Interchangable Barrels on S&W K-Frame

[mnrivrat]

I am about to start on the project of converting a K-frame S&W in .357 mag, to a Dan Wesson style barrel sytem.

Short explaination: Turning down a model 10 barrel and threading the front to accept the barrel nut . Boring a model 66 barrel to make it into a shroud simular to the Dan Wesson system. Thereby creating an interchangable barrel system.

Has anyone here done this ? Comments welcomed .

Asking why, gets a boring lengthy answer - Accept that it is going to happen and tell me why it's not possible , or how it worked out for you .

 

[Oro]

Not going to talk you out of it; sounds like an interesting project. My comment would be that you know they are making them like at the factory now - I'd examine a new one to see just how they are doing it to see if I could learn something.

 

[mnrivrat]

Thanks - I didn't know S&W was doing that . I will see what I can find.

I think it is pretty much straight forward as to the method, but just wanted to know if I missed anything in my original thought process . Any pitfalls so to speak .

 

[Oro]

The models they are doing it on are the L frame 619 and 620 (and the 520 before it was discon.), and also the K frame 64. I don't think it is on the 10 or the 67 yet. But the 64 for sure has had it for several years now on the 64-8 model.

Good luck with this and I look forward to seeing what you learn and how it comes out. I have some experience with Dan Wesson barrels, and with fitting S&W barrels. My thoughts of things to overcome are these:

1) have to notch the frame somewhere and then solder on a centering tab to the barrel shroud so as to locate the barrel shroud properly. This will be a little tricky since there isn't much contact area compared to a Dan Wesson shroud.

2) Need to mill back the muzzle, while not wrecking the front sight. Then shape the nut to integrate with that. Probably mill slots on the nut so it works with the Dan Wesson barrel wrench so as to not have to make a new tool or have a clunky hex nut on the end of the barrel (early DW's had that and people HATED it).

 

[mnrivrat]

OK - I had heard of the two piece barrels on the S&W guns, but did not associate them with being interchangable.

As I reviewed the information on them just now, I was correct in thinking they were not set up to be user changable . Simular , in that they have a shroud and barrel system, but dis-simlular in that they are not user interchangable.

 

[Oro]

No, but the could be interchangeable. My understanding is the word is, all it takes is a proper fixture to remove the nut on the end to remove them. Which is the function I thought you were going for. So they are applicable to what you are trying to do, and I'd just try to take a look at them as another example of a muzzle-tensioned design, and one that is already fit to the K-frame.