I have a 12 guage side by side double barreled shotgun which i want to make into a sawn-off, does anyone know of any sites that can help me or have any information on how I can do this so maximum power is maintained in a compact size?

����Well...
����If you're going to saw off your shotgun legally you must keep the barrel length over 18.5" inches. There is a minimum overall length for the gun as well, but this escapes me at the moment. Somehow I don't think that's going to be a very big concern for you.
����In any event, sawing off a shotgun is very easy compared to sawing off a rifle. The only main concerns are sawing the barrel off straight and not angling the tip and keeping the metal cool as you cut it so the steel does not anneal (soften). Any old cutting tool will do, from a hacksaw to an angle grinder, as long as you don't let the barrel get too hot in the process. Once you have the rough cut made, simply smooth off the muzzle with a medium and then fine tooth round file and you're all set.

~Zero

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There is a minimum overall length for the gun as well, but this escapes me at the moment.

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He's from england, i know you have to keep the overall length around 26-27" here in the united states.

Some side by side shotguns are worth some $$$ espically over and unders. I would look into the value of the shotgun before i started cutting into it.

much appreciated Zero the Inestimable

Zero, how hot is to hot? boiling water, burnt flesh or glowing?

����Glowing. This is only an issue with powered cutting tools like bandsaws and abrasive cut-off disks. Most steel compositions will not have their hardness affected in a meaningful manner until they get to the point of glowing slightly. If you do manage to get it that hot you can just dip it in a bucket of cold water, which will re-harden it. It may, however, make it too hard. I don't know what sort of steel is used for shotgun barrels or its hardness properties, so I cannot say if it will shatter if you harden it too much. Better safe than sorry, in any event.

~Zero

Zero, wouldn't quenching the steel make the steel softer, as the molecules wouldn't have time to form a proper crystalin structure? I'm pretty sure that if you want to make a steel hard, you would let it cool as slowly as possible.

to cut it use a cutoff disc and a rotozip or dremel. just cut slowly

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Originally posted by HailHound:
Zero, wouldn't quenching the steel make the steel softer, as the molecules wouldn't have time to form a proper crystalin structure? I'm pretty sure that if you want to make a steel hard, you would let it cool as slowly as possible.

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You have it backwards.

Cooling metal quickly is tempering. Which hardens the metal making it more resistant to wear but also makes it brittle.

Annealing is when you cool it slowly. It makes the metal softer and easier to machine.

Somewhere in between the 2 is a happy medium. If something's too hard, it will break from sudden impacts. If it's too soft, it will wear out or get deformed easily. An example is knife blades. A hard one will be hard to sharpen and hold an edge for a long time. If it gets stuck, twists, or hits something hard(like cutting a wire) it will develop knicks in the cutting edge or break. If it's soft, it will be easy to sharpen and hold up to abuse without breaking as easily. The downside is that you will end up sharpening it alot more often.

so, esentuly if you take your time and dont use a torch, you'll be fine

I'd probably avoid using a dremel too. They might not make enough heat to really hurt anything, but you never know.

����Close. Heating and then cooling the steel quickly is quenching. This, for the most part, makes the steel about as hard as it's going to get. "Tempering" is the process or first quenching the steel and then heating it back up in a controlled manner to soften it slightly. This lands its hardness somewhere in the middle of the two extremes, depending on how long and to what temperature you heated it the second time.
����As a useless sidenote, you can soften steel by heating it to glowing and slowly reducing its temperature - usually over a time of about half an hour. This process is called "annealing".
����Metal shop dismissed...

~Zero

u can't legal own a sawnoff in the UK, full length barrel or nothing.

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. This is only an issue with powered cutting tools like bandsaws and abrasive cut-off disks

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Using a bandsaw or some type of metal-shop cutting tool usually requires that you oil the piece first, to prevent it from heating too much. However, with a gun barrel, I couldn't tell you if oiling it would be a good or bad idea. I'd assume a bad idea if oil got inside the barrel. However, if you could keep the oil from inside the barrel, I'm sure you shouldn't have too much of a problem.

And then again, you could always clean the thing.

����A little oil in the barrel, especially with a shotgun, will be no problem at all. The oil will be long gone as soon as you fire the gun the first time after cutting it down.
����There are such things as barrel swabs, as well...

~Zero