I have an older H&R single shot 12 gauge made in 1940. The barrel is not usable. I was thinking of turning it into a muzzle loader. The factory can not fit a barrel to any gun made before 1980. It is one on the older ones that had nice color cased receivers.

Is there anyone out there that makes barrels for them? Any other suggestions for the receiver? Thanks.

Here is a picture of my 28 gauge that I grew up hunting with. It was me and my brothers first gun. Shot a ton of squirrels with it and a few grouse, rabbits etc.

Woody, what is the issue with the existing barrel?

There is a fellow in Pendleton Oregon who has done numerous rebarrel jobs on H&R single shots, but he utilizes the existing barrels breech areas as a "stub". His name is Wayne York.

He has done work for myself and a friend or two, but be cautious if you go with him. He has a volatile personality and can be extremely insulting and angry if he makes a mistake.

He rebarreled a Marlin 336 to .25-35 for me, and did an incredibly nice job....except he made the barrel 19" long, not 22". Might not seem like much, but it sure a heck was not what I ordered. When I pointed that out accused me of trying to run a scam on him? When I requested that we start over and that I was willing to foot part of the bill (after all, it was on the work order, and so not my mistake), he kicked me out of his shop and tore up my check!

So I have a wonderfully made free barrel that is too short, and the whole project has left me bewildered and unhappy.

Other than that, he does nice work.

Otony

I wish I had some first hand experience with gunsmith David White but I don't yet. I'm planning to have him work on an H&R 357 rifle of my sons in the near future. You might talk to him about your project.

http://www.dandtcustomgunworks.com/index.html

Go over to the Doublegunshop.com discussion board and ask about having a barrel sleeved. They'll know who is doing such work currently. This assumes the breech end of the barrel and the lug are still usable, although not necessarily the chamber, as it will be drilled out for the sleeved barrel to be fitted.

What really got me thinking of the project was the last issue of Double Gun Journal. Ross Seyfried had an article about a paradox barrel he made for an NEF single shot shotgun. Got me thinking of using this one I have for a muzzle loader project. I found a few places that have nice stock sets I could put on the receiver.

The problem with my barrel is the headspacing. So I'm not sure it it can be sleeved.

I have an H&R Topper that is currently a .45-70. It was built by a retired police officer who worked with my brother. His name (now passed on) was Ted Buck so the rifle is called, of course, the "Buck Forty Five".

He cut the original barrel off at the lug and sweated in a turned stub of an octogon barrel blank then reamed the chamber, fiddled with the extractor, etc.

I really like that 28ga.!

When it is sleeved, they can extend the breech face back I believe, which should correct headspace issues.

Otony

I thought there were issues with doing so on the older frames (making ot a rifle that is).

I would think Black powder would be low enough pressure to be safe with the old frame. I have a traditions inline muzzle loader that looks similar to an old single shot shotgun. Has en external hammer and all. Sound like you'll end up with a similar but better looking setup.

The 12 gauge frame I have is just like the 28 I posted. Made same year 1940. I thought I would drop it off at Turnbull's and have the frame redone.

Last weekend at a gun show, I saw two H&R "Handy Guns" that had been sleeved and turned into nifty single-shot pistols. One was a .22 Hornet and the other a .32-20. Nicely dovetailed sights, but I'll bet a scope mount would also be easy.

Almost made me bust out crying all over again - I have an almost pristine .410 Handy Gun that belonged to my deputy sheriff uncle. He had it welded shut when he retired. If not for that, I could have had it converted, or just registered it as it is for $5. Now it's a "non-gun", and it would take a Class 3 manufacturer's license to make it functional again.

a