Good evening folks.  I was writing to ask if anyone here has ever pulled the barrel from a High Standard HDM 22 handgun?

I am wanting to F1 a suppressor to convert mine to the HDMS model that was like the originals.  I have many of the specs to lathe the barrel down to and thread specs and such, but in order to do that, I'd need to pull the barrel.

Obviously, there's not much on the internet concerning this task on this particular model.  Later variants had QD barrels, but I'm assuming this one is pressed in.  From every schematic that I have seen, it doesn't appear to have threads on the portion inside of the receiver.  Just the taper pin.

Anyway, I was wondering if my assumption is correct and if it's a press fit, and if so, just how tight is it?  And to ask for any suggestions and tips from anyone that has removed one before.

I don't mind soaking it in kroil overnight (or several days) if necessary.  The gun has been taken very good care of externally and despite being ~70+ years old, there's on rust on it anywhere, but I'm sure the barrel has never been removed and I don't know what kind of mess may be hidden.

Looks like you push the pin in the receiver ring out and work it out.

Thank you for the reply and the schematic.  

I didn't notice any threads drawn in the barrel.  I just wonder how tight the "press fit" is.

Not sure how tight the shank fits, but would guess pretty darn tight. You said that the condition of the gun was near mint? If so I would suggest you not alter it. There are plenty of dogs out there and the good ones go for good money now.

It's in pretty good condition.  

90%+ blue and the wood has some really small dings in the checkering grooves.  Very minor though.   Some blueing wear around the muzzle.  3 specks of surface rust on the right rear side (*which I already went over and removed with some hoppes and fine steel wool).

Matching numbers.

Other than the mag spring being a little mushy and adjusting the top of the mag to hold the cartridge a little better, it seems like a good little gun.  

After replacing the springs and shooting it again once wolff gets them to me, if it's reliable, I'd like to make the suppressor for it.  

I've built several historical suppressors over the years and this one is calling me to do the same.  

Besides, Gary Powers was born in the next county over from me and there is a lot of local pride in that too.  

I understand the desire to keep it original.  If I didn't think I could do a good job making the suppressor and keeping it historically correct, I wouldn't even consider the project.

I'm just going to take it slow.  May even make a jig for the receiver or a drive pin from brass that I could push the barrel out with.

This is the only thing I could find on the internet pertaining to removing the old barrel and the good stuff starting at post #6.  https://www.thefirearmsforum.com/threads/hd-military-barrel-removal.60231/

Can you post a picture of the gun?

I don't think I've seen one like yours.

It's just like this one.

Nice looking gun.

Once you remove the pin, the barrel will come out without too much trouble.  It is a very tight fit, but not a "press" fit.  

JT

Thanks for the replies guys.

JT, that's pretty much exactly what I had in mind doing with the OSS style suppressor, other than I was going to use some different baffles because I don't want to jump through the hoops to make a silencer that's only going to last about 200 shots before needing recored (wire screen needing replaced).

I'm hoping wolff gunsprings sends out the replacement pack that I ordered back on new years eve because I had planned to re-spring the whole gun and check for reliability and accuracy and such before submitting the F1 because I want to make sure the gun doesn't have any hidden issues first.   I also ordered the +P magazine spring.  I think that was largely the issue when I first took it out because it was pretty mushy and wasn't keeping up with the slide and was sluggish.  But, I'm not totally surprised being a 70+ year old gun.

Thanks for letting me know that it's not a press fit like an AK or several other kind of guns.  I was concerned about that.

Interesting project.

I have an old sport king that I intend to use as a suppressor host, but obviously no historical neatness in doing so.

I do need to find a way to move the front sight back to the barrel block so that I can cut down and thread the barrel.

Cool project. My dad is doing this exact build at the moment. He's waiting on his ATF paperwork now. I believe he said there was a pin and the barrel was pretty easy to knock out. There wasn't as much of an interference fit as he anticipated.

I have a Sport King and a Supermatic Citation myself. The Citation is one of my favorite guns to shoot. It's the ideal gun for teaching new shooters on.

I have not been able to get the barrel loose on mine.

I have let it sit in a deep freezer overnight to let the metal shrink.

I have let it sit in KROIL for 5 hours.

I have tried to use a pipe wrench to kind of twist the barrel to see if I could get break it loose.

The last time after soaking in kroil, I put the barrel in a vise with the frame down, and hit the trigger guard with a rubber mallet 50 times in a row and mine has not budged.

My lathe is one of the smaller hobby lathes and I cannot turn down and thread the barrel unless it's removed.  So, my project is at a standstill.

I'll try to talk to my Dad about it this weekend and see if he has any tips for getting it out.

That would be great.  Thank you.

I talked to my dad about this issue this morning. He confirmed that it is not threaded into the receiver. It's mostly a press fit, but shouldn't need heat/ice to shrink or swell anything in order for it to be reassembled. After removing the pin, he said he used a brass rivet in the chamber side. Then used a hammer and punch to drive the barrel out of the receiver. He said the biggest issue was holding it in a vice and preventing it from moving. He said he clamped the receiver in the vice with leather between the firearm and the jaws pointed muzzle down. He then situated the receiver so that the trigger guard was making contact with the lower portion of the vice. He had some kind of hard rubber bushing set between the frame and the vice to prevent it from trying to move. Removing the hammer, grips and slide stop will give more room to then get a punch behind the barrel to drive it out. He said he used a box with a bunch of rags beneath it under the vice to catch the barrel when it popped out.

I read on another forum post where someone was doing this task, he said he used a large wooden dowel thru the trigger guard to twist the barrel about a 1/4 inch to break the friction of steel parts that have been mated for 70 years. This would be the only benefit of putting the barrel in the vice. He said you should take a photo of where the extractor claw fits into the barrel. My dad did not use this technique, so I'd be careful if you attempt that. Most of these HD models don't have a perfect fit and will be biased one way or another. You'll want to install the barrel back the same way it was. Then realize the pin for the barrel is mostly for timing and indexing the barrel to the frame.

https://www.thefirearmsforum.com/threads/hd-military-barrel-removal.60231/

I built an HDMS replica about 12 years ago.  Don't remember how we got the barrel out but don't remember it being difficult.  Arms Tech put out a book detailing the engineering drawings reverse engineered from a real HDMS.  Not sure how available that book is these days.

I wanted mine as close to the real thing as possible so we went with bronze wire donuts and wire screen wrap.  It isn't the quietest design but it has the interesting effect of completely eliminating FRP.  I don't know how many rounds I have through mine but it has been way more than 200 and it still works just fine.  The bronze wire donuts were kind of a PIA to make so I sucked it up and made two complete sets of them at the time.   I have never tried it but I am sure the wire donuts could be cleaned w ultrasound if you really needed to clean them.

The primary difference between my gun and a real HDMS is that we went with 3 rows of barrel ports rather than the 4 rows of the HDMS.  The original HDMS barrel is like Swiss cheese from the porting, which I think is excessive.

Post war HD Military guns are not all that valuable because they made tons of them.  I ended up with a wartime HD-USA pistol, which was A LOT more expensive but it is as close to original as is possible.  I have had the opportunity to examine and shoot and original HDMS and the serial number on that gun was within 100 digits of the serial number on my gun.  

Thank you for the reply sir, and more historical information.  It is truly appreciated.

I have not been able to remove the barrel.  I stopped short of what I felt was excessive or damaging pressures trying to get the barrel loose.

The only option that I have considered is lathing a groove in the barrel and using it as a fulcrum point.  But, I have not been able to remove the barrel.  It would not budge in any direction whatsoever.

@JohnA4
I think might be down the avenue I had to take for getting my Mauser barrel out (my 45WM integral bolt rifle project).
Heat the whole thing up in the toaster oven ~200F
Get the frame fixed in the vise and hit the barrel w/ a can of dust-off (upside-down).
Put a pipe or monkey wrench on the barrel and see if it'll crack free.

I suspect any marring of the barrel is fine, since you're planning to turn it anyway.

Thank you with the reply buddy.  

I just happen to have a toaster oven on my workbench now anyway since I started powder coating some cast bullets.  It's less than 6 feet away from my vise.

I could try that.  And you're correct that I'm not specifically worried about the finish of the barrel and yes, I would need to turn it down anyway.  

That's why I had considered lathing a groove in it so I could put a wrench around the barrel and smack the wrench with a hammer, using the wrench for the dead blow surface so as to not damage the gun or the barrel.

If you have access to a lathe, chuck the barrel up and set the lathe to slowest speed.  That is by fat the best way to get a really good hold of something round.  Then you can use the pistol grip to torque or twist the frame so get the barrel to turn.  A bit of heat on the portion of the frame holding the barrel in place would also help.  You could maybe give the pistol grip a few smacks with a rubber mallet but that should be done carefully so as not to twist the frame.

If you are going to damage or destroy the barrel, just mill flats into it so can get a wrench onto the flats.  That will be the best way to put any serious torque on the barrel.

I just went and had a look at the original barrel that came out of my pistol and there is only the one cross pin holding it in place.  Otherwise it is just a long straight tang.

This sounds like terrible advice.
I'd only anchor off the frame's trunnion.