Shotgun Barrels
Making a pair of best London shotgun barrels is about more than filing to within a few hundred thou’ of tolerance; it is about tailoring and enhancing how the whole gun feels and handles in the field.
Bill Blacker & Sons provide a truly bespoke barrel making service. Every element and detail of the barrels is made entirely to your personal specifications and preferences.
Whether side-by-side or over-and-under, we can make top quality London chopper lump barrels in any bore from .410 to 4-bore at approximately a third of the cost of going direct to a London gunmaker.
The weight of shotgun barrels and its distribution affect the balance and handling of the finished gun. By adjusting weight forwards towards the muzzle or back towards the breech it is possible to achieve significant differences in the handling and feel. When top flight game shots refer to fast guns, what they mean is that some of the barrel weight has been eased back to the breech end in order to shift the point of balance towards the action.
Side-by-Side Shotgun Barrels
Bill Blacker & Sons provide a bespoke side-by-side barrel making service, with every element and detail of the barrels made entirely to your personal specifications and preferences.
Over-and-Under Shotgun Barrels
Bill Blacker & Sons provide a bespoke over-and-under barrel making service, with every element and detail of the barrels made entirely to your personal specifications and preferences.
Shotgun Barrel Regulating
Shotgun regulation is about minutely adjusting the two barrels to ensure that they shoot to the same point of aim at a given distance. In providing a wholly bespoke service, Bill Blacker & Sons will regulate barrels to shoot at the distance you specify depending on the intended quarry.
As well as regulating all new shotgun barrels, Bill Blacker & Sons can regulate old shotgun to enhance their accuracy and performance.
Regulation takes place at the range using a bench and vice, a regulating jig that fits over the barrels with hex head bolts in multiple positions to allow for minute adjustment, and a chronograph to measure the individual velocity of each shot. Other essential equipment includes binding wire, aluminium wedges, measuring tools, pliers, rosin flux, tin wire, a cleaning brush and gas bottle and lighter for heat.
Usually around 60 to 80 cartridges are required for regulation, carefully selected to match the barrel and intended quarry, and it needs to be from a single batch to minimise variation. Minute changes at the barrel end make a big difference at the target end; a thou’ of adjustment at the muzzle can create an inch of movement on the target.
With the barrels set in the jig, the muzzle ends are heated up to a point where the solder holding the barrels together begins to melt and the barrels can be independently moved in small movements of about .0010" at a time to obtain the correct point of aim. While precise measurements are taken and used at every step, the process also draws on many years’ experience and knowledge to feel the impact of adjustments when easing barrels into their optimal positions for accuracy. Regulation is an art as well as a science.
