How To Vent the R & L Shroud Into the Frame

For those who have purchased one of Randy’s R & L shrouds, you have noticed two things, they are made of very hard steel, and there is no means to vent excess air pressure back into the frame.

I have developed a method using a Dremel tool, a Dremel chain saw sharpening stone, a small rat tail file, and a 1/2 inch drill, with 7/64th inch bit.

Here is how:

These two pictures are of the screw-on connector for Randy’s shroud, that attaches to your barrel. It is a friction fit over the end of the barrel, with an indentation to line up with the front grub screw hole. Like the rear barrel baffle, it is held with two grub screws. The picture below shows the grub screw scratch of the second grub screw. The first grub goes into an indentation in the shroud mount which is just out of sight at the top.

It is important to note the three holes shown here on the inside top of the shroud mount. Be sure your channel is placed opposite of these three holes.

The shroud mount is made of very hard steel. You will have an extremely difficult time trying to drill holes lengthwise in this slender attachment unless you have professional equipment. Most of us don’t.

Here is the first step of the process. Get a Dremel, or Dremel clone, and purchase a pair of Dremel chain saw sharpening stones, as shown mounted, a bit worse for wear, but you get the idea.

Using the Dremel chain saw sharpening stone, carefully on low speed, grind a channel on the inside of the shroud mounting attachment. Do not attempt to modify the outside of the shroud mount in any way.

Go slow, Dremel on low speed, get a shallow “guide channel” cut first. Start at one end, then do the other side, being sure to line it up with the first channel. Pretty easy…IF you take your time. The shroud mount is quite heavy and does not tend to move around while grinding. This really helps. It does get very HOT, so use heavy gloves to hold it. I ground mine with Dremel in left hand, shroud mount in the right hand. It was quite easy to get the channel started and keep it fairly straight.

Before you start, be sure the three holes in the shroud mount are on the opposite side of the channel to be created. The center hole of the three is where your grub screw goes to secure the shroud mount, so this is important to remember.

Drill as deep a channel as your stone allows. Trust me, the stone will wear out before you get too deep. You will end up with a rough channel the length of the inside of the shroud mount that looks like this. It may be a bit rough…don’t worry.

Now you are going to sweat. You obtain a small diameter rat-tail file that is somewhat larger than the channel the Dremel cut. Size isn’t too critical, but it is important that it overlaps the existing channel edges. The rat-tail file is going to get the depth you need, and even up the edges of the channel, and make the channel straight. Remember, the file should be just a bit larger than your Dremel channel. Too large a file and you are going to be filing for a much longer time.

Using the rat-tail file, file horizonally inside the Dremel cut channel, and don’t go extremely fast. Steady and with a good downward pressure, changing from one end to the other on a regular basis, so the channel remains even throughout the shroud mount. This will take about 45 minutes to an hour to complete. What you are doing is finishing the channel so it is a half moon configuration evenly through the length of the shroud mount. Smooth of any rough edges with fine sandpaper. Here’s a look at the finished two ends.

Now you can slide the R & L shroud mount on the barrel. Note the new channel next to the barrel which now allows air to vent back into the frame. It doesn’t seem like much, but under pressure, it proved to be plenty!

Now look at the bottom of your Talon and note the two grubs that hold the shroud mount at the front, and the barrel bushing 3.5 inches distant. It is between these two grub screws that you can drill your vent holes. Remember to allow about a 1/4″ from the grub screw for the barrel baffle inside the frame.

Keep the holes away from the grub screws and locate them more in the middle of the available space.

I drilled one (1) 7/64th” hole in the middle of the 3.5″ available frame space. I then cocked the Talon and fired. The air pressure made no noise coming out of the hole, but was sufficient to blow a kleenex off the frame. I put my hand over the hole and repeated, there was plenty of air pressure coming out.

A word of caution here. A few holes work best. A lot of holes can create such a large release of air that you get a “blast” noise from the vent holes. I suggest no more holes than necessary. That is usually two to four, depending on hole size. 7/64th is a good sized hole and two to three are probably best. This is a case of diminishing returns. More holes won’t necessarily reduce your muzzle blast as much as the first two or three. Moreover, beyond the first two or three holes you will start getting a discharge noise from the vent holes. So be careful. This mod will help reduce noise, but it is limited to how much it can help.

Do you need more than one channel in the shroud mount? Absolutely not! One channel, of this size, provides very adequate back flow and venting. If you decide to get fancy and do two or three channels, reduce the number of vent holes in the frame to avoid over-venting and creating noise or bothersome air blast coming out from your forearm, which covers the vent holes.

This is a one night project. I spent roughly three hours, but I was feeling out the process as I went. You should be able to complete this in a couple of hours, including disassembly and re-assembly of the Talon.

Regards,

Kindly ‘Ol Uncle Hoot 😯