Rice Reading Barrels

[Eric Smith]

I have noticed that Rice Barrels offers a "Reading Profile" barrel. Can someone explain the difference between that and the American Heritage profile? I can see the dimensions are different, but why?

[Lucky R A]

Eric, unless you have a barrel maker make a custom barrel to the exact exterior profile of a particular original, you have to use off the shelf contours.  These profiles  usually fall within the general contours of a particular region or a particular maker.   The makers give them names that generaly are meaningless.  It is up to you the builder to make a decision of what barrel profile best fits your needs.  Just  because a barrel is marked that it is a Reading profile does not mean that it is correct for all Reading rifles.  As you learned if you were in the Army, not all men are created equal, thus not all barrels.

[Eric Kettenburg]

It's called the "Reading" barrel because the length and profile was copied from an assumed Reading-area rifle that Earl Lanning used to own.  The rifle is one of the early pieces that George Shumway published in RCA Vol. 1, I don't remember the exact number as I don't have the book in front of me but it was one of the first two attributed to Wolfgang Hachen in Reading; just find the one with the same barrel length, the 'D' weight is fairly spot-on to the original barrel.  They then made the lighter versions in the event someone really liked the barrel profile itself (i.e. the length, the taper and flare ratios etc.) but wanted a lighter weight barrel.

[m. reaver]

The Reading gun Eric referenced is No. 21 in RCA.  You can also check out several pictures of it on Mel Hankla's American History sight.  I was fortunate to see the gun when Mr. Lanning owned it and that's the gun that turned me on to early Reading architecture.