Colt Lightning / Taurus Thunderbolt Rebarrel

[rbertalotto]

I figured it all out. I forgot that I have an "Imperial" lead screw on my lathe (as most lathes in North America do) and therefore you need to leave the half nuts engaged. You can't use the thread indicator like you can when cutting Imperial threads........Hey, it's been a while!

I'm starting another thread on rebarreling this Taurus Thunderbolt. But here are a few preview pictures of what the factory barrel's chamber was like.....No wonder this thing had huge blowback. The chamber is huge. This is the reason no rifle back in the day were chambered for 45LC as they simply won't feed well without an oversized chamber. The 38-40 and 44-40 with their bottleneck design are much better at feeding.

Talk about unsupported case! If this was a 1911 with a feed ramp like this, it would be criminal...


Here is a 45LC case wrapped with electrical tape:


It fit in the chamber with room to spare:


The barrel was glued in with some type of "pipe dope"...

[rbertalotto]

Look what came in the mail today......

A nice new Green Mountain barrel in 38-40.





Tore the Taurus Thunderbolt apart and hopefully I'll have the barrel on by this weekend.

[rbertalotto]

Sorry I kinda brought you folks into the middle of this rebarrel...........

Let's review...

I bought this rifle about a year ago for CAS. It is currently in 45LC.......Terrible blow-by with this cartridge. In fact, at CAS velocities and pressures, it is unusable!

My favorite cartridge is the 38-40....so a rebarrel is in order.

As you saw above, I got the rifle apart and my Green Mountain octagon barrel has arrived.

But I'd never cut Metric threads on my lathe so I needed to turn a "Practice Tenon".........It was very easy! I converted my lathe to DC drive a few years ago and being able to increase or decrease RPM with the simple turn of a knob is fantastic. Nice and slow cutting the thread, and peddle to the metal to get the carrage back to take another pass...Nice!

The test tenon came out great:




Here is what the factory barrel looked like:

The threads are actually tapered......Nasty work!

And here we are with the receiver installed:


I rented a piloted reamer with various pilots and that will be here Tuesday so the project will wait until next week to finish

Stay Tuned!

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[Pettifogger]

Lookin good!

[Slamfire]

So are you say'n folks with .45lc's ( taurus thunderer), should use "2" wraps of tape, on ea round,,,???  I can see from your pictures that your work is "top rail". I appreciate all the stuff you and the other fine craftsmen share with the rest of us,, ya"ll keep it up.
                   The remark about the tape,this is the kind of fix congress would use.

         


  Hootmix.

[rbertalotto]

Actually, if it would feed properly, that might not be a bad idea!

[Slamfire]

rbertaltto, i take it from your pics., the barrel is run home before you can cut the notch for the extractor, is that done in the breech or do you have to take the barrel back out ?







 Hootmix

[rbertalotto]

The barrel will need to be removed to cut the slot. And at the same time the loading ramp will need to be cut.

[Slamfire]

 I'm hooked ,,keep it (pics.,) comin'n ,if you don't mind the questions.









  Hootmix.

[rbertalotto]

Last night I got the barrel threaded, chamber cut and all the other little things that needed to be done to mount the barrel.





I will need to do a bit of polishing and then blue it.



Still need to cut the dovetail for the magazine hanger, but I decided to cut the barrel back to 22" and make it a bit lighter at the muzzle.



But with this very nice muzzle band, I was able to load some dummy rounds and test for function. Works perfectly! And I didn't have to cut a ridiculous loading ramp like the factory barrel has. The bottle necked 38-40 cartridges slide right in. Nice!

More to come..........

[Rowdy Fulcher]

Howdy
Looks like you are going to have a first rate rifle now . I think a 44wcf would be a nice rifle to have also . I have a green mt barrel on a Marlin , I replaced the 45-70 with a 40-65 barrel . The 40-65 is a real sweetheart to shoot . Can't wait to read about how it shoots , I'm guessing it will be a tack driver .

[rbertalotto]

I'm hoping so! Stay Tuned.............I should have it "shootable" tonight for "Field Trials" tomorrow!

[Slamfire]

I know this is your party but," i am excited,,,, for you, man i just know this is the way for me to have me a 44/40" " push- pull".






  Hootmix.

[rbertalotto]

Got it all done but the polish and blueing!

Here is what the chamber finally ended up. Notice there is no way near the feed ramp that the 45LC barrel had:


I decided to cut another 2" off the barrel bringing it to 24"


Crowning:


And a 45 degree  on the edge:


Next was cutting the dovetail. I "hog" them out with the milling machine and finish cut by hand:

[rbertalotto]

And here is the finished (almost) product:










Tomorrow we go a shoot'n then we pull it apart again, polish the barrel and rust blue it........

Stay tuned for a range report

[rbertalotto]

FINISHED!

Before I tore it back down to blue the barrel, I took it to the range with some smokeless and some BP loads. Worked perfectly! Only had a couple failure to feeds as the action is still very tight and needs a bit of stoning and polishing. But after 50 rounds it was loosening up and there were no failure to feed or other issues for the second 50 rounds. No blowback now. Brass comes out nice and clean with just a small bit of powder residue on the neck. (The 45LC cases came out totally black!)

Although I simply mounted the sights and did not sight it in in any way, it was right on at 50 yds hitting an 8" steel gong 10 for 10. Simply luck that those sights were right on.

I got back home and gave the barrel and magazine tube a light bead blast and cold blued them for now. At some point I want to rust blue these components, although friend at the range think I should antique it......We'll see.

[cal44walker]

Sweet. I'm still waiting for my Pedersoli Lightning to turn up. The threading on that factory barrel is attrocious... Nice work on the replacement.

cal44walker

[Slamfire]

 "Man-o-man" thats 'nice",,thanks for inviti'n us along for the ride.







 Hootmix.