Shorting Barrel > Build It Yourself

Posted: 2/24/2005 10:35:37 PM EDT

What all is involved in cutting my 20" to 16" and installing midlength handguards on it? I guess it must be cut and then drill a new gas hole. Also I believe that I would also have to turn down the end of the barrel to tap and install a flash hider. Is this all of what's involved? How much would a gunsmith charge to do this?

Posted: 2/25/2005 4:44:39 AM EDT

[#1]

Great Question. I’d like to hear from someone who has done this. I built an AR pistol with a 10.5 inch barrel that is just too nosing heavy. I’d like to cut it back to 7.5 in but I don’t want to screw up the barrel. I’m worried about gas whole alignment. I guess I could index of the factory hole and drill the new hole before I cut it off. Does anyone have a measurement as to the placement of a gas hole on a 7.5 in barrel?

Posted: 2/25/2005 4:50:22 AM EDT

[#2]

Quoted:
What all is involved in cutting my 20" to 16" and installing midlength handguards on it? I guess it must be cut and then drill a new gas hole. Also I believe that I would also have to turn down the end of the barrel to tap and install a flash hider. Is this all of what's involved? How much would a gunsmith charge to do this?

It can probably be done but would probably be much cheaper to but a 16" midlength barrel.

Posted: 2/25/2005 9:41:15 AM EDT

[#3]

Quoted:
Quoted:
What all is involved in cutting my 20" to 16" and installing midlength handguards on it? I guess it must be cut and then drill a new gas hole. Also I believe that I would also have to turn down the end of the barrel to tap and install a flash hider. Is this all of what's involved? How much would a gunsmith charge to do this?

It can probably be done but would probably be much cheaper to but a 16" midlength barrel.

Much, much cheaper. And more reliable and I'd bet more accurate.

Posted: 2/25/2005 11:43:58 AM EDT

[#4]

Quoted:

...Does anyone have a measurement as to the placement of a gas hole on a 7.5 in barrel?

Approximately 4.5" on mine.

Posted: 2/25/2005 3:00:09 PM EDT

[#5]

Quoted:
What all is involved in cutting my 20" to 16" and installing midlength handguards on it? I guess it must be cut and then drill a new gas hole. Also I believe that I would also have to turn down the end of the barrel to tap and install a flash hider. Is this all of what's involved? How much would a gunsmith charge to do this?

This is not possible without major mods. First of all, the gas block on a 20" barrel sits out farther than a midlength barrel, so this means you have to abondon the existing gas glock and gas port, which means welding it shut. Then you would have to machine a new gas block profile at the midlength position and drill/ream a new gas port of the proper size. I'm hoping this is an HBAR to start, otherwise you would have some weld buildup/machining to do to get the barrel diameter up to 0.750". You can go with a 0.625" gas block profile, but that would mean that your barrel would be 0.625" or smaller from the gas block profile forward, all the way to the muzzle. When this is all said and done, you can thread the end of the barrel for a FS, if you like.

See the pic below. It may help you understand the above description. Basically you want to make the bottom barrel look like the middle barrel.

As a fledgling machinist/welder, this would be alot of work. Kurts Custom gets $225/hour for custom machining/gunsmithing. I wouldn't charge that, but my total fee would likely be that or more.

The path of least resistance and path of guaranteed success for what you want is to buy a midlength barrel, as was mentioned earlier.

Warning

Confirm Action

[ARCHIVED THREAD] - Shorting Barrel

[ARCHIVED THREAD] - Shorting Barrel