JLouis wrote on Feb 18^th, 2021 at 10:31am:


Yes, on his original bore and rifling. But not on someone else's rifling. He'd be trying to rifle it left hand twist over Winchester's right hand twist, and end up not cleaning up all the original .32-40 rifling if he only opened it up to a .33-47 Pope.
So you'd have cross hatch pattern right-left rifling, and likely different twist rates too. I've never heard or read of Pope going over other's rifling and following their right hand twist rate?

JLouis wrote on Feb 18^th, 2021 at 3:12pm:


Yes, but again John, he was freshening HIS rifling to the larger size .33, not changing right hand twist Winchester to left hand twist Pope rifling.
And I'm sure others recut rifling to match existing rifling twist and shape. Just not Pope cutting over Winchester's rifling.
Just not enough material to get the old rifling removed completely and rifle it to .33 caliber if he was going to change to left hand Pope.

JLouis wrote on Feb 18^th, 2021 at 4:26pm:


Since Pope had his rifling machine, and his barrels were coded for the twist rate, he could easily follow his own rifling. 
But the usual old .32-40 bores were drilled around .314" and rifling was .0025 deep. At least that's what was specified. But I've found most old .32-40's to be larger than .319" and often more around .323"-.326" groove. At least none of mine are as small as under .323" for my old singleshots. So I'd guess they'd need to go slightly larger bore just to clean up the remnants of rifling before changing twist rates, or especially before changing direction to left hand twist?
I'm not positive what groove diameter the old gunsmiths used for the old .33-40 and .33-47, but the Hepburn I have in .33-40 is a true .33 at .329" groove. That's cutting things pretty close to remove the original .320"-.323" groove, and be able to get a new rifled bore around .329" groove diameter.

It would be nice if not conclusive if Old-Win slugged his Pope-rifled bore and informed us of its measurements.

Bill Lawrence

On page 12 in his catalog it only states the below.

Recutting to Pope System
I recut rifles of other makers to a larger sizes with the same outfit and guarantees as for a new barrel.

Starting make more sense on recutting a 32-40 to a 33-40 or 33-47. Bore diameter would then be .330 + or - and existing 32-40 rifling would then be completely removed.
Sometimes called the .33-47, this caliber is merely the .32-40 with .338 groove rifling. It was originally made to enable shooters to get a new barrel by just rerifling a worn out or damaged barrel, but there were a number of barrels originally made in this caliber, especially as Stevens-Popes.  It is easy to tell if an original Stevens-Pope barrel has been rerifled by Stevens, as the marking on the underside of the barrel is changed. 

Looking back and now getting allot harder for me to do my Bresien Steven's 33-47 was .338. Action and barrel were both made by Ken and the barrel a left hand twist. 
 
(You need to Login or Register to view media files and links)