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Barrel Drilled too Deep - What would happen?

gknaka2
Was practicing my drilling and tapping last night on an old barrel to minimize tap breakage and get the feel of the proper resistance, etc. I have tapped many holes, but usually break a tap every 4th or 5th hole.

Anyway, so I drilled like 10 holes on the top of an old rusty revolver barrel. One of the holes broke through and I got to thinking...what if this happened in real life. Would the gun be safe to fire?
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Comments

7 comments

Date Votes
  • airmung
    A friend of mine lost most of his thumb when a rifle receiver let go. Somebody had previously drilled the scope base mounting screw holes completely through the receiver.
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  • BigLoop22
    Gents,

    I guess the answer depends on if the hole(s) is (are) in high-pressure/ high-stress areas, or did you just "port" a barrel? ...like the ports on so many thousands of guns that have not maimed & killed anyone...

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  • gknaka2
    As I stated, this was done by accident, however you do bring up a good point about porting.

    Porting is not something that should be done at home. The problem is that most presses used to drill said hole leave an exit wound with burrs and excess metal. The bullet hits that and you have problems.
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  • charliemeyer007
    Thanks for training on scrap! I have seen a lot of nice guns trashed by crooked holes. Taps do break but you need to get to one out of 50 or 100. Softer touch, better lube, and perhaps better quality taps could help. Oh and measure twice drill once. I never liked ported guns as I find that they recoil straight back.
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  • perry shooter
    I have a 22 Short Rapid Fire pistol model D.E.S./VO that has 8 holes from factory that are threaded you close all holes and then open one at a time to where the pistol will just function with the ammo you are shooting. The closest one is about 1/2 inch in front of the Chamber. No recoil at all but not fun to shoot in low light.
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  • mrbruce
    gknaka2 if when your tapping a hole you would back off on the tap and clean it with a brush every 2 -3 turns your tap breakage will go to 0...
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  • beantownshootah
    Answer is that its going to depend on where exactly the hole is, but assuming your hole is away from the receiver, and otherwise clean (ie no protruding burrs obstructing the barrel), I doubt you're going to have the gun blow up on firing.

    Pressures go WAY down once the bullet is out of the chamber.

    Not only do people port barrels all the time, but people also cut down barrels.

    But note, that just because a hole won't cause the barrel to rupture, that doesn't mean its "safe".

    Having hot gas and/or burning gunpowder residue being forced out of a hole at high pressure isn't going to be good for anything near that opening, though (including and especially your hand!).
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