Custom Cut Down Over and Under Shotgun

I always wanted a cut down over and under shotgun. For the past two decades I’ve been looking for a suitable donor gun, but the relatively high cost of a quality used shotgun has kept me away. Recently I purchased an imported TriStar over and under shotgun and decided this would be the gun to convert.

Before we get to work, let’s take a look at the following disclaimer…

The contents of Rifleshooter.com are produced for informational purposes only and should be performed by competent gunsmiths only. Rifleshooter.com and its authors, do not assume any responsibility, directly or indirectly for the safety of the readers attempting to follow any instructions or perform any of the tasks shown, or the use or misuse of any information contained herein, on this website.

Any modifications made to a firearm should be made by a licensed gunsmith. Failure to do so may void warranties and result in an unsafe firearm and may cause injury or death.

Modifications to a firearm may result in personal injury or death, cause the firearm to not function properly, or malfunction, and cause the firearm to become unsafe.

This is my donor gun, a TriStar Setter imported from Turkey. It came with nicely made walnut stock and 28″ blued steel chrome-lined barrels. I’m fairly certain this is the least expensive over and under shotgun on the market in the USA. For a budget gun, the quality was surprisingly good!

I began by cutting down the barrels. While I cut down a lot of barrels at the shop, I rarely get to cut down an over and under like this, so I was VERY excited for the opportunity. Since this gun has a vent rib, care must be take in selecting where the cut will be made. In this case, I taped the barrels at 18″ and marked the area where I could cut through the rib and it would still be supported when the excess barrel was removed.

I used a square to mark the barrel and cut it with the bandsaw.

There are a number of ways and tools that you can use to face a barrel, if you do quite a few, the fastest is typically a belt grinder. I like to used a fairly coarse belt and light pressure to prevent putting too much heat into the barrel.

This is the front view of the barrels after the first pass on the grinder. With a little more grinding the mid barrel support can be flushed up with the end of the vent rib. Once everything is ground, I’ll follow with a series a stones. This small round stone can be used to effectively de-burr most surfaces.

With the 18″ barrels the gun looks great, however, that stock looks entirely too long.

I marked the stock where I wanted to cut it and headed over to the miter saw to cut it.

I didn’t have a recoil pad in the shop small enough to fit what was left of the stock so I decided to make one from some left over black HDPE. I began by scribing the profile of the stock on the plastic.