The .45 Barrel

[hanshi]

The .40 barrel I sent to Bobby Hoyt to be re-bored to .45 arrived on my doorstep a few days ago.  Absolutely beautiful job; deep radius groove rifling with quite narrow lands.  That meant a range trip was in order yesterday.  A mistake I made likely affected the results, still the results were encouraging.  The mistake was I grabbed the wrong patches.  The patches I use are heavy canvas around .023"-.024".  What I discovered at the range was a bag of miscellaneous ticking, duck and unidentified squares.  Time to "make do".

I started off with 60 grains of Goex 3F which was excellent in my other three .45s; but disappointing in this barrel.  At 25 yards poi was close to what I had hoped but accuracy was not.  Getting late so I tacked up a target at 50 years and increased the charge to 70 grains.  At 70 grns everything changed.  I only had time for one more group but that was okay.  The result of a 70 grn load, .440" ball and the misc. patches was an encouraging 2".  Next outing I'll be sure and have the correct patches.

I do not know what the twist or groove depth is so it's not surprising this barrel likes a different diet.  Mr. Hoyt did a magnificent job, that's for sure.

[Hungry Horse]

That wide grooves with narrow lands style rifling was called Forsyth style rifling back in the early 1800’s. Now it did’nt have radius grooves that I know of, but it is known to produce tight groups. Bill Large did some Forsyth style barrels, and they were tack drivers. They do require heavier patching usually.
 I’ve always imagined a Forsyth style barrel, with a gain twist. I don’t know how well it would work, or if it would work at all, but it always sounded good to me. Keep us posted on future testing.

  Hungry Horse

[hanshi]

I have three radius groove barrels and all like thick patches and tight loads.  Heavy material is, of course, necessary to fill the deep round groove rifling and I also use it in square groove barrels.  The twist is about 1-56" by my calculations, but the groove depth appears a smidge deeper than the other two barrels, but I'm likely wrong about that.  The crown came
nicely smoothed so I won't have to repeat the sandpaper thing.  In a sense I guess I just got a new rifle.
The rifle in question:

[ScottH]

That one is a looker! Burn more powder! 

[Not English]

Hanshi,

I've got a Buck's with a .45 barrel. It dates from the real late '80's. It's a Green Mountain barrel with a 1:60 twist. I shoot a .445 roundball with probably .018" pillow ticking. It likes 67 gr of 3f. It's a much better shooter than I'm capable of.

[hanshi]

This barrel is also a Green Mountain barrel and I've had it for near 20 years, but as a .40.  It's never hunted but that may change.  I asked for the red finish and GS hardware as I knew the effect would be...well, a bit "striking".  Thanks for the comment, and it has drawn very nice comments at rendezvous in fact.  It will definitely get fired a lot more now that it's finished.