16ga.com ~ View topic

Hi folks,

I'm just curious. As I understand this, some where forward of the chamber, old barrels are cut and machined so a new tube can be fitted on. I don't know if its welded or soldered. The finished product must be the original length and taper for the original ribs to fit perfectly. If I mis-understand, please clarify. I've only ever heard of this being done to british guns. I assume that's because they're lighter, thinner tubed and more expensive, making it worth while to rationalize the expense.

My question is...

!- How does this affect the guns value? Would this gun be worth more or less than a comparable gun with original barrels?

2- Unless there was some kind of major accident, if the original barrels were worn out, wouldn't the gun be worn out also?

Any way, I'm just curious.

Good luck,

Peter

I am no expert, but I think sleeving means to overbore the inside and put a sleeve down the barrel. I don't think they saw them right off, so the rib in unaffected. Briley does do this work. I think it is usually sleeved for a smaller gauge also.
I think the value is for sentimental reasons.

What Jim said
Briley does both chamber and brl sleeving
http://www.briley.com/index.asp?PageAction=Custom&ID=17#9
Kirk Merrington does brl sleeving
http://kirkmerrington.net/
Teague is the big name in the UK and lining comes to over $2,000 Shocked

Here's an article and contact infro
http://www.shootingsportsman.com/index.php/page/issue/sku/SSM2004_0304/id/18
www.teaguechokes.co.uk.

Sleeving can make an old gun usable (and sellable) but adds little to the value.

Joined: 19 Dec 2005 Posts: 22 Location: Minnesota

I put a bulge in a Parker 12 ga once because of stupidity on my part, lucky I still have my eyes and hands, but yes the barrels are cut right off slightly ahead of the chambers, machined inside of the remaining tubes and new tubes are machined to slip inside them, I do not know if they are silver soldered or teague welded, but I do know that if done correctly you would never know the difference, Krik Merrington did the work and it was flawless, you COULD NOT see the seems.

Member Joined: 18 Aug 2006 Posts: 114 Location: Tucson, AZ

I am most definitely NOT talking about some sub-gauge tube-like sleeve that lets you shoot 20ga. shells through Grandpa's old Damascus 12 ga.

I looked at a 6lb. 16 ga. with 28" sleeved barrels yesterday. The gun was originally a 16 ga. and is today (er yesterday) a 16 ga. There is no seam, no visual sign to me that any barrel work was even done. And, the gun was re-proofed in England. But, the rest of the gun... the receiver just seemed worn. The engraving seems shallow, like the receiver steel was worn away. Even the edges seemed rounded, worn out rounded. Not made that way-rounded.

That is what got me thinking about the value of sleeving.Why would anyone ever spend so much money to sleeve such a visibly worn out gun? As I ponder this I actually come up with a few answers of my own- 1- greed. 2- maybe it was sleeved 30 years ago. 3- Maybe it was someone's granddad's gun.Maybe the society can come up with more answers.

I suspect, but am just guessing, that sleeving was developed to repair older guns which had badly pitted bores due to corosive primers. Perhaps when it was resleaved, non-corrosive primers were the standard, there for most of the wear you see on the gun is just from use. Some wear prior to the update, then more after. perhaps after the bore work, someone else owned/inherited the gun, and simply didn't take that good of care of it. Maybe someone put steel shot down it and really scored the barrels...

You may be right. Also, the Brits love to hone the crap out of their barrels. Maybe sleeving is necessitated by over-honing.

Anyone else have an idea.

Also, I still wonder... does sleeving raise or lower a guns value? Or do sleeves just restore the value of an otherwise good gun?

comparatively, sleeving may be more expensive now than when it was done on this gun. To get a good quailty to best grade gun would be more expensive than resleeving. Prior to mass produced stamped and forged guns, you had to pay a factory full of gunsmiths to actuallly make you a new gun, so repairs made sense?? (ie the people who work at the factories were not machine operators..)

sorta like putting a new transmission in your five and a half year old car.. sucks if you have to do it, but another carpayment would keep you from getting that next shotgun!

....well, having personally bought lots of guns that were out of proof, and not even sold as proper guns in the English auctions, but rather as the "stock, action and forend of a Chas Hellis boxlock ejector" (for example), the auction house would throw in the barrels after the sale, and my gunsmith would sleeve them, which means they actually do flat out cut off the old barrels, and weld on new ones (he got his bbl. tubes from Italy), then off to the Birmingham proof house, and you then have a nice old gun that you bought real cheap, with brand new barrels, and like somebody posted, many many times, this process left no seam line, and was blued over. It actually detracts from the value of the gun, as most guys want it original. But for a shooter, it is just fine, and the modern metal actually makes the old gun BETTER than it ever was. A "sleeved" Purdey will bring a few thousand less than an original one. A sleeved boxlock non-ejector will bring a couple hundred less than an original one. (I'm talking British guns here). The other option, which costs 3-4 times more than the sleeving, is to actually rebarrel the gun. With sleeving, you keep the lumps, flats, breech face, ejectors, and chambers (and even forend lump) etc etc of the original piece. With rebarreling, ALL of the barrel is new, including the aforementioned parts (maybe they'd salvage the ejection system). These are your only 2 options if you want to rescue a beautiful vintage English shotgun with dangerously thin barrels.

britgun

Thanks Duncan.

I understand a little better. I am really not into british guns because they are so cost prohibitive. . But I have the Brit setter and the Brit Land Rover (such an electrical nightnare- they really do live up to their reputations). It just seems ...required, that I get a Brit gun. I'm looking at a little Clark n Sons sixteenie boxlock. 6 lbs. on the noze. Stick your finger out and I'll balance that gun on your finger right at the hinge pin.

Hey, want to hear a Brit car joke... How come the brirish drink warm beer? Lucas makes their refrigerators!!

Member Joined: 08 Nov 2005 Posts: 3439 Location: Illinois

PGG---Hope your shoulders are wide --noboby else at the moment to make fun of Wink

First off Labs are THE only dog AND I still don't get the english joke?????

damm hoa, even if I hadn't grown up in England, I'd a got the joke. Lucas did much of th electronics(wirering harness's) on brit cars back in the " day" and was famous for a lack of well, reliablity. hard start, no start, in rain, winter, the queen passing gas, whatever.

thuddddddddddd

Go ahead. I can take it.

hoa, ment to add your are spot on about th labs, though my dad, who I was visiting in the hospital last night(prostrate cancer surgery) thought that maybe the pointer might be the way for him to go this time. couple of weeks ago we shot some preserve chuckar with my labs and my buddies spinoni's. dad allowed he liked the dogs waiting for him to get up and shoot, but he said they be butt ugly dogs, and he could't let himself be seen with a dog that you couldn't tell if it was walking forward or backwards.
so he' s thinking english pointer or gsp.