Deep Hole Drilling for Firearms and Gun Barrels
Gun barrel drilling is the original deep hole drilling application. The process we call gun drilling was developed specifically for drilling straight, small-diameter holes through long steel bars to make rifle and firearm barrels. Despite being over a century old, the fundamentals have not changed much. I have drilled barrels for hunting rifles, competition firearms, and military applications. The requirements vary by application, but the core challenge is always the same: drill a hole that is straight, round, and smooth through a bar that may be 40 to 80 times longer than the hole diameter. At these L/D ratios, the principles of micro-hole deep hole drilling become relevant even though gun barrel bores are larger in absolute terms. ...