Pistol barrels

[Ted Kramer]

Greetings all,

I was looking through the piles of odds and ends left over from many rifle projects over the years and found an 8" piece of a 13/16" Green Mountain .32 caliber rifle barrel. I began wondering if it would be any good as a pistol barrel. Do any of you have any experience shooting a pistol that has a rifle barrel cutoff for a barrel? It could be a poor shooter with the 1-48" twist, but how could it be any worse than a smooth bore? Good or bad, I'd like to hear what you have to say. Thanks.

Ted K.

[Frizzen]

I think it would be OK at 25 yds., but I think the twist is too slow to stablize the ball at 50 yds.
My 32 pistol run 1-14 twist and 1-16 twist. I shoot 16 grs Swiss for 1200 fps.

[caliber45]

I'd say go for it. As Frizzen notes, it should be fine to 25 yards. Pistols aren't meant to be used at any distance farther than that. That's why they're pistols. Firearms for ranges beyond that are called rifles. -- paulallen, tucson az

[B Shipman]

You,re not going to hit the broad side of a barn with an 8 in. flint pistol at 50 yds. At 25 yds. , it won't make a great difference what the twist is. You could use a smoothbore. SO LONG AS THE WEIGHT AND CALIBER OF THE BARREL ARE THE SAME.

[Ted Kramer]

Thanks for your feedback guys. I think I will give it a try. If it's totally useless as a shooter, I can always swap the barrel out for one with a faster twist. 

[Frizzen]

You should see the 100 yd pistol matches at Friendship. Wife won it several years ago. Her 10
shot group was about 12 inches. Score 78 on the NRA pistol target. As far as 50 yd with a Flint
pistol, she won that also with a 87. Group about 6 inches. Pistols will shoot!