Obviously this means that the bbl must be thick enough to allow for the amount of metal to be removed for a re-bore.

Hope that this helps you.

Good luck with your project,
Dan

[marlinman93]

In a reline situation where the chamber is larger than the liner OD, the gunsmith bores the chamber straight, and fits a sleeve into the chamber first. Then once it's lined they bore the barrel and the chamber for a new liner. Install the liner full length, and then it can be chambered for whatever the liner applies to.