3 ms·
The best rifle barrels are probably hammer forged, and indeed that requires $$$ machinery and tooling, but I'm under the impression that button rifled barrels a
by hga 11y ago
The best rifle barrels are probably hammer forged, and indeed that requires $$$ machinery and tooling, but I'm under the impression that button rifled barrels aren't that hard to make.
But certainly a lot more than AR-15 pattern lower receivers, which are not highly stressed by firing (here's a 3D printed plastic AR-10 pattern lower receiver! http://3dprint.com/54163/printedfirearm-ar10-piece/ http://3dprint.com/54163/printedfirearm-ar10-piece/), you need good steel, a big lathe at minimum and I'm pretty sure heat treating is a good idea.
Any proposal to serialize barrels would be shot down, so to speak, in the US now and for the foreseeable future.
- Animats 11y agoIn Germany, serial numbers are stamped on frame, slide, and barrel. Glock puts serial numbers on barrels. Browning does on some models.
- hga 11y agoCertainly, for manufacturing purposes, you frequently want to do that, especially for guns like the Glock where all three of those are relatively easily swapped. But making it a legal requirement would be another thing altogether; heck, in the US gun serial numbers preceded legal requirements by more than a century, it's only been required since 1968 as far as I know. Hmmm, there's also the other sort of legal requirement, dealing with lawsuits. Glock doesn't want to have liability for a FrankenGlock kaboom....
- Zancarius 11y agoKind of off-topic, but one avenue where serial numbers stamped on all major bits have been useful is to collectors. I've seen a few that Forgotten Weapons covered that went for a pretty penny at auction because everything had matching serial numbers... But that's a really good point about liability since there's so many after-market replacement barrels for Glocks. Heck, I've been tempted at times to get one just for the standard rifling (and I don't shoot lead).