External Barrel Taper

[Pagoda113]

I am intrigued by the external barrel taper as found on,eg. Lincoln-Jeffries, the BSA underlever rifles prior to WWII, and the Webley Mk III through to the 1960`s. How was this produced? Was it by forging, cold hammering, or even machining? It is not seen nowadays, presumably being just too expensive to produce. I was told by someone with knowledge of Webley production before last year`s "reorganisation" that to produce the Mk III (in 2005) would require a selling price of over £1000 to make a profit.Since this is a simple design apart from the tapered barrel, would the cost of such a barrel be the significant factor?
Any comments from the experts on this section of the BBS?

[Garvin]

Interesting question, I'm sure the experts will help. To split hairs () the Mk3 Supertarget had a tapered barrel right into the mid-70s.

[I. J.]

Interesting question, I'm sure the experts will help. To split hairs () the Mk3 Supertarget had a tapered barrel right into the mid-70s.

Wow! Thats some length of barrel.

ATB
Ian

[pennineway.fswo]

On rifles with an obvious taper on the barrel, such as the Mk111 Webley, I would guess that the barrel was machined from a tapered forging (short length of forged round bar) to reduce machining wastage.
However there are air rifles with a very slight taper to the O/D. The Cadet Major for example has a taper of about 1mm along its length and may well have been machined from a parallel forged bar.

BSA Rimfire .22 target rifles (for prone position) using the Martini action had very pronounced tapers to the barrels which probably reduced barrel vibration without adding too much muzzle weight.

I have just built up a Webley Mk111 and with the exception of the trigger guard, just about every part is machined from solid. They would definitely be very expensive to make today even with our advanced machining methods.
What also added significantly to the cost of the Mk111 were the high number of visual and dimensional inspections carried out during the various stages of manufacture.
Manufacturers did not have recognised Quality Management Systems in place and relied heavily on Quality Control (stage and final inspections) to ensure a good product.
john

[Garvin]

Wow! Thats some length of barrel.

ATB
Ian

Ho ho ho.

Not up to your usual high standards Ian.

[CRX]

I am intrigued by the external barrel taper as found on,eg. Lincoln-Jeffries, the BSA underlever rifles prior to WWII, and the Webley Mk III through to the 1960`s. How was this produced? Was it by forging, cold hammering, or even machining? It is not seen nowadays, presumably being just too expensive to produce. I was told by someone with knowledge of Webley production before last year`s "reorganisation" that to produce the Mk III (in 2005) would require a selling price of over £1000 to make a profit.Since this is a simple design apart from the tapered barrel, would the cost of such a barrel be the significant factor?
Any comments from the experts on this section of the BBS?

Absolutely no problem whatsoever in turning an external taper, nor has there been in the 45 years that I have been in engineering. On modern CNC machinery, it would be costed just by the length of travel the same as if it was a straight turn.
The only problem with it is, the hourly rate of the companies that do this type of work is more geared towards industry rather than the hobby market, where the cost is more realistic.
However Chinese manufacturers today could make them for a fraction of our cost, with their advanced machinery and lower labour rates unfortunately.