Barrel Liners – Stevens Maynard Jr
I was looking at a couple old Stevens Maynard Jr barrels today.
I could see where rifling used to be in one of the barrels. It was pretty flat, but you could still see the gentle swirl down the barrel if you caught the light just right. Yeah, its going to need to be bored and lined.
The other barrel had already been relined, but not finished. The muzzle had been wiped flat, but not recrowned yet, and when I looked at the other end it looked a little beat up like it had been relined a long time ago. I figured it must have just bounced around somebody’s gun cabinet for a while because, while it appeared to have been chambered, the extractor slot had never been cut out. When I looked down the bore there wasn’t a hint of any rifling. No matter which way I held it to the light as I stared into the bore I couldn’t see even the slightest hint of rifling. My knee jerk reaction is for some stupid @$$ reason somebody drilled out the rifling. Why? To shoot bird shot? In the age of this rifle (1900-1912 best guess) that wouldn’t make sense. People would have shot whatever they were hunting with a regular .22. Of course, in the 112 (+/-?) years since it was made there is no telling what that rifle has gone through. My only thought is to pilot drill out the liner, hope the liner bore isn’t so sloppy that it can’t guide the drill, and reline it again.