Cost to rebarrel a P08?

[XTR]

What's the cost to rebarrel a P08 if one up that was in bad condition that they wanted to turn into a shooter?

Figure rebarrel at minimum, refinish as an option?

[sheepherder]

Originally Posted by XTR

What's the cost to rebarrel a P08 if one up that was in bad condition that they wanted to turn into a shooter?

Figure rebarrel at minimum, refinish as an option?

Are you supplying the barrel??? Is it a quality replica??? Will it require timing and/or headspacing??? Will it require chambering??? Is it 7.65mm or 9mm??? Is it a 'pull' from an original P08 (best!)???

Several here do barrel replacements; G.T., Eugene, LugerDoc...

To do it properly would require your sending the entire cannon assembly for fitting...If the barrel flange needs 'thinning' to time it, then a corresponding amount needs to be removed from the breech face...And the chamber needs to be deepened the same amount...All else being equal...

BTW: 4" barrel??? 5" Navy??? 8" artillery???

I did an artillery barrel swap for a 'friend' several years ago...He supplied a Sarco reproduction artillery barrel...Nice looking barrel...Needed a 'tweak' to time it, which meant breech face shaving and chamber reaming...Plus the engine turning of the barrel flange...And checking the breechblock clearance and the headspace...It ended up being more than he was willing to pay...Over a hundred...And that was back when I was being generous...

OTOH, I swapped barrels on a 1937 Luger with a 4" barrel for a member of our gun club; he paid $90 for the 'new' barrel from GB and it screwed right in, no fitting necessary. I charged him $20...

You pays you money and you takes you chances...

************************************************************************ ********

Welcome to LugerForum!!!

[G.T.]

Hi to all, sheepherder has it about right... You can either buy an original 1945 take off, or armorers spare and have a good chance of a nice replacement and everything clocking up well... Or, you can try a post war replacement of questionable quality, and pay the machinist for his time... AND, still not end up with a satisfactory attempt... An excellent original, or even an excellent correct new barrel is going to run you $150.00 on average.. to take the old one off, and put the new one on, another $100.00 ... If you want to take the plunge, I'm your huckleberry........ But, as stated above, there are plenty of qualified forum members to handle this task... Let me know, and as always, best to you, til..lat'r...GT

[raygun]

all makes perfect sense. Its a shame when people get cranky about paying qualified tradesmen with specialised tooling for their time and effort. if your luger is not a collectors piece and has a stuffed barrel then it is just scrap. $200. bucks to fit a new barrel and breath new life into it is good value.

I suppose the question has been asked numerous times but I've been missing in action for a while.
Is there any such thing as a reliable source for good quality replacement barrels of various lengths?

[XTR]

I'm learning about the options for these pistols.

I've had custom work done on 1911s in the past and I shoot long range F class. I darned near have a standing back order with Kreiger for blanks. I'm familiar with rebarreling rifles, but I don't know the options for doing so with a P08. It seems to me to be a good option. I didn't know that there was an inventory of period replacement barrels out there. That seems like a good plan.

[raygun]

yeah sure is a pity we can't change the barrel on a Luger as easily as you can on a 1911 or most browning pattern autos! LOL

[G.T.]

Hi XTR, yes, there are a sprinkling of as new original barrels on the market.. and they are made very well as you would expect.. So, barrel availability is really not yet an issue..
The real problem with Luger barrel replacement is usually encountered with the very nice units.. where a mark or scratch is a definite bad deal... The tapered barrels are sometimes hard to hold, and the receivers are victim to even the slightest miss-step or ill fitting wrench... I enjoy the challenge.. but even I have some reservations when all is on the line... ... but curiosity and ignorance drive me forward... and, I'll get it figured out, if there is indeed, a way to do so..... ... best to you, til...lat'r....GT

[Green57]

XTR, I had the barrel for my Navy style shooter replaced by G.T. with a Navy barrel from the Luger man, AKA Eugene. I bought the barrel as a set along with his reproduction rear toggle.

The barrel was made by Green Mountain for Eugene, so I am sure it is made from quality steel. There are two features on the barrel that Green Mountain did not get correct however.

The flange on the barrel is to thin and had a rounded profile which I have had to file to the proper shape. after some file work it has the sharp edge again but it is still to thin, and that can not be fixed. The other incorrect feature is the contour of the muzzle. It has a flat profile instead of the shallow convex radius a normal P08 barrel should have. I think this can be fixed with some more careful file work, but again, its something I would rather not do if I didn't have to.

I thought about a Lothar barrel but it was 100 dollars more than the barrel from Eugene, and did not have the chamber cut. I'm not sure what it costs to have a 9mm chamber cut, but it was an expense I didn't want to pay and a job that I didn't have the ability to do. A good thing about the Green Mountain barrel was it was already short cambered. I finished reamed the chamber in my M1A so I figured I could do this one also. There is a company that rents finish reamers so this is my next step for the project. If you guys are interested I can start a new thread on this project, I've taken a few pictures along the way.

Hope this information helps.

G57

[sheepherder]

Originally Posted by Green57

I'm not sure what it costs to have a 9mm chamber cut, but it was an expense I didn't want to pay and a job that I didn't have the ability to do.

I think most who work on these charge by the hour. Clymer used to have detailed instructions on their site, but not anymore (corporate takeover). Basically, you run your lathe as slow as possible, feed the reamer in 1/32" at a time, lube with sulphur based cutting oil every cut, and blow out the chips every cut. I use a free-floating reamer holder, and my reamers are solid pilot finish chambering reamers.

There is a company that rents finish reamers so this is my next step for the project. If you guys are interested I can start a new thread on this project, I've taken a few pictures along the way.

There are at least two companies who rent reamers; they're linked in other threads on this forum.

I'd enjoy reading another thread on chambering, thread cutting, tapering, crowning, pretty much anything you do on a Luger/Mauser/Lahti/Nambu barrel. I just enjoy machining.

[XTR]

I know that to chamber and mount/headspace a blank on a Remington 700 is $125 to about $250 depending on who and where. Those blanks have to be threaded to fit the action. I doubt that the price would be too different for a Luger barrel.

Thanks for the feedback on this. My first one will be intended to be a shooter, this discussion has definitely helped me understand some of the things I'd need to address.

My best shot is probably still a pistol with a good barrel that someone has refinished. I just haven't seen one come up for sale anywhere yet that the seller wasn't asking about 2x what it should really go for. I'm patient. I waited a yr and a half to find the 40X 22lr that I wanted at a price I wanted to pay.

[sheepherder]

Originally Posted by XTR

I know that to chamber and mount/headspace a blank on a Remington 700 is $125 to about $250 depending on who and where.

A rifle barrel is a whole different story. You need a lathe with a bed long enough to take the barrel and the tailstock, plus the reamer and a reamer extension. Some lathes are big enough to let the barrel fit inside the headstock spindle, but those are big bucks lathes.

Those blanks have to be threaded to fit the action.

Pretty much all blanks have to be threaded. Only exceptions I can think of offhand are .22 barrels and the AK style of barrel, which is pressed in the trunnion. I used a 20 ton hydraulic press on the last AK I built. It was still kind of hairy, watching the dial keep going up and up into the teens and the barrel stub not moving... It finally gave with a 'bang' and we all jumped a foot in the air...

[XTR]

sheephearder, what I meant was that the smith has to thread the blank, they don't come that way. There are some companies out there that sell prefits, esp. for Savage actions with the barrel nut. I didn't mean to imply that they were fitted any other way.

[sheepherder]

If you're still interested in a barrel, there's an armorers replacement, listed as never used, WW II vintage, on GB...

http://www.gunbroker.com/Auction/Vie...Item=385587768

Four hours to go...Kind of steep, but if unused and bore is mint, it's the way to go...

(I believe the seller is a member here)

[ithacaartist]

For the project of spiffing up my lesser '06 AE 7.65, I bought the 6" barrel for it from another (very appreciated) forum member for a C-note. Its chamber end was appropriate to the pistol's new model, short frame, and was an unmarked P.08 style taper/configuration, made in the 70s(?). I had it modified by a local machinist, finished it up myself, then let G.T. use it to "cut his teeth on"--one of the first few, in the days before head-space gauges in .30 Luger were part of his tooling. Clocking and head-space worked out just fine, so no chamber or other work to do, and when the upper returned from Az., the pistol was assembled into what is now my favorite shooter, which functions and feels great!

Anyway, it can be done, theoretically, for around $200. As I see it, the variables include the initial price of the barrel, whether you have the old barrel to offset cost by trading it in, old barrel already removed or needing removal, and some luck, though in many cases not so much. In addition, if building or working on a shooter, it's all in the LOVE, anyway--well, I might stop short if confronted by the specteres of starvation or homelessness.... And you're going to wind up with a really cool pistol!

[sheepherder]

I got my monthly issue of 'Shotgun News' today, took a quick look through it...Their resident gunsmith, Reid Coffield, has an ongoing article on converting a No 5 Enfield carbine to .223 Remington caliber. I got a chuckle out of a pic, showing Coffield's barrel vise in the background...

I'm not criticizing...It beats what I've used in the past...

[John Sabato]

Rich, that isn't a barrel vise! It's a machinist's/gunsmith's "work" holder!