A peek inside the S&W 500 barrel shroud.

If you are curious what a S&W 500 with the 8 3/8" factory comp barrel looks like removed and the various parts look inside......


I will post the project pics in the gunsmith section once complete.
The end goal is a 6" barrel S&W 500 with external barrel but / no comp.


More pics at the end of the video link~

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NJnivVRtTHA]S&W 500 Barrel Chop - YouTube[/ame]

OK, now lets see the pics where you mocked up the leftover shroud and barrel bit to the frame for a snubby!

Scott

I don't get it. I must be thick. Why would you do this?

gm272gs said:

I don't get it. I must be thick. Why would you do this?

Click to expand...

I am sure there is a very good reason. But I would like to know that reason also.

That 2 3/8" must have really been getting to you.
Have you ever seen a S&W 500 John Ross?

Easy answer is I want a 6" barrel / no comp gun.
I have a pair of 500's so buying another just for a shorter barrel did not make sense to me because I can make one of mine shorter.

I like the Ross 500 but I want a full under barrel lug and a more cosmetic barrel nut. Mine will likely finish up at 6 1/4".
It's a benefit of being a toolmaker by trade and DIY.

Great Job Cal50!!! Since I only have a hack saw this would be difficult. I prefer the 6" to the 8 3/8 and like my 4" best. I wish I would not have sold my 6". I had spoke to John Ross 2+ yrs ago ( approximately) and I did not want the wait time. I have seen his guns and they are excellent, if I could send mine and get it back in a month, for 200$ I would do it. I thought about one of the 2.5"? survival gun,but I believed that the 2.5 would not stabilize the bullets well enough for me. It would be a "belly gun". So if I had the skill to do this it would already be done!! Be Safe,

srgvaz said:

That 2 3/8" must have really been getting to you.
Have you ever seen a S&W 500 John Ross?

Click to expand...

2 3/8" + comp.
It is a noticeable difference.
Think of the difference in feel and balance of the average K or N frame revolver with the 4" vs 6" barrel then stick the length and weight of a comp on the end. The Ross 500 is a nice compromise and should be a standard offering.

The gun I cut down had a large barrel / cylinder gap. It was right at. 010 while my other 500 is gapped at
. 006 which is fine. I can now reset the gap tighter. That would be impossible without a trip to S&W.

I like his approach and will borrow the external nut feature.

Smith and Wesson 500

Rather than an external nut, you may also want to consider a recessed barrel nut, like I have on my Dan Wesson .357 and .44 revolvers.

I personally think their shroud/barrel design is (was?) pretty cool in that it is very unobtrusive and has very "clean" lines.

Lou

Lou_NC said:

Rather than an external nut, you may also want to consider a recessed barrel nut, like I have on my Dan Wesson .357 and .44 revolvers.

I personally think their shroud/barrel design is (was?) pretty cool in that it is very unobtrusive and has very "clean" lines.

Lou

Click to expand...

I would like to but IMHO there is not enough material there for a recessed nut.

What is that mark behind the compensator/barrel nut thingy? Is it a scratch or a crack?

Must be nice to have those skills. I never cared for comped barrels. The first time you shoot into the wind you will know why.

gm272gs said:

What is that mark behind the compensator/barrel nut thingy? Is it a scratch or a crack?

Click to expand...

Its dirt on the gun before I snapped the pic.
(Just looked at it)

I am not a photographer but stayed at a Holiday Express.....

Time to start machining parts..... Sorry for the crappy cell phone pics.

I put the saw cut barrel shroud in the lathe, set it up with a 4-jaw chuck to face the saw cut end square and parallel to the opposite end of the shroud ( the end that contacts the frame ).

Face off in lathe~




This was a simple and not a hard thing to do. I still need to mill a .250 slot and tap a hole for the new front sight base but that's another day. I put the saw cut barrel in the lathe and faced off the saw cut end. I then cut an 11 degree crown and polished it up so its burr free and nice looking.
Now that the barrel is faced and crowned it needs threads for its new barrel nut. S&W uses a 36 pitch thread in the frame and barrel so I am using the same 36 pitch for the new muzzle nut & OD barrel threads. This is a simple single point thread cutting job. I could not find my favorite flip tip carbide tool so I used my other good threading tool. I cut the threads until I have a sharp "V" thread.


Cutting threads~




Once the barrel threads were finished I looked around for a piece of O-1 tool steel to make a new barrel nut from. I will heat treat the nut and finish it in black Cerrakote or similar when I wrap it up.The only material I had was 1 1/4 diameter so I turned it down to .875 ( the width of the barrel shroud ), drilled and bored the ID to the proper diameter for threading.

Now its single point threading the ID threads~





Once I got close to size I used the barrel I just threaded as a gauge to fit the nut to. This amounts to getting close in size then making .001 diameter passes and test fitting the barrel and nut together. On fine pitch threads .001 a pass does not sound like a lot but it really is.

Test fit~




Once I was satisfied with the proper fit the nut was removed from the lathe chuck. If it did not fit its a pain in rear to try to pick up the thread lead and forget about finding a tap that size...

I wiped down the barrel shroud, screwed the barrel into the frame, slid the shroud on and.....


Nice threads and crown~





Now I screwed on the barrel nut and calling it a night. The nut is WAY long and I will use a groove tool to cut it to the exposed barrel length and have enough left over for a extra. I will need to face the nut to length then mill slots to engage a tool to tighten it ( I have not made it yet ).




I might add a radius to the front under lug on the barrel, undecided now.

Cool pics, I'd love to have that kind of skill.

Very interesting. Thanks for sharing.

Some progress on my project-

My cut down shroud now has no front sight or base. I am using a quick change gunsmith base that requires a .250 slot milled into the shroud and a 6-48 hole drilled and tapped to retain it. First I needed to do a little math and see how high my factory / stock sight was. With the sight blade installed it measures 1.9405 so I want to duplicate this height with my new sight and base. A quick measurement of the base & sight sitting on top of the shroud and subtracting the two gave me a difference of .084 milling depth into the shroud to duplicate the same sight height.

The cut off section measurement- 1.9405



The shroud with new base installed- 1.9410




The difference is .0005 thousandths and I can live with that.

Slot milled / hole tapped-





Tapping the hole straight-





Looks good-

Not that I'd want to do that to a .500 Mag or for that matter, any gun but you do know your way around a machine shop and have the skills to exploit the tools. Don

Very Impressive work

What is the hole on the forward end of the sight mount for?