Oftentimes you'll find that a rifle barrel is simply too long, for one reason or another. Perhaps it's an older model with a 26-inch barrel that makes it hard to carry. Or, maybe you're trying to make the rifle balance better. There are many reasons why someone would want to shorten their barrel. Most of the time, this requires the services of a gunsmith. However, there are tools out there designed for gunsmiths that are cheap enough to justify the cost of doing it yourself. The Brownells muzzle facing cutter and chamfer cutter set is one such tool. For around $150.00, you can buy everything you need  to trim that extra long muzzle down to a sportier length, except for a hack saw. We decided to try this tool out and see how it performed.

Our test rifle was a new Ruger Model 77 MK II rifle in 30-06 caliber. It originally came with a 22-inch barrel and we decided that a 19-inch barrel, combined with a shorter stock, would make a nice, compact rifle that could be carried all day and shot by women, giving it better balance. As a caution, there are state and federal laws regarding how short you can make a rifle barrel.  You typically don't have to worry about anything greater than 18 inches. However, before starting such a project, make sure you check out all laws applicable to you in your area.

We purchased a .30 caliber set from Brownells in addition to a hack saw with a  fine, new blade. The hack saw is used to make the initial cut and the cutters to trim and square the cut and re-crown the barrel. We measured 2.8 inches from the muzzle and marked the location for our first cut. We wrapped some masking tape on both sides of the mark to help us keep the cut as square as possible. The more careful you are here, the less cutting the cutter will have to do and the longer it will last. We used 2.8 inches for our mark assuming that the final trim would use up the rest of the distance, for a total cut of approximately 3 inches off the barrel to meet our desired length. We also sunk a clean patch about 5 inches into the muzzle before starting to catch any shavings. This patch is slowly pushed out from the breech end after you are done.

Once cut, clean out any burrs and then proceeded to use the facing cutter tool to final cut and finish the barrel. Sliding the pilot rod in the barrel, we carefully, and with constant pressure, trimmed slowly away at the metal until we had a perfectly square and clean cut at the muzzle. The tool was sharp and effective and made the cutting easy. We were quite pleased with how easily we were able to get such a clean cut. We then switched the facing cutter for the chamfering cutter and reinserted the pilot into the bore and cut a short chamfer into the bore. This process was quite fast and we found we had to be quite careful to not over cut. The idea here is to provide a clean exit for the bullet and to protect the edges of the rifling from damage. Use plenty of oil to lubricate the cutting edges and keep the metal shavings from embedding both when trimming and crowning the muzzle. We found that knife sharpening oil worked very well.

Any small chatter marks that remain can be cleaned up with a fine piece of Crocus Cloth, some oil and finger pressure.

All in all, this was an amazingly simple process and we were quite impressed with the quality of the tools. We took the scrap piece of barrel, put it in a vice and sawed and cleaned it up with the tools four more times just to see how the tool would wear over time. After using the tools five times, they remained sharp and quite usable.