Heya guys. I've been lurking here for a while and I wanted to share some pics of my 981t. I got it nearly two years ago, and from the factory the barrel was fuggered. The crown was drilled at an angle, and there were tool chatter marks in the last few inches of the rifling. I called Marlin, and a very rude and unhelpful lady told me the turnaround would be months. So I chose the next most logical option; i took a hacksaw to the barrel. lol
Anyways that's how it all started and I've ended up with a pretty fun and accurate rifle. Here's how it looked before I modded it..
So I hacked the barrel off...it measures >16" even if measured from the front of the receiver. I measures 16.5" if measured properly from the bolt face.
After I cut it, I had to crown it. I straightened the cut with a file (this was the hardest part by far) and then used sandpaper to polish the muzzle. After that, per Larry Potterfield, I crowned it the a brass wood screw, a drill, and some valve lapping compound. It turned out pretty good I think. It's not target grade but it's 100x better than the crown that came on the rifle.
