Risque007

I have a Winchester 1300 shotgun with a wayyy too long barrel for SD (I believe it's in the 28-32 in. range; hard to maneuver in-home) and I want to cut it down to around 18.5 - 20 in. What is the safest way to do this, both legally and technically? What kinds of tools will I need?

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A man without a blackthorn stick is a man without an expedient. - Irish Proverb

Why so SERIOUS?

pgrass101

I would see if I could buy a factory shorter barrel first

Then you have Hunting and a HD barrels. I did this with my Mossberg.

I would check Cabelhas website and see if the have one. You can probably find one cheaper some where else but that would be a good place to start

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Noli nothis permittere te terere

I am waiting on my personal bailout!!!

randytulsa2

Yeah, I've got to agree with pgrass101 here.

I sawed off a barrel once (still legal length) with a hacksaw. It was a very bad idea.

On a related note, I had a barrel blow up on me (right behind the muzzle) when I was in college (a buddy's reloads). I took it to a machine shop, where they cut it off at 18 1/2", and and then they used some sort of a polisher or grinder to smooth the cut, both inside and outside the barrel.

Oh yeah. It was my Dad's Remington 870 that he got for his 18th birthday.

Surprisingly, he wasn't mad and still has the shotgun- with the short barrel, which keeps he and Ma company at night, next to their bed.

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"...bad decisions that turn out well often make heroes."


Gary D. Mitchell, A Sniper's Journey: The Truth About the Man and the Rifle, P. 103, NAL Caliber books, 2006, 1st Ed.

frostyeyes

Risque007: What kind of barrel is on your 1300?? Choke etc???
I have a 1300 Defender and have been looking for a long barrel for it maybe if you can find a used short barrel I can buy it and we can swap??? I would like a Full choke or interchangable choke tubes.
Thanks Tom

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Gun Control: What a long strange trip it's been

Rob72

http://www.brownells.com/aspx/ns/sto...N+BARREL+FACER

Hacksaw with .25" extra length, then use the facing cutter. Works beautifully. Mic your barrel for the appropriate pilot.




Or buy or trade with someone.

GlockinItUp

I've cut quite a few barrels off in the gunshop that I work in and we use a hacksaw and the exact same barrel facer that Rob posted from Brownells. This combination works beautifully, and you can either re-finish it or use a little perma-blue to finish it off. Just make very sure that you don't cut it shorter that the legal limit in your area.

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Gun control is hitting what you aim at...

Gun Loving Liveral

A winchester 1300 is too nice a gun to saw on, IMHO. I would also try to buy or swap for a shorter barrell.
Back in '89 I successfully sawed off a shotgun to 19" length using a file (for a good starting mark) and a hacksaw lubricated with wd-40. But that shotgun was an old single shot I got at a gun show for $20! Something I could afford to screw up. Actually my wife bargained the seller down from $25, she is a better wheeler dealer than me.

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In Oklahoma, even we liberals like guns!

STORMVET

Look online for a barrel like you want. I have a 1300 that I use for everything. When I bought it, it had a rifled slug barrel. Like you, I wanted a shorter barrel but without the riflings. I found a new 22" winchoke barrel online and paid around $150.00 for it. Most of the time it hangs in my closet loaded with 00 buckshot for HD. In the spring, I screw a turkey choke in and wow will that thing flatten a turkey. During deer season, I have a choice, rifled barrel or smoothbore with buckshot. My 1300 also came drilled and tapped for a scope and I've been known to mount a red dot on top to help put those slugs in a nice tight group. I can't believe I'm going to say this but I like my 1300 better than my 870. One more thing, the 1300 will hold 4+1 3 inchers and the 870 will only hold 3+1 3 inchers. I got off the subject a bit, but hope this helps. I wouldn't saw that barrel !

frostyeyes

Darn my 1300 holds 8 + 1

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Gun Control: What a long strange trip it's been

Harold Green

Back in my misspent youth (early ‘70s), a buddy and I sawed off several 12-gage pumps for his boss. My buddy worked at a combination gun store and pawnshop, and his boss wanted to have some “riot guns” on display for sale. He asked my buddy and me if we could take a few of his field guns and shorten them up a bit. We did, using ordinary hand tools.

Before any of you become too critical of us doing this, I should mention we kept them long enough to be legal and we did a good job on them.

Here’s the step by step for any of you who are interested.

Take the barrel off the gun and run a piece of masking tape along the top of the barrel ‘round about where you want to cut it off. Measure the length (make sure you get it long enough to be legal, plus a little) and mark your measurement on the tape.

Put the barrel back on the gun for a bit. Take some monofilament fishing line and pull it around the front bead. Pull both ends back to the receiver. Pull them tight across the center of the top of the receiver where your eye looks when you aim the gun. Use a center punch to punch the spot between the fishing line strands where you want the front bead to end up on the shortened barrel.

Wrap more masking tape around the barrel where you marked it for length. Take a square and continue the mark you made for the length measurement so it goes all the way around the barrel. This is where you’re going to cut.

Lock the barrel in a padded vice.

Use a hacksaw with a new fine-tooth blade and start cutting on your mark. Once the notch you’re cutting in the barrel gets about a quarter-inch long, rotate the barrel a little, and follow your mark around the barrel. Don’t cut all the way through the barrel, but follow the mark around the barrel until you’ve grooved it all the way around. This will help you to make a square cut.

Now that you have the barrel grooved all the way around, cut the groove progressively deeper until you cut all the way through.

Lock the barrel in the padded vise pointing straight up with enough barrel sticking out so you can get your square on it. Use a fine-tooth, flat file to file the end of the barrel smooth and square. Check the muzzle with the square every few file strokes to make sure you’re filing square to the barrel. Check this from several points around the barrel.

Once you get the muzzle filed smooth and square, remove the tape and use the file to lightly and carefully dress any burrs on the outside of the muzzle.

Use a sharp pocketknife to dress any burrs on the inside of the barrel. Yes, a sharp pocketknife will cut the steel in a typical shotgun barrel.

Take the bead out of the piece of barrel you cut off. Some are pressed in and some are threaded. You might have to pick up a small drill and/or tap to fit the bead at your local industrial supply shop.

Drill, and if needed tap, and new hole for the front bead in the place where you center punched using the fishing line. Press or thread in the bead.

Touch up the muzzle with some cold blue.

This worked well way back when, and I would imagine it will still work just fine, if you do your part carefully.

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"A gentleman will seldom, if ever, need a pistol. However, if he does, he needs it very badly!" -- Sir Winston Churchill

"He who goes unarmed in paradise had better be sure that is where he is." -- James Thurber