Watch: Homemade Barrel Rifling Machine

So you want to cut rifling into a gun barrel at home, eh? Well, fear not. This fellow shows how he created a homemade machine to accomplish that, using common parts including Sawzall blades, an electric drill, and bearings and housing from a bicycle sprocket, among other things. Oh, and some rolling papers.

The drill is used to force the cutting tool through the barrel, using a simple twist rate guide that is much easier to make than you might assume. The bicycle parts allow the drill rod to turn at a different rate of speed than the guide. And bits of Sawzall blade are used to do the actual cutting. The cigarette papers are used as shims to control the depth of each cut.

The work looks tedious (and I’m sure it is), but the end result is sure going to beat a smoothbore. And he says the rifling process took only 30 minutes!

Not bad, Mr. Westwood. Not bad at all.

Russ Chastain

Editor & Contributing Writer Russ Chastain is a lifelong hunter and shooter who has spent his life learning about hunting, shooting, guns, ammunition, gunsmithing, reloading, and bullet casting. He started toting his own gun in the woods at age nine and he's pursued deer with rifles since 1982, so his hunting knowledge has been growing for more than three and a half decades. His desire and ability to share this knowledge with others has also grown, and Russ has been professionally writing and editing original hunting & shooting content since 1998. Russ Chastain has a passion for sharing accurate, honest, interesting hunting & shooting knowledge and stories with people of all skill levels.