Barrel interchangeability

birdawg · Post by **birdawg** » Mon Aug 24, 2009 9:56 am

Can someone give me a rundown of what it takes to use Sterlingworth extractor barrels on a graded ejector fame?
I know this has been discussed several times but I can't find it on the site or in the archives. Thanks

Twice Barrel · Post by **Twice Barrel** » Mon Aug 24, 2009 11:23 am

I have a set of 16 gauge Sterlingworth barrels that are interchageable between the Sterlingworth action and my 16 gauge AE grade. The extractors work just fine on the AE.

Silvers · Post by **Silvers** » Mon Aug 24, 2009 12:46 pm

Twice, how do the extractors work? The projecting "tit" on the front of the frame, above the knuckle, is machined differently on extractor and ejector frames. Silvers

Twice Barrel · Post by **Twice Barrel** » Mon Aug 24, 2009 1:48 pm

The "tit" as you refer to it is shorter on the ejector frame but just long enough to catch the extractor "tails" and raise the shells out of the chambers the same way shells that have not been fried are lifted out of the chambers if the ejectors have not been activated.

bbman3 · Post by **bbman3** » Mon Aug 24, 2009 2:31 pm

Jess,You can put sterlingworth extractor barrels on a grade ejector frame but if you want to use your ejector graded forend you need to get the forend hanger on barrels changed to graded. Of course you will have to use split ejectors to have ejector gun. You could convert graded forend to sterlingworth but you will need the piece that fits in front of iron like the sterlingworth and drill hole in front of forend for the little roller and make new wood forend. I have the roller and new old stock right side spiit ejector but not left. Smallbore split ejector are nearly impossible to find. Sterlingworth and graded ejectors are same. email me at gunscrew@yahooo.com if you have any more questions. Bobby

birdawg · Post by **birdawg** » Mon Aug 24, 2009 2:47 pm

Thanks Bobby and TB

Silvers · Post by **Silvers** » Mon Aug 24, 2009 9:05 pm

Twice, thanks for the reply. Yes I know the "tit" or frame projection is shorter on an ejector frame to provide clearance for the cuts in the longer ejector stems to ride over it.

All these Fox frames were hand machined with some difference in tolerances from frame to frame. Extractor stems vary in length. Most working parts were hand fitted. It sounds like your extractor barrel will work on an ejector frame. Good show! However I'm thinking the extractor rise or stroke is not as long with that setup as when the extractor barrel is on its factory frame. Can you confirm that?

For anyone reading this thread, the extractor/ejector swap question is only one consideration when trying to swap barrels. The odds of one barrel set fitting another frame is very low. Oh it does happen at times, and if it does be sure to go out and buy some Lotto tickets on your lucky day. In the vast majority of cases the barrel will need jointing work to properly put it on the face. Silvers

Twice Barrel · Post by **Twice Barrel** » Mon Aug 24, 2009 9:49 pm

Silvers sorry I don't have the ejector receiver in hand, its being restocked. I do have the ejector barrels and the "notch" that is engaged by the "tit" to cause the extractors to raise the shell is exactly the same length of the tail on the extractors on the non ejector barrels so I am sure that the ejectors will raise the shell to the height. (wow that sounds like the script for a porno movie).

Finding interchangeable barrels is not as uncommon as one might imagine. In addition to this particular set of Sterlingworth barrels fitting the 1935 vintage AE receiver it also fits a 1923 vintage Sterlingworth receiver.

Silvers · Post by **Silvers** » Mon Aug 24, 2009 9:57 pm

Twice, wow one set of Fox barrels fits three frames! If that happened to me I'd sell the farm and put the bucks on the longest shot pony I could find

The knotch in the ejectors may be in the same place +/- as the length of the extractor stem, but I'm thinking with a longer projection on the frame the stroke of the extractor should be longer. Silvers

birdawg · Post by **birdawg** » Mon Aug 24, 2009 10:01 pm

TB,
Does the fore arm fit on those interchangable barrels?

mike campbell · Post by **mike campbell** » Mon Aug 24, 2009 11:02 pm

It's one thing for a set of barrels to "fit" on another frame, it's quite another for them to properly function there. Unless someone has taken the trouble to smoke the hook & pin, the barrel faces , the bolting slot, and the barrel flats, then fired 100 rounds and found they have 90% contact in the first 3 cases and zero contact between the flats and watertable without ever using a file....I'm skeptical.

A properly fit set of barrels should show no increase in tolerances after tens of thousands of rounds. An improperly fit set, much less a zero-fit set, will probably go off face inside one thousand rounds.

To answer the original question; it's likely a set of barrels from one fame can be made to fit another.

It's very unlikely that one set can be properly joined to two different frames.

Twice Barrel · Post by **Twice Barrel** » Tue Aug 25, 2009 1:24 am

birdawg wrote:TB,
Does the fore arm fit on those interchangable barrels?

The snap on Sterlingworth forearms are interchangeable the graded forearm of course is not.

Twice Barrel · Post by **Twice Barrel** » Tue Aug 25, 2009 1:35 am

[quote="mike campbell"]It's one thing for a set of barrels to "fit" on another frame, it's quite another for them to properly function there. Unless someone has taken the trouble to smoke the hook & pin, the barrel faces , the bolting slot, and the barrel flats, then fired 100 rounds and found they have 90% contact in the first 3 cases and zero contact between the flats and watertable without ever using a file....I'm skeptical.

/quote]

Mike I was skeptical also but they all mount and maintain what appears to be constant tolerances right down to the angle that the top lever sits. But it really doesn't matter because although the barrels will interchange I have no reason to change them as they are complete guns and it is a lot easier to pick up the gun with the barrel length and choke combination I intend to shoot than screw around switching barrels.

mike campbell · Post by **mike campbell** » Tue Aug 25, 2009 7:41 am

I know just what you mean. I couldn't believe my good luck years ago when I found the barrels from my newly acquired 16ga SW project gun went on my 20ga...closed with a click, lever right, even the barrel faces matched the profile of the breech balls. Only thing was, I had to use the 16 forend with the 16 barrels on the 20 frame. I went so far as to make a matching forend for the 16 barrels and had myself a 2-barrel set. I disaassembled and reassembled that set a hundred times before I got the nerve to shoot it. Then, after a few hundred rounds at clay targets with the 16 barrels the lever had moved all the way to the left. Good news was, they went back on the original 16 frame, good as new....no harm done to either gun.

In hindsight, I should have been suspicious because the 20ga barrels would not go on the 16 frame as easily. It was obvious they were not "interchangeable" so the fit couldn't be right. Since then I've learned a bit more about proper jointing and how unlikely it is that a set of barrels could just fall into a frame with only a few thousandths clearance at several critical points.

MARSHFELLOW · Post by **MARSHFELLOW** » Tue Aug 25, 2009 10:00 am

......very good info Mike.....makes a ton of sense!!

tjw