Back in the far, far, distant past, when I was a boyscout, at camp we had these neat smoothbore .22 "rifles" and shot "Moskeet" which was a very small clay pigeon with it's own special trap thrower. There were a number of companies that made these smoothbore .22's and in several models. The best one, for my money, was Remington which made a smoothbore version of it's Model 12 pump, and later also the Model 121 pump.
Needless to say, these are not easy to find, but I have found a nice old Model 12 with a bore that is fairly well trashed, so I've decided to make it a smoothbore. Now some of these guns just had a regular .22 bore, and others, at least some Remingtons had what they called a Routledge bore. These were a smooth .22 for the first 8" - 10" or so after the chamber, then they opened up to .375 for the rest of the barrel.
So my question is, how best to do this? Obviously I could use emery paper on a cleaning rod or the like to do the initial smoothing, and then a long drill a little smaller than .375 and then more emery paper spun with a drill. But is there a better machinist tool that would give a smoother initial finish than a drill bit? And that doesn't cost a small fortune?
Needless to say, these are not easy to find, but I have found a nice old Model 12 with a bore that is fairly well trashed, so I've decided to make it a smoothbore. Now some of these guns just had a regular .22 bore, and others, at least some Remingtons had what they called a Routledge bore. These were a smooth .22 for the first 8" - 10" or so after the chamber, then they opened up to .375 for the rest of the barrel.
So my question is, how best to do this? Obviously I could use emery paper on a cleaning rod or the like to do the initial smoothing, and then a long drill a little smaller than .375 and then more emery paper spun with a drill. But is there a better machinist tool that would give a smoother initial finish than a drill bit? And that doesn't cost a small fortune?
