Author Topic: 44" er 48"  (Read 5241 times)

Offline yip

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44" er 48"
« on: October 13, 2017, 01:47:04 AM »
  just thinking of building a smooth bore and wondering what barrel length to use, i thinking a 48"would look sexy but wondering if there is advantage to the longer, the 44" would be sexy also. what is correct?

Offline JCKelly

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Re: 44" er 48"
« Reply #1 on: October 13, 2017, 01:53:36 AM »
I have an elderly English flint 12 bore with a 54" barrel. By the time I could maneuver that barrel through the southern Delaware briars the rabbit was long gone.

Offline Mike Brooks

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Re: 44" er 48"
« Reply #2 on: October 13, 2017, 02:04:39 AM »
Those long guns weren't for the briars, they were for the marshes.

For me it would depend on the guage and how you plan to use it. 44" is pretty stumpy in my book unless you're upland hunting.
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Offline Bigmon

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Re: 44" er 48"
« Reply #3 on: October 13, 2017, 03:33:19 AM »
I had Ken Netting build me a wonderful fowler with a 48" 20ga barrel and I loved it, and it was "sexy' as ya say.
But when I started using it, and I am 6'-2" tall on my good leg, I discovered some difficulty in loading as it just ain't as easy when ya can't actually see the muzzle.
I loved that gun but it was slow loading, like getting the sprue perfect on a round ball.
I shot plenty of pheasant with it, it shot great with that Rayle barrel, but just a little clumsy in the thick stuff when deer hunting also.
So I messed up and sold it and bought a kit with a 44" barrel, which should make a difference.  That is if I ever get it done.  Been about three years now and I havn't got to start it yet.  Which obviously means I havn't got to use anything either.
Should have kept the Netting gun. I miss it.  And even a 48" barrel would be better than one in a box under a bed.
But consider that point, aint easy loading it ya cant at least be eye level with the muzzle.
Adios

Offline Daryl

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Re: 44" er 48"
« Reply #4 on: October 13, 2017, 03:43:31 AM »
For a hunting gun, it is difficult to beat short handy shot shooting barrels.

For a smoothbore round ball gun for rendezvous, the longer the better, imo.

Laying the butt out behind me & lowering the muzzle to load is they way I load my 48" bl. rifle.




« Last Edit: October 13, 2017, 03:44:50 AM by Daryl »
Daryl

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Offline David R. Pennington

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Re: 44" er 48"
« Reply #5 on: October 13, 2017, 03:45:14 AM »
I have a rifle with a .45 four foot barrel that i like a lot and was shooting real good till I broke a mainspring. I didn't find it that much more difficult to load, but then I am short and have to lean most all my guns over a little to load. You can always saw it off if you don't like it.
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Offline Robby

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Re: 44" er 48"
« Reply #6 on: October 13, 2017, 04:12:42 AM »
Longer barrel gives whatever is coming out of it more time to stabilize.
Robby
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Offline Keb

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Re: 44" er 48"
« Reply #7 on: October 13, 2017, 06:15:56 AM »
Put me in the longer the better camp. I've a .53 caliber with 53" barrel, a .65 caliber with a 48" and 2 - 10 gauges with 46" barrels.

Offline Mike Brooks

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Re: 44" er 48"
« Reply #8 on: October 13, 2017, 11:32:09 AM »
Standard French trade gun barrels 1720-1760 were 53 1/4" long. Standard English trade guns pre 1780 were 48" long. Most wild fowling guns were 54" and longer. We shoot fowling guns that are way too short these days.
 I have pheasant hunted with 48" barrels, no biggie.
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Say, any of you boys smithies? Or, if not smithies per se, were you otherwise trained in the metallurgic arts before straitened circumstances forced you into a life of aimless wanderin'?

Offline Bigmon

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Re: 44" er 48"
« Reply #9 on: October 13, 2017, 01:50:05 PM »
The original guns being so much longer than today's really sinks my theory of liking a gun that I can see the muzzle when loading.
Back then folks were much shorter for the most part than today's average.
And me at 6'2 am still on the plus side of average height.
I know all one has to do is tilt the gun.
I guess it's just a matter of me getting used to it.
I do wish I'd have kept that 48".
Maybe I'll get something even longer?
Great subject

Offline smart dog

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Re: 44" er 48"
« Reply #10 on: October 13, 2017, 02:21:56 PM »
Hi Yip,
Let's look at some data.  Of 25 single barreled fowling guns built by John Twigg between 1766 and 1790, only 4 had barrels longer than 43 inches.  All of those were large bored guns built to hunt waterfowl by shooting them on the water from fairly long range and one of them had a 72" barrel.  Of the other 21 guns, only 4 had barrels 40"-43" and the rest were <40".  Of course, these guns are all of English style and a couple were shortened during their working lives.  My original English fowler from the 1760s or early 1770s has a 39" barrel.  During the 18th century, Spanish barrels were considered the finest smoothbored barrels in the world.  The typical length of those barrels was 42".  Very long fowler barrels were common during the 17th and early 18th centuries partly because of slow burning powder.  After the improvements to powder (and producing good round bird shot) later in the 18th century, largely made by the French chemist Lavoisier, there was no need for long barrels because the powder burned up completely in barrels as short as 32".  Large bored long barreled waterfowl guns persisted into the 19th century but the barrels on most other bird guns were reduced to lengths between 32 and 39".   I agree that a long barrel on a fowler is elegant and certainly can produce a good shooter fir birds but consider this, the only way it looks good is if you make the forestock very slim and of almost egg shell thickness. If you don't, that long barreled gun will look like some clunky punt gun.  A thicker stock on a shorter barreled gun does not look quite as bad.

dave       
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Offline Longknife

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Re: 44" er 48"
« Reply #11 on: October 14, 2017, 04:02:31 PM »
Here are a few more stats,,,, In "FLINTLOCK FOWLERS" (Tom Grinsdale), there are 54 New England Fowlers listed. The shortest barrel length is 40.5 and the longest barrel is 63.375. The overall average of all the barrels is 50.84.....Ed
« Last Edit: October 14, 2017, 04:03:36 PM by Longknife »
Ed Hamberg

54ball

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Re: 44" er 48"
« Reply #12 on: October 14, 2017, 04:49:18 PM »
 46" ;D
 That's a very common length for a Carolina Gun.

Turtle

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Re: 44" er 48"
« Reply #13 on: October 16, 2017, 02:18:11 AM »
  When asked to build a long barrel gun for somebody, I tape a dowel to the end of a barrel blank at the total gun length with the barrel they are considering and send them out to put it in their vehicle. Most opt for 42" or less.

Offline Daryl

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Re: 44" er 48"
« Reply #14 on: October 17, 2017, 10:36:33 PM »
I suppose some vehicles would have trouble, but mine fits my A. Verner 48" bl. door to door across the rear seat, just fine.




Daryl

"a gun without hammers is like a spaniel without ears" King George V

Offline David R. Pennington

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Re: 44" er 48"
« Reply #15 on: October 19, 2017, 03:48:31 AM »
What arr they driving, smart cars or mopeds?
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Turtle

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Re: 44" er 48"
« Reply #16 on: October 20, 2017, 02:21:55 AM »
rangers,s-10s, Dakotas. Takoma's ect. 42" is the longest that will fit behind the seat.

Offline Elnathan

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Re: 44" er 48"
« Reply #17 on: October 20, 2017, 02:52:56 AM »
rangers,s-10s, Dakotas. Takoma's ect. 42" is the longest that will fit behind the seat.

Behind the seat. Huh. I always carry guns in the bed of my truck....
A man can never have too much red wine, too many books, or too much ammunition -  Rudyard Kipling

Turtle

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Re: 44" er 48"
« Reply #18 on: October 21, 2017, 02:13:08 AM »
around here people carry; firewood, dogs, atvs, livestock, gravel ect in the truck box.

54ball

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Re: 44" er 48"
« Reply #19 on: October 21, 2017, 08:07:14 AM »
The original guns being so much longer than today's really sinks my theory of liking a gun that I can see the muzzle when loading.
Back then folks were much shorter for the most part than today's average.
And me at 6'2 am still on the plus side of average height.
I know all one has to do is tilt the gun.
I guess it's just a matter of me getting used to it.
I do wish I'd have kept that 48".
Maybe I'll get something even longer?
Great subject

 Actually the height issue has been proven wrong. It really has more to do with nutrition and genetics. In Colonial times North Americans were arguably the most well fed people in the world. That has not always been the case. In lean times, say in the South post CW to the Depression many lower to middle class suffered from malnutrition. Too small clothing seems to survive while average sized clothing does not....used up?

 There are many period accounts of Virginia and Pennsylvania Riflemen being over six feet tall.