Bookout hand forged and rifled barrel

[Ken G]

I thought I would share the test firing of the rifle on the contemporary blog.   It was built around one of Steve Bookouts hand forged and rifled wrought iron barrels.  I got to say I'm impressed!  Bookie can sure make and rifle a barrel.
.50 cal x1".  50 grains behind a .490 ball and .017 pillow ticking patch.  30 yards or so off a rest. 
The first 3 shots pretty much went through the same hole.  So tight, I could not see the separate shots so I moved shot #4 to a different target thinking I had 2 wild fliers.
Cheers,
Ken

[C. Cash]

Mr. Guy,

Alright...you sold me.  I'll take it!

Congrats on a fine shooter.

[Tim Crosby]

That looks great. Now I have a question about sighting in. How did you adjust your sights to start with to get them that close to the black right out the gate? Sorry I may not have worded this right. I usually fire three shots at 50 yards wiping in between and then check the target. If the shots are closely grouped but not in the black I adjust the sights, shoot three more as before, check and adjust until I am happy with the results. All shots are from a rest. I have been using that routine for many years, it usually doesn't take many three shot groups to get everything in line. Is there a better way?

Thanks, Tim C.

PS: I just thought,maybe I should have posted this separately. If you think so let me know and I will change it or you can.TC
 

[Ken G]

Tim,
I normally measure from the barrel flat to the top of the front blade and to the rear blade.  Then try to get them as close to the same height as possible before heading to the range.  Swamped barrels complicate the cyphering a bit. 

I made adjustments between shots 4 and 5 (windage) and then adjusted again (windage and elevation) between 7 and 8.

ken

[Daryl]

Way to go Ken- looks like it might be a keeper.  Do you know the twist and groove depth?  I am impressed. Looking foreward to seeing how it shoots at 50 yards and beyond.

I usually make the front sight blade about .020" lower than the rear's top surface if flat topped. With beads, I use the centre of the bead to the centre of where the bead sits in the rear sight, but the same .020" lower for the front.

This sighting usually makes for a slightly low impact at 50 yards with larger than .40cal.  Of course, it depends on the load one uses.  Normal light loads used today by many, may require a bit more filing - no big deal - a few swipes, shoot, few more, shoot- bingo.  Filing the front sight blade down a tich brings impact to centre. With a bead, I carefully reduce the height, then file it back into a round circle - this will result in a smaller bead, but that's expected as I start a bit large, but useable if it's spot-on.

With the Italian Enfield Musketoon I just picked up, I filed off the low rear sight, slotted the base and soldered in a new slightly higher blade - took a guess.  On testing, offhand, I found it to be just about 1/2" low and 1/2" to the left. The three shots I fired offhand for testing - about 20 or so yards, put them all into a 1" hole. Taylor and the other guys were there. One small swipe with a file and tap to the left for the blade with my starter's knob, put it right-on.  Even the trail's 2" diameter handing pipes at 20 to 35 yards were easy to hit.

[Tim Crosby]

 Thanks for the info guys.

 Tim C.

[Ken G]

Daryl,
the twist is 1:48.  I'm not sure of the rifling depth.  Maybe Bookie will chime in.  It is the barrel that was rifled on the Jim Wright, American Pioneer Video though. 
Ken

[Daryl]

Sounds great, Ken.  It seems to want to shoot, that's for sure.

[Steve Bookout]

Hi Ken!  That barrel was not the one rifled in the video.  It was only rifled on that rifler I built.  The depth (if I recall correctly) is about 6.5, but closer to .0007".  Cheers, Bookie

[Daryl]

I suspect you mean .0065" to .007" - which will work fine, with a nice snug load.