Rebarreling and Home-Shop Machining

The barrel required a clearance cut behind the front bushing area, which is made by turning the barrel diameter down, to give the gun clearance for cycling. The frame also required two milling cuts to modify it for use with a fully ramped barrel. Additionally the barrel was short chambered so that you could finish it to a length to fit your brass. I also fit the slide to the frame for a no play fit. I carefully fit the barrel hood to the frame using the milling machine and some hand work, I fit the locking lugs to the frame by scraping and stoning. I turned a close fitting oversize bushing using the lathe, followed by hand fitting by scraping and stoning.

To turn the barrel down for the clearance cut it must be held on center and rotated somehow. I made an expanding Mandrel to hold the breech end. Index the chuck and stock to a specific position. Turn the end of the stock to a light drag fit in the chamber. Drill the end and partially tap it with a tapered plug tap for a set screw. Slot the end with a Hacksaw. Install in the breech and tighten the setscrew. The mandrel will be wedged in place. This hold is sufficiently strong to grip the barrel for turning. Now turn a shouldered piece to fit in the muzzle end. I used brass. Turn the necked down part for a light drag fit in the muzzle. Part the piece off. Reverse it in the chuck and drill a center. It helps to have a true running chuck (four-jaw) for this. Install in the muzzle. The barrel can now be installed between the chuck used to turn the breech end mandrel and a dead center. The clearance cut can now be cut.

Photo 8 shows the milled slot for the feed ramp compared to an unmodified Colt frame on the left. The frame at the very front of this slot needs to be moved back a bit. I did this by making a long endmill out of an old drill.  See the Colt Officers ACP Recoil lug topic for tips to mill clearance for the ramp.

The gun shoots about a 3/4 inch or less 5 shot groups from the bench at 25 yards with my .45 Super handload. The gun also easily shoots a perfect score on our Texas handgun carry liscense 50 shot course of fire.