Fast twist barrel

[Curt Larsen]

I've had a 13/16" Getz barrel in .40 cal sitting on my shelf for a while.  It is 1:28 twist.  By all accounts it is too fast for round ball shooting.  I was going to have it rebored to .45 and converted to a slower twist.  My question is first of all, what will it shoot as is.  Is this thing a sabot barrel?  If so, I'm not too interested.  I still may have it rebored, but wondered what the rest of you think.

[Ian Pratt]

  You hunt squirrels?

[westerner]

It'll shoot a picket bullet real good.  I shoot store bought round balls in a .39 picket rifle with a 32 twist.  Deadly accurate to 50 yards. At 100 the wind moves the Rb too much.

               Joe.

[B.Habermehl]

Ii will probably shoot OK with real light loads. Like 20 gr fffg etc. I remember some discussion about using faster than normal twist rates for squirrel guns and light loads to reduce meat damage.

[rich pierce]

I have wondered about this.  I have an original jaeger barrel, .62 caliber, 28" long, with one complete turn in the length of the barrel.

[Curt Larsen]

I don't do much squirrel hunting anymore although I just read a couple of recipes for Brunswick stew with squirrel as the major ingredient.  Maybe I should start again.  They are all over my yard every day, but somehow that doesn't seem sporting. In the meantime I'm still perplexed about this fast twist barrel.  I will probably inlet one of my skinny stock blanks for 13/16 and put it aside with this barrel in it.  I've got plenty of other projects to work on.  Still, I'd like to hear more of your ideas.


Curt

[westerner]

Okay, you asked for it.    

You have a fast twist squirrel weight barrel.  What to do, what to do?  Obviously the barrel was meant to shoot a picket bullet or a round ball with mild loads.  

You should make a picket rifle. Must have a patent breech. Long range squirrel sights.

You have pet squirrels in your yard you dont want to shoot.  You crave Brunswick stew. A picket rifle with a lollipop sight would give you the range to shoot your neighbors squirrels instead of your own.

Picket bullets are fun to shoot. Dont weigh all that much more than round balls. Load with a patch just like a round ball.  

Heres a flat nose picket I use in one of my Schutzen rifles.




 It shoots perty darn accurate out past 200 yards.  You must have neighbors.  


                 Joe.  

[bob in the woods]

I have a .45 barrel with a 1 in 18 twist. Built a bullet gun, but it has proven to be very accurate with patched round balls and 25 gr. of 3F  I have won a few matches with it!   Kind of like shooting sub-sonic .22
rimfire  
I think you might enjoy that barrel. It doesn't take much to poke a hole through paper after all .

[Curt Larsen]

Thanks guys.  Squirrel now seems more desireable. It's been awhile since I've eaten them.  Now that stew recipe has more meaning.   Yep, I have neighbors.  Westerner, since you shoot Schutzens, what is the  necessity for the patent breech? I normally shoot flint.  Back action percussion doesn't appeal to me much.  I've never built one though.   Those light loads make sense.  I will inlet that skinny stock blank I have for it.

Curt

[keweenaw]

You generate a lot more pressure and velocity shooting bullets in a bullet barrel and if you were building a perc. you would definitely want the patent breech to avoid the rare possibility of planting a drum into your shooting partner.  If you're going to build a light load, round ball, flinter then you don't need the patent breech.

Tom

[Acer Saccharum]

Or cut into pistol barrels. 

[westerner]

You generate a lot more pressure and velocity shooting bullets in a bullet barrel and if you were building a perc. you would definitely want the patent breech to avoid the rare possibility of planting a drum into your shooting partner.  If you're going to build a light load, round ball, flinter then you don't need the patent breech.

Tom

Tom nailed it.

         Joe.

[Curt Larsen]

Thanks again guys.  Now I see the light.  I'm going back to work on my jaeger. 
Curt

[Curt Larsen]

Hi Westerner:  Joe, where can I get picket bullets, or a mold?  You've got me interested now.

[westerner]

I'll make a mold for you Curt.

All I need is a set of blocks.


                Joe.

[JCKelly]

I would do what seems obvious, ask Getz his recommendations.

Otherwise I have the heretical suggestion that you cast your round balls of modern hard bullet alloy, that is some mix of lead with both tin and antimony. Some years ago one of the Lyman handbooks had good info on such alloys.

Fast twist is nasty with round ball because the soft lead ball strips the rifling, goes right thru without getting much spin applied to it.

Anecdotal evidence: About 1968 a friend, who was an excellent .45acp shot, reloaded a lot. I influenced him to take up muzzle-loading. He bought an Eye-talian percussion pistol, rifled with a large number of fine shallow grooves. Couldn't hit a @!*% thing with it. Thinking like a .45 shooter he then cast his balls of hard modern bullet lead. After that he won all the pistol matches at Old Westmoreland Rifles. I of course do not know, but I think it may have galled the guys with all their fancy custom made guns, flintlocks with backward locks, etc, that they were beat by this cheap pistol. They were, of course, simply beat by a very good pistol shot. Who violated muzzle-loading rules by using hard-cast round balls.

What say you, Mr. Getz?

[Dphariss]

I would do what seems obvious, ask Getz his recommendations.

Otherwise I have the heretical suggestion that you cast your round balls of modern hard bullet alloy, that is some mix of lead with both tin and antimony. Some years ago one of the Lyman handbooks had good info on such alloys.

Fast twist is nasty with round ball because the soft lead ball strips the rifling, goes right thru without getting much spin applied to it.

Anecdotal evidence: About 1968 a friend, who was an excellent .45acp shot, reloaded a lot. I influenced him to take up muzzle-loading. He bought an Eye-talian percussion pistol, rifled with a large number of fine shallow grooves. Couldn't hit a @!*% thing with it. Thinking like a .45 shooter he then cast his balls of hard modern bullet lead. After that he won all the pistol matches at Old Westmoreland Rifles. I of course do not know, but I think it may have galled the guys with all their fancy custom made guns, flintlocks with backward locks, etc, that they were beat by this cheap pistol. They were, of course, simply beat by a very good pistol shot. Who violated muzzle-loading rules by using hard-cast round balls.

What say you, Mr. Getz?

Maybe the harder bullets were just large enough to make the pistol shoot.
The tighter fit, just a few thousandths might be enough and depending on alloy he could have increased it by as much as .005".

Dan