ringed barrel?

[smokenrust]

I have heard the term of "ringed barrel", but never seen one till I looked down a Winchester barrel from a model 1890 22SHORT. -- (I think this one was used hard, a 22LR drops in and is very sloppy in there)
Seems like it is 'ringed' circumferently inside at about 5", just about where the rear sight dovetail is at.
What causes it to make this groove or ring in there?
If a person wanted to bore this barrel out could he clean the 'ring' out of it and still be safe or is the metal fatigued there all the way through?
Thanks, SnR

[M. M. Wright]

If the ring is not near the muzzle it may still shoot alright. Probably the only way to fix it is to have the barrel relined. Might not be cost effective though. Unless there is an unsightly bulge on the outside in the area of the makers mark the outside can be fixed too. Still, a lot of money to spend on a .22.

[Mike D.]

Stay away from guns with "ringed" barrels, it is an indicator of the gun being fired with an obstruction in the bore. Bad juju.

[Pisgah]

As already noted, a ringed barrel results from a gun being fired while the bore is obstructed. Frequently, a ring will have no effect on accuracy; rarely, unless the bulging is severe, does it represent any hazard in firing the gun in the future. They seem to be found rather frequently in old .22s, and often you won't even know it's there from how it shoots or any outward appearance.

[JimT]

Most of the time a bore with a ring in it won't hurt accuracy or the gun. It's more common on 22's than you might imagine. I had a .45 Colt New Service with a badly bulged barrel about 3" ahead of the forcing cone. It looked ugly but shot just fine. Eventually I changed it.

Saw a .44 magnum fired at the range one day .. the previous round had stopped in the bore about halfway down the barrel. A full factory load was fired up against it. Made an unsightly egg in the bore but that's all. The gun shot just as accurately as ever.

A friend brought us his Colt Gold Cup 45 ACP ... jammed and unable to open the action. We got it apart with great difficulty. The kids shooting it had a round that misfired and pooped the bullet about 2" into the bore. They fired another and it swelled the barrel bad enough that the slide would not retract.

We got it apart and my dad turned the outside of the barrel down until the gun would work. It would shoot under 2" at 25 yards all day long with whatever loads you wanted to run through it.

A ring in the bore does not denote excessive pressure. It only shows where there was something in the bore that the next shot fired impacted.

[Nath]

I did it to a Remington pump 22 years ago! Darn thing shot much tighter groups after that no kidding!

Nath.

[meanc]

Bought a used Marlin 1894 44mag (1974mfg) for $200 that had a ring about 2 inches ahead of the chamber.

After trying various loads I had it shooting 240gr XTPs @ 1600fps into 2" @ 100yds, which is about all I should expect it to shoot w/o a scope.

So a ring doesn't necessarily mean it's bad. Just take some 22s and see how she prints. You may be surprised. And since a 22short has very little pressure I doubt there will be any danger in shooting it as is.

[J Miller]

smokenrust,

I'd worry more about the worn chamber than the ringed barrel.

Joe

[ollogger]

have a sweet 63 winchester thats ringed, was pretty blue the first time i pushed a patch down the pipe, but soon got over that after shooting at some paper, little bugger does shoot, ive read that too much oil can do that, any truth in that?


ollogger

[M. M. Wright]

Yes!
I ringed the barrel on my Uberti 73 by wiping the barrel with a too wet patch. Probably left a drop of water that put a bad place about half way down the pipe. Doesn't effect accuracy but I can feel it every time I wipe the barrel. Too much oil could do the same thing.
I've seen many barrels that were ringed near the muzzle due to obstructions being there from mud, snow, whatever. These do effect accuracy. I usually just drill them out to the ring and they shoot fine.

[smokenrust]

When you have an obstruction and the projectile does not leave the barrel, what would the prassure spike be in a 22 or 30-30 or other caliber...

[Tycer]

When you have an obstruction and the projectile does not leave the barrel, what would the prassure spike be in a 22 or 30-30 or other caliber...

The pressures are the same for all calibers. Compression goes from zero:1 to infinity:1 or until the obstruction moves or the barrel bursts.

If there was a way to make a strong enough barrel, perhaps the projectile could reverse direction and drive the bolt back into the shooter.

[Mike D.]

Ringed or bulged barrels may, or may not, shoot well, but they are deal killers for me. This problem occurs in a moderate percentage of older .22 rifles and to a lesser degree with larger caliber rifles. The value of the guns having this issue drops by 50-75%., although some creative sellers will still insist on attempting to sweep the problem under the table and full bore the price anyway.

[KCSO]

Curing a ringed barrel, if the action of the rifle is OK is rather costly. Here I put the barrels in a hydraulic press and swedge the bulge back down with a forming die. Then I drill and reline the barrel, unless the gun has a special meaning to you usually the cost is more than a 22 is worth, but i did a Winchester 73 for a fellow and he was plumb tickled to get it shooting again.