Barrel crown dressing

Is there an easy way to dress a barrel crown?
My son's .270 has accuracy issues. The end of the barrel has a few bad dings in it & I'm quite sure it has to affect accuracy. He has no idea how it got damaged :o. (I swear the kid takes after his mother, rest her soul). I was thinking I might use a spherical shaped very fine grinding stone. the kind one would use on a Dremel and such. I have them in different diameters. Can I take one that matches the crown radius / curvature & hand dress it or do I need to take out a mortgage, send it out & have it reworked?
Any input is most appreciated.

you can rework it yourself.

Ive used my RCBS brass reamer/chamfer to clean up a 22 crown, ive also used wooden cone shaped blocks and sand paper on muzzle loader crowns.

Just be careful and go slow.

Good luck

The purpose of the crown is so that when the bullet leaves the barrel, the entire base of the bullet exits the muzzle at the same time so there is no gas blowing on one side of the bullet while the other side is still in contact with the barrel.

In order to do this, you would need a tool that has a spud to keep the tool in proper alignment with the bore. Otherwise you will simply be compounding the problem.

I have the tools and do my own recrowning. You might first start by asking around your shooting friends or at your range and see if someone will help you. Gunsmiths typically do not charge much for crowning unless they have to chuck it up on a lathe.

I'm headed to the range right now, before the wind picks up & the rain (if applicable) starts. I know a few 600 yard guys that shoot there pretty regular. Past discussions I've heard them say they do most of their own work. I wonder if any of them need any electrical work to trade for a barrel crown dressing?
Most appreciate the input.
Thanx, again.

I do it for free for my friends. Or I let them do it while I supervise, in case they dont like what they get. ;)

I had my 30 year old 30-06 re-crowned a few years ago and I think it cost me $50 if that.

I strongly suggest having it professionaly done. Well worth the small expense. Also check that the barrel and tang are free floated, the action screws are tight (35-45 in lbs) and accuracy may improve. If this rifle has been shot quite a bit check to see if the barrel needs to be de-coppered. Adding pillars for the mounting screws may help. There are many reasons why accuracy falls off but those I mentioned are ones you can do yourelf except for the barrel crown. Savager barrels shoot better dirty except for excess copper which can happen in new Savage barrels until they smooth out. Good luck.

El Lobo

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Originally Posted by ellobo

Savager barrels shoot better dirty except for excess copper which can happen in new Savage barrels until they smooth out.

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Hey I love that! I wonder why other barrels dont shoot good dirty? Is it just Savage? :o

HotBrass, it has something to do with the button broached rifling which most makers are using on thier facotry installed barrels. In days gone by barrels were cut broached which was much smoother. I imagine it does it to other makes as well. I only have a Mauser commercial actioned rifle, a Winchester model 88 that is 60+ yrs old to go along with my Savages so cant answer to other makers barrels. The Mauser has a cut rifled barrel and is silky smooth and sub MOA. The gold and silver inlays dont hurt either :). The model 88 is Minute of Deer accurate.

El Lobo.

Do a search for "brass screw" "lapping compound" crown, came up with the following.

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Originally Posted by shelbyfan

Check the crown. Put white out on the end of the crown to check the muzzle blast pattern. It should look like this. Nice and even. If it does not you may need to polish the end. It is super easy and cheap. All you need is a screw gun, polishing compound, and a round headed brass screw. Chuck the screw in the screwgun, smear it with polishing compound and stick the screw in the muzzle for a few seconds. If the crown is not to bad then it will polish away any imperfections. Clean it good and reshoot. I did this with a friends 93wmr and it really cleaned the groups up, helped a lot.
http://www.mindspring.com/~stephenpa...all%20copy.jpg

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Originally Posted by sha-ul

Do a search for "brass screw" "lapping compound" crown, came up with the following.

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Originally Posted by shelbyfan

Check the crown. Put white out on the end of the crown to check the muzzle blast pattern. It should look like this. Nice and even. If it does not you may need to polish the end. It is super easy and cheap. All you need is a screw gun, polishing compound, and a round headed brass screw. Chuck the screw in the screwgun, smear it with polishing compound and stick the screw in the muzzle for a few seconds. If the crown is not to bad then it will polish away any imperfections. Clean it good and reshoot. I did this with a friends 93wmr and it really cleaned the groups up, helped a lot.
http://www.mindspring.com/~stephenpa...all%20copy.jpg

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Insane. Not on my guns!

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Originally Posted by hotbrass

Insane. Not on my guns!

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Done this many times. But only to barrels that needed a crown job. If it dosn't work I take it to a smith for a professional job. Most times "it works"

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Originally Posted by Ray Gunter

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Originally Posted by hotbrass

Insane. Not on my guns!

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Done this many times. But only to barrels that needed a crown job. If it dosn't work I take it to a smith for a professional job. Most times "it works"

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I guess he doesn't realize that the Savage repair shop uses this technique too.

Here ya go.......
http://www.youtube.com/user/MidwayUS.../1/x3ELBpqYCQc
you can use brass screws as well (watch the video...you will understand).

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Originally Posted by sha-ul

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Originally Posted by Ray Gunter

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Originally Posted by hotbrass

Insane. Not on my guns!

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Done this many times. But only to barrels that needed a crown job. If it dosn't work I take it to a smith for a professional job. Most times "it works"

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I guess he doesn't realize that the Savage repair shop uses this technique too.

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A brass screw for a crown job? I like to hear that from Savage.

I dont think brass is gonna hurt it regardless. You stick brass in the other end.lol

Not thinking about brass hurting it. My concern is how are you going to polish off a high spot freehand
without also polishing off the low parts of the crown. That is why you need a spud or bore guide to keep the polishing at the correct angle in line with the bore.

if you use a round brass button no matter how you hold it its gonna polish at the same angle

Yes, and it will polish the low side as well as the high side, so what have you accomplished?

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Originally Posted by hotbrass

Yes, and it will polish the low side as well as the high side, so what have you accomplished?

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The high bit will polish down faster than the surrounding areas, as they will have less pressure on them, until the surface is uniform all around. just like lapping in a valve.

the ball will ride on the high points until it creates the perfect cradle to ride in. Once the hole is round, then it will be even pressure on the edges of the entire circle

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Originally Posted by sha-ul

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Originally Posted by hotbrass

Yes, and it will polish the low side as well as the high side, so what have you accomplished?

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The high bit will polish down faster than the surrounding areas, as they will have less pressure on them, until the surface is uniform all around. just like lapping in a valve.

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+1 - here is Brownell's version for the pros - http://www.brownells.com/.aspx/pid=8...E-CROWNING-LAP

I have used both the Brownells product and a nice round head brass screw - both work fine but if you are nervous about it a smith should only charge about $40-60 to crown a barrel for you (be advised he will probably be using some version of the brass lap to finish things up!).

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Originally Posted by keeki

the ball will ride on the high points until it creates the perfect cradle to ride in. Once the hole is round, then it will be even pressure on the edges of the entire circle

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Uh, not really but it you think you can control it that well. Have at it.

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Originally Posted by Eric in NC

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Originally Posted by sha-ul

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Originally Posted by hotbrass

Yes, and it will polish the low side as well as the high side, so what have you accomplished?

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The high bit will polish down faster than the surrounding areas, as they will have less pressure on them, until the surface is uniform all around. just like lapping in a valve.

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+1 - here is Brownell's version for the pros - http://www.brownells.com/.aspx/pid=8...E-CROWNING-LAP

I have used both the Brownells product and a nice round head brass screw - both work fine but if you are nervous about it a smith should only charge about $40-60 to crown a barrel for you (be advised he will probably be using some version of the brass lap to finish things up!).

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Yes looks just like mine. But it is used after you cut the crown. If you just go after a bad crown with it , you will end up with another bad crown, but it will be nice and polished.

http://webpages.charter.net/hotbrass/crowntool.jpg

Thanks to all for all of the really cool ideas. I ended up doing it the el cheapo way. I have a bunch of polishing stones in every size / shape imaginable. Many of them are very fine stones so, I used a 5/8 inch diameter sphere & hand polished the crown. Worked like a charm. The range test revealed that was the problem. It started to shoot to the high left and very scattered. This was using ammo that was typically on the money accurate. When I got it, the crown was clearly chipped / gouged with no explanation from my son on how it happened. It almost looked like somebody had used a nail or something and was picking at the muzzle / crown. Maybe I'll beat it out of him....
Anyway, the stone sphere I used was very fine & left a nice shine to it. Now, all I need to worry about is rusting.
Thanks again to all for your input.

Im happy it worked out for you.

I little DIY and some Patients is all you need. Where not performing brain surgery here.

Oxpho-Blu will touch up the bright spot nicely.

Ga Cop - Oxpho Blu?
Is that something I can get around town or do I need to make a call to Natchez, Midway, etc....?

Thanks to all, again.

Oxpho Blue comes from Brownells.com. It does a good job of looking like hot blue.