Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Custom Rifles & Wildcats Rifle barrels built from truck axels....

Someone remind me of the name of the custom rifle builder who is said to have made his barrels from old truck axels....
Years ago I had a Mauser he built. It was modified to chamber and fire 223 Remington. Heavy target barrel. It was a work of art. Sold it in a weak moment...

Peterson Rifle Ranch, Riverhurst Saskatchewan. Barrels made from model T axels, left hand twist. I’ve owned one in 22-250.

Axels? Rose Rifel Company?

This gunsmith was around in the ‘60’s….

I think a lot of makers back in the day loved the quality of steel in truck axles...a steel very like 4130. There were quite a few examples around here where I live. One in particular springs to mind, it was on a 1917 Enfield action, well modified....the original exterior of the axle was never touched (induction hardened) and the center of the boreline was noticeably off center on the muzzle...a rather sad looking thing, no cosmetic work done at all on the whole rifle...but, unfortunately for the rest of us, it did shoot. The day Dan Parkin and the truck axle put me and my 40X in 300 yd benchrest to shame...Dan also shot a range record...never beaten to this day. Dan was the second owner and he thought Apex was the company that long hole drilled and rifled the barrel. It was in the .308 Norma Mag....thought by most at the time to be incapable of fine accuracy.

Shooters have a bit in common with street racers, they will bring a sleeper to a match.

P.O.Ackley did that same thing with axels. Its in this book.

https://ackleyimproved.com/

Peterson did, and so did some others. Ron Smith made a good shooting barrel from a piece of rebar, just for fun. I don't recall the caliber. GD

If it's the one I'm thinking of it was for 22 rimfire benchrest.

Probably. Ron shoots single shot (schutzen) matches and they have a BR class. GD

I'd not heard of the "axle" application in barrel making. It's great what may be "adapted to work" from one role to another. Yet quite another for "optimal" precepts. Torsional forces may, in both steel composition and in such as heat treating, be considerably different that gun barrel forces to be reckoned. Barrels, which are on the one hand "pressure vessels" and on the other hand, require wear/corrosion resistance characteristics. Both values as 'similar, but not'!

I'm supposing that the adaptation of axles would mandate a removal of tempering via "annealing", all necessary machining steps performed and a recalibrated tempering process. There are a lot of considerations even in "optimal" as the definition as some sort of more toward absolute value as government specs or in more practical consumer terms of balancing with price point.
I've appreciated this 'vista' of some barrel making materials application I'd not heard! Innovative and the ever ultimate "utilitarian measure". "If it works, it's good!"
Best!
John

Metal is metal, but i hated making horseshoes from rebar...

Iskra, I attended a few 'seminars' (4 hour infomercials, lol) on heavy truck axles...back in the day when a truck axle was considered a prime candidate for a rifle barrel...Foote Axle was a big aftermarket supplier, and as it was sold to us, the mechanics, they explained that OEM axles were improperly hardened which caused all the failures...and there were many failures. Foote claimed they used the best Xrayed 4130, drop forged the axle blank, machined it in soft form, and then induction hardened the axle. The hardening only affected the outer skin, maybe 3/16 deep, leaving a relatively soft, ductile, extremely resilient core. They said the same principle as applied in folded steel knives and swords. How much was sales hype, of course I have no clue...but in my own experiences with truck axles in the lathe, the outer layer will destroy a carbide tool in 20 minutes, and once through the outer layer, it machines beautifully with HSS. That may be why the truck axle barrels I have seen were, in the raw.

Didn't know actual axels were ever used lol.


I've heard guys refer to 1.250 "straight" contours as axels.

Bill Sukalle is probably who you are talking about. Fairly well known in the 40’s, 50’s timeframe and made some of his early barrels from Model T axles. I believe he was in Arizona.

That’s him!!! Now that I’ve got the name I can look for his rifles. Thanks for helping my memory…

They weren't. Axels are in ice skating. Axles are in trucks.