# My new gun build "Project - Carny Dog"



## longbow (Mar 31, 2009)

I'll explain the name in a bit. This is going to be a long post, sorry.

I was sitting at my desk, staring at some bear poop outside my window while wondering what my next gun project will be. I've had this bull barrel sitting on my desk for over a year. It's been a great barrel. It was originally a 22-250 and shot really well. But, being an Ackley nut, I set the shoulder/tenon back .004 and chambered it to 22-250 AI. [the neck/shoulder junction on Akleys are generally .004 shorter than their parent case]. It also shot really well. But that wasn't enough so I punched it out to a 22 CHeetah. Now that was fun!! After I roasted the throat in that, I lopped off about 2" and rechambered it to 220 Swift. I thought, "I wonder how many times I can rechamber this before I run out of the minimum 1.055" diameter I need for a tenon?" Hmmmm...
I also wondered if I could chamber it backwards and shoot back through the barrel. Hmmmm... If I did that I wouldn't have enough shoulder for my recoil lug. Hey, I know! I'll do it Savage style with a barrel nut. I have several Savage barrel nuts laying around but they're 20 pitch and my Rem700 is 18 pitch. Hell, I'll just make my own barrel nut!
Before I knew it I was started on my new project. I was going to chamber both ends! I'd imagine somebody, somewhere has done it before but I'd never heard of it.
I thought long and hard about two things, safety and accuracy. Accuracy I didn't care too much about but it had to be safe. How would shooting out through the other chamber effect accuracy? Muzzles are pretty precise. The bullet must clear all the lands and grooves at the same time or it's blown(?) off course. I'll see what happens.
It's all done. I've shot through both chambers and lived through it. I learned a lot and found some pretty surprising things.

When a co-worker came in the shop and ask what I was doing, I told him I'm making a "Carnival Hotdog" barrel. This barrel is just like after I finish a hotdog at the carnival, when I'm done I'll be shooting out of both ends.


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## longbow (Mar 31, 2009)

I chamber barrels through the headstock of my lathe. This barrel would be too short to clamp in my chuck and the spider on the back. Soooo, I made an extension out of a huge bolt they use to anchor beams and pilisters to concrete foundations. I made one end of the bolt a replica of my Rem 700 action and screwed the barrel to that. I also planned on parting that end off later and using it as a thread protector.


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## longbow (Mar 31, 2009)

Here it is mounted in my lathe. I'm getting ready to part it off at the sharpie mark (1.055 dia). This picture shows the spider with the brass screws in the back.


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## longbow (Mar 31, 2009)

Here I'm indicating the barrel's bore. Some gun plumbers indicate on the outside. I'm only concerned about the bore. I have the tip of the rod in about where the copper band is. That's where the throat will be. I adjust that area with my 4-jaw chuck. Then I pull the rod out to the mouth of the bore and adjust the runout with the spider in the back. I keep going back and forth until there is no runout at either location. I want the front and back of my chamber in perfect alignment with the bore. That bullet must be staring straight down the bore.


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## longbow (Mar 31, 2009)

Here I have the tenon threaded Savage style with a bolt recess Remington style.










I also have the barrel nut on the threads. I made the nut out of...what else, an old stainless bolt.
I'm getting ready to chamber it. I use a hand-held reamer wrench and use the tail-stock to push the reamer in. I don't chuck the reamer in the tailstock because I don't trust the quill to be in perfect alignment with the barrel bore. If the quill is off the width of the back of the chamber will be out of spec. This reamer has a pilot that follows the bore.


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## longbow (Mar 31, 2009)

Savage style setups are a pain in the ass to headspace with a Reminton bolt and breachface. I have to set the boltface and tennon clearance to .005 each time I check the progress of my chamber headspace. Then I take it all apart and keep chambering. I probably took it apart and put it back together 20 times. When I get close to the final headspace I try to "sneak up on it." I don't want to go over!










Here it is. Finished at 11 1/4"


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## longbow (Mar 31, 2009)

Here it is with it's "thread protector" installed. I took the thread protector off at the last minute because I wasn't sure what kind of effect an open chamber would have capped off with a 3/8th hole. Would there be some kind of echo, reverberation or pressure build-up??


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## longbow (Mar 31, 2009)

So did it shoot good? HELL NO!!! BUT IT SURE WAS LOUD!!!I'm sure shooting out of the throat of the other chamber had something to do with it. I suspected it would.
I hit the target one time out of five with the first chamber at 100 yards and the bullet went through sideways. I moved up to 40 yards and hit it two more times out of five. Two went through sideways and one was "tipping".


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## longbow (Mar 31, 2009)

So off I hiked for home to swap the barrel around and come back and try the other chamber. Did the other end shoot any better? NOPE!!!
This time I went right to 40 yards and took 10 shots. I only hit it 7 times and all bullets keyholed.


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## longbow (Mar 31, 2009)

With a flashlight, I could see both chambers had three weird carbon bands in them. So after work I mounted the barrel in the lathe and parted one of the chambers off and cut it in half. I have no idea what caused this. An echo? Some kind of reverberation? Did it have something to do with how inaccurate it was?


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## mlob1one (Aug 29, 2014)

Bummer. But an interesting excitement if nothing else. 

Sent from my SM-G935P using Tapatalk


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## longbow (Mar 31, 2009)

Well I ain't done yet!!! While I had the barrel in the lathe with the second chamber now gone, I crowned it into a muzzle. I won't be able to go tomorrow (Tues) but I'll take it to my range on Wednesday and see how it shoots now.


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## Longgun (Sep 7, 2007)

You crazy sob... :grin: 8) :!:

Interesting findings in those three bands buddy. Have you posted this over on LRH yet? I know there's a few guys that could lend a very edgumacated guess to it, and others still that you will NEVER hear the end of "it" from. Lol!


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## longbow (Mar 31, 2009)

Longgun said:


> You crazy sob... :grin: 8) :!:
> 
> Interesting findings in those three bands buddy. Have you posted this over on LRH yet? I know there's a few guys that could lend a very edgumacated guess to it, and others still that you will NEVER hear the end of "it" from. Lol!


I haven't. That's a good idea. I've got a lot of help in the past from Jerry Earl (JECustoms) and a few others. Since I can't go anywhere today and if the internet works for me, I'll do it.


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## KineKilla (Jan 28, 2011)

IF you get it shooting well, what are you going to do with a 10" barreled bolt gun?


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## longbow (Mar 31, 2009)

KineKilla said:


> IF you get it shooting well, what are you going to do with a 10" barreled bolt gun?


Well I don't know. It'll probably end up as a tomato stake...for short tomato plants.  I have another 22-250 barrel for the Rem action. I'll put that one on and that's where it'll stay.


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## KineKilla (Jan 28, 2011)

If it shoots well, it might make for a great "truck gun". Because it is under 16" would the NFA have to issue a tax stamp?


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## 7mm Reloaded (Aug 25, 2015)

Looks kindof like an XP100 on steroids


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## longbow (Mar 31, 2009)

KineKilla said:


> If it shoots well, it might make for a great "truck gun". Because it is under 16" would the NFA have to issue a tax stamp?


I was wondering if that would come up. Yes I would need a stamp. I would also need a NFA manufacturer's licence, which I don't have. Soooo, by all rights, I'm bustin" the law. I'm going up after work and shoot it. By the end of the day the barrel will have the other chamber cut off and the stub of a barrel will be in the scrap bin.

Truck gun? Ha! I don't even own a vehicle. The only vehicles here are a backhoe, a couple 4-wheelers, boats and bushplanes.


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## Longgun (Sep 7, 2007)

Knowing you have mad fab skillz ... remote it to one of your skiffs for "eye to fire" like in those cool Cobra Helo's.... ya know for the errant time you and your bone head buddy decide to leave the big gun CASED in the boat while chasing some silly duck and have a juvie Boar Brownie "stupid on insomnia for his BIG nap" decide to show up and make a scene. :shock:


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## bowgy (Oct 10, 2007)

Pretty amazing. 

Put a pistol grip on it like Thompson Contender.


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## KineKilla (Jan 28, 2011)

Hollow it out and turn it into a .410 scatter gun. You don't need a truck to have a truck gun...an ATV gun or Backhoe gun is just as good.


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## swbuckmaster (Sep 14, 2007)

I wonder if it's so short the bullet can't get enough twists to stabalize. Maybe try a flat base short bullet. 
Wish I had the tools to play around like that

Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk


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## longbow (Mar 31, 2009)

swbuckmaster said:


> I wonder if it's so short the bullet can't get enough twists to stabalize. Maybe try a flat base short bullet.
> Wish I had the tools to play around like that
> 
> Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk


I wondered about that. I use to hunt coyotes with a Rem XP-100 in 22-250 and .308 and they were pretty accurate. I'll find out in a couple hours what lopping one of the chambers off and crowning the end will do. Should be interesting.


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## longbow (Mar 31, 2009)

KineKilla said:


> Hollow it out and turn it into a .410 scatter gun. You don't need a truck to have a truck gun...an ATV gun or Backhoe gun is just as good.


Hmmmm....you got me thinking....I could turn it into a smooth bore. I could give this barrel one last chance at life, maybe. 

I need to wrap this project up pretty quick though. I have start on a 300WM as a parting gift for my soon-to-be-ex father in law. (What a great guy! I'll miss him.)


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## longbow (Mar 31, 2009)

Welp, I'm done! My first shot dented the aluminum shim stock I put in the barrel channel to protect my Tupperware stock from heat. It's super thin and malleable so I wasn't too alarmed.


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## longbow (Mar 31, 2009)

However... my second shot was a wakeup call! That's it, I'm done. I took it back to the shop, yanked the barrel off and cut it in half length-wise.


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## swbuckmaster (Sep 14, 2007)

Lol

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## Longgun (Sep 7, 2007)

:shock: holy chit!! 

With the exit pressures you should have expected that bud! might have tried putting that sucker in a different chassis and lock n load before you gave it the axe but likely for the best anyhow.


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## longbow (Mar 31, 2009)

Longgun said:


> :shock: holy chit!!
> 
> With the exit pressures you should have expected that bud! might have tried putting that sucker in a different chassis and lock n load before you gave it the axe but likely for the best anyhow.


That's one of the things I thought about. I've used my MagnetoSpeed quite a bit and it doesn't show any signs of damage from muzzle blast. Of course it has a v-shaped rib facing the muzzleblast instead of cup-shaped channel.


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## KineKilla (Jan 28, 2011)

Well, you took it right up to the point where experimentation becomes hazardous...that's about all you can do.


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## Trooper (Oct 18, 2007)

Super interesting! Thanks. Anything for science, huh?


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## archerben (Sep 14, 2007)

Cool experiment. This has been a fun read, even if the outcome wasn't as was desired. I can't wait until I've got my shop up and running so I can start playing with cool and fun ideas.


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## Springville Shooter (Oct 15, 2010)

Just a big kid with expensive toys....Totally awesome!----SS


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## longbow (Mar 31, 2009)

Springville Shooter said:


> Just a big kid with expensive toys....Totally awesome!----SS


Guess what I'm starting as soon as I get done with this 300WinMag...a gun for me. A 280 Ackley!! A Rem700 LA with a Bartlein barrel. I'll probably need some pet loads from you. It might take me some time to get it done because rifle deer season starts August 1st and I only have 5 months to fill my tags. Too much pressure. :mrgreen:


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## Springville Shooter (Oct 15, 2010)

Dang it, I was hoping to get in on the action and watch you build that rifle while we were up there hunting this fall. Im still bummed about this year but them's the ropes sometimes. 

My favorite load for the 280AI is 162 A-Max/ELD-X/ELD-M in front of 59.0 grains of RL-22. The match bullets like to be close to the lands and the X's like a .030 jump. This load chronys between 3000-3050 fps out of my 25" Shilen. 

I also worked up a load with the new RL-23 with the same bullets. 57.0 grains shot very accurately at 2950 fps. 

140 Nosler Accubonds shot pretty good in front of 58.0 grains of IMR 4831. Velocity was just shy of 3200 fps. The 60.0 grain load shown in the Nosler manual was hot in my rifle but shot 3250+ fps.

Best-O-Luck with the rifle build as well as this years hunts! ------SS


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## scott_rn (Sep 11, 2007)

I'd like to point out you're working on this in July. July is fer getin' yer feesh! Crazy gun, I can't seem to make time to get back to the reloading bench.


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