Forearm variations

[Breaker]

My guess is that the letters and numbers stamped into the channels of the fore-end wood will tell nothing at all about the barrel that the fore-end was designed to fit. Interchangeability will simply turn out to be about the type of hardware of the fore-end and the diameter of the channel.

[Garnett]

Breaker, what you say could very well be true.  I do not have enough guns nor feed back from readers to make a comfortable statement as to what the numbers really mean.  Thanks for your input.

[Mike Armstrong]

I've found that the 20 guage 28" 220 barrel I have fits my .30-30 receiver and forend fine (it came with no forend).  I'd prefer a shotgun type forend for this, but the thinner "splinter" rifle barrel will work.  This barrel is marked for guage only, no manufacturer name, model, or manufactuing site.  It is clearly a Savage 220 barrel, tho, and I think a Utica made one.

The Utica-made .410 26" barrel that I have came with a shotgun type forend.  I fitted the barrel to the .30-30 receiver easily (few licks with a fine file and some polishing with fine emery paper, plus lotsa grease) but the forend doesn't work unless, as Garnett mentions, you fit it with the metal from the .30-30 forend.  The forend metal it came with is very different from the .30-30's, a later type.

[Garnett]

Sentry, Please forgive me for not getting back sooner with the shotgun forearm information.  I have had a busy Spring.  In comparing Model 220's in 12, 16, 20, 28, .410, and 9 MM R.F. shot, I found the following information.  Again, this is for wood only, the forearm must have the same type attaching metal as originally on the gun.  The 12 and 16 will interchange with acceptable clearance when the 12 is on the 16 barrel.  The 16 on the 12 barrel appears to be ok, maybe a little tight, but could be opened up.  I can't be more specific on this because the attaching metal is different on the two examined.  The 12 and the 16 will fit the 20 barrel with the 12 having excessive space and the 16 being a better fit.  The 20 forearm is to small for the 16 and 12.  The 20 forearm will fit the 28 barrel with some slack.  The 28 forearm will not fit the 20 at all and is to large for the .410.  The .410 forearm will not fit the 28 barrel at all.  The .410 forearm will fit the 9 MM barrel with acceptable slack.  As a comparison, I tried the 219 rifle forearm on the 9 MM and it was way to big.  The 219 forearm will fit the .410 barrel with acceptable slack but is to small for the 28 barrel.  I hope this will help some.  While I have gotten some much appreciated data from some readers, I still have insufficient data to unlock the mystery of the code of letters and numbers (or lack of) stamped inside the forearms.  Best wishes, Garnett

[Sentry44]

Thanks for all that Garnett.  My greatest interest was in solving which shotgun fore ends work with which rifle calibers.  Or really, vice versa, figuring that the shotgun will likely always fit all rifles.

As I said earlier, the 16 ga fore end I have is too big and loose for the .30-30.  And the .30-30 fore end will not close over the 16 ga.  But I have since acquired a 20 ga barrel (without a fore end), and the .30-30 fore end closed perfectly over it.  The 16 ga works too, but it's a bit big.

It's interesting you report a difference between the 16ga fit and the 12ga fit.  I guess I would have figured they were the same outside dimensions...the 12 simply having less meat and more bore.  LOTS of 16's are like this, and I think that's part of what has relegated the 16ga to "near death" in terms of sales.  Seems many manufacturers decided to do either a 12 frame or a 20 frame.  As a result people would often get a 16ga which was HEAVIER than a comparable 12ga, because it was the same frame and barrels just with smaller bores (and therefore more surrounding steel).

In any event, I'm a happy man with 30-30/16ga/20ga.  The only barrels left to fill out my dance card would be a .22 Hornet (which I think is one of the all time great cartridges!).

- Sentry44

[Garnett]

I completely missed your point of rifle to shotgun & vise versa.  I will look into it some more.  Best wishes, Garnett