Cutting down a barrel on an NHM 91- Gunsmith needed

[Warbird]

Anyone know of a good gunsmith in the middle Tennessee area who can cut down a barrel on an NHM 91? I want to cut it down to 16", crowned and re-threaded it for an AK flash hider. I have no use for a long barreled AK. The Norinco receiver is excellent quality and the heavy barrel in the shorter length is accurate and very stout.

I have called several local smiths and so far none want to mess with removing the parts required to take off and put back. I have several smiths around the country, but don't want to ship it off and pay that cost if not necessary. The only person I know personally locally who I absolutely can do it, has had some health issues and is not doing any gun work at all.

[56FordGuy]

Have you tried Middle Tennessee Gunsmithing? GunTroll (the gunsmith) is a member and a vendor here. He might be able to do it. D&T Arms in Rivergate, Guns and Leather in Greenbriar, and Hero Gear in Winchester also offer gunsmith services, you might check with them also.

[Warbird]

Have you tried Middle Tennessee Gunsmithing? GunTroll (the gunsmith) is a member and a vendor here. He might be able to do it. D&T Arms in Rivergate, Guns and Leather in Greenbriar, and Hero Gear in Winchester also offer gunsmith services, you might check with them also.

Thanks. Yeah Jeff Walle might be able to do it. He isn't in until later in the week. Forgot about GunTroll being a smith. I had forgotten Joe has another smith as well. I will call him tomorrow. If I found somebody had a high quality short barreled AK and wanted to trade for it because they wanted a RPK style gun I might trade, but I don't want to take the time or hassle of trying to find a trade. The Norinco is really a very high quality AK receiver and trigger. Their receivers are 1.5mm in thickness, when most are 1mm. The barrels are chrome lined. It is in like new condition. Honestly it has sat in a safe for the last 15 years. I would prefer a gun that is more suitable for my use. They are accurate and very nice. Mine was made in '92.

[MacGyver]

Joe's rifle guy did a great job on my 700 barrel. Cut it down, threaded it, and made me a thread protector. Looks like it came from the factory that way.

[DMark]

Check with Lebanon Gun Shop.

Lebanon Gun Shop

They now have a fulltime gunsmith in their shop. I stopped by there this past weekend and was impressed with his setup.

[Handsome Rob]

I don't know abouthe re-threading, but I've just dropped off my Lee Enfield at Hero Gear, to have the barrel shortened & re-crowned to 19"

I was quoted 'roughly' $40 & 3 day turnaround.

I have zero experience with anything like this, but it seemed very reasonable to me in both price & timeframe.

[Spiffy]

Just to throw my 2 cents in...... Have you thought about going the pinned flash hider route? The 91 has a heavy barrel and the extra inches might make a difference in weight and feel. I have one too and I have thought about it. Given that with some of the flash hiders out there you could get a pretty short barrel and still be at 16 inches over all.

[Warbird]

Yes I did think about that. At this point the project appears to have stalled. None of the local smiths can mess with it. The difficulty with the front sight base being smaller diameter than the barrel, and the fact that nobody locally has a lathe which can easily handle the work, not to mention all of the work to take the barrel out. They either can't do it or don't want to full with it. No barrel assemblies are currently available, might be able to find a Polytech barrel which would fit.

At this point I either send it off to Fuller and pay a ton, buy a Mak 90 and change out the furniture or trade this gun or one of my M1 Garands for a nice AK. I need a carbine length AK. This configuration does me no good. It is essentially brand new, one mag through it 16 years ago and been in the safe since, Still has the wood dumbhole stock on it.