Bedford barrels

[pathfinder]

Not having all the books there are, I have most of Shumway's,I can't seem to find info on the size and profile of Bedford barrels. All contemporary info state they should be in the 13/16th range, but most of the early guns seem to average @ an inch at the breech,if not slightly over,and were they profiled at all? And while I'm at it,why are smaller barrels being used these day's. Better steel allow's a smaller lighter barrel?

[Pete Allan]

Can't answer your question BUT One of my friends had an original Bedford where the barrel was about 7/8" at the breech and about 1" at the muzzle. Lots of people looked it over and every one felt it was built that way not altered later

[Acer Saccharum]

I have also heard of that larger dimension at the muzzle on some Tenn rifles.

[D. Taylor Sapergia]

I have no info on Bedford barrels per se, but I've had the opportunity to check out a lot of Lehigh rifles/smoothbores.  Without exception, they are all beefy barrels, with an overall weight averaging 8 - 10 pounds.  Many of us refuse to carry a ten pound rifle these days, and would be exhausted by the end of a 25 shot string.  Apparently, such was not the case in the 18th and 19th centuries.  I am pretty sure our ancestors did not shoot 25 shot strings, and may have had a horse to help with the tote.  I think you might agree though, to make one good shot, or two, a ten pound rifle holds better than a 6 1/2 pounder.

[pathfinder]

Yup,they do,and all but 2 of my guns have a minimum 1" at the breech, 4 are 1-1/8" and the other 4 are 1". Just doesn't make sense to use a smaller barrel when building a copy of an original. I'm now buildind a Lehigh with a 44" "D" weight Colrain barrel, should shoulder nice with a 1/4" cast off. I'd like to build another Bedford,but only if I know what type of barrel was used. Did build one using a 7/8",still didn't look right. I don't have access to originals, they are rather scarce here in the U.P.

[flintriflesmith]

I do not think it is so much a case of a "Bedford" barrel as that most Bedford rifles were made in the later period when (regardless of where they were made) the taper and flare was much less pronounced than in 90+% of the commercially available barrels.

That statement is a huge generalization, and I'm sure folks can point out all kinds of exceptions, but as a rule I think we will find that most rifles made in the 1810-1850 period have barrels with a very subtle taper and flare compared to the 1770-1790 period. (The reasons for this could fill another string so I won't go there.)

About the only choices to make a period correct rifle are to start with a parallel sided barrel and file away; order a custom barrel; or claim your 1820 rifle was made based on one that reused a much earlier barrel.
Gary

[pathfinder]

I do appreciate the info Flintriflesmith,and I did gather that the later we go, the more subtle the taper is,and hand filing isn't a problem,I just need to know where to start,but I guess there is no way to get dimentions of the barrels. If I go to Bedford someday,will the museum there let me take some measurements? Sorry if I sound a little cranky,post surgery med's suck!

[Don Getz]

If you look at a lot of those mid 1800 guns you will find very few swamped barrels among them.    At that point in time
they were drilling the holes and grinding the flats on them, but in a straight octagon pattern.   Most of the Bedford guns
had straight sided barrels, and most were rather heavy, which, along with that hockey stick butt, made for a rather unusual and awkward gun............Don

[Lucky R A]

        The one I own has basically a 44" 15/16" barrel with a 38 cal. hole in it.   It is a nice example of the school, but I would not want to have to carry it very far, it also has 4-1/2 inches of drop.   I have examined others most being percussion and they all had barrels larger than 7/8" and usually around 15/16".  they are rarely over 45 cal. and most were 36-38 cal.
         As was stated before, most of the guns we build today are lighter than the originals.  The only exceptions i find are the nice sleek O/R smooth rifles particularly Bucks Co. guns that are as light as anything we make today.   

Ron   

[keweenaw]

I agree with Don on this, you basically couldn't go wrong, stylistically, with a straight barrel.  The Huntingdon Co. rifles, made a few miles away, in the same period are mostly straight barrels, usually around 15/16 as Lucky states, and about 38 cal.  These guns look slim, but the straight barrel makes them quite heavy and combined with the slim butts they are very muzzle heavy.  Given the small calibers I would almost bet that most of these rifles were carried not much farther than the woods out behind the barn to shoot a few squirrels.  The butts on many of these guns require you to shoot them off the arm, rather than the shoulder so weight small caliber to give light recoil are important considerations. What barrel I would use on one of these depends on why I was building it.  It I wanted a historically accurate copy I would use a straight barrel and maybe cheat down to 7/8"; if I wanted a rifle to carry and use, I would use a swamped barrel  following Gary's caveat that it was a recycle.  One of my Huntingdon Co. rifles has a 1760-70 vintage, 54 cal. barrel on it with a gradual taper and flare that greatly helps the balance.   A barrel I saw at the CLA show and really like in this regard is the Rice 42" J.P. Beck pattern which has a more gradual taper and flare than the B,C, D series barrels.

Tom

[Pete G.]

I've been planning a Bedford for a while and after much study have reached some conclusions.
1. Bedfords are, for the most part, later guns, so a straight barrel would be correct.
2. A main attraction of the style is the slenderness.
3. Most later guns are smaller caliber.
4. A small caliber straight barrel must be slim to keep from upsetting the balance.

Due to the above, right now the plans call for a .32 cal 3/4" straight barrel with the L&R percussion lock. I like flint better, but one of the hallmarks of a Bedford are those weird percussion hammer spurs. You must make your own pipes and nose cap because no commercially available items are long enough.

[pathfinder]

Thanks Snyder,thats exactly the info I was looking for. I didn't think the smaller barrels were used,thanks again.

[B Shipman]

A Bedford by Stodenouer I once owned also had a 15/16th barrel with about a .36 bore. Today we have a tendency to build as light as possible.
For that matter, John Armstrong rifles rarely had swamped barrel.

[Don Getz]

My third rifle built around 1975 was a copy of a Joe Long.    I had picked up a 13/16" 40 cal. Douglas barrel and thought
it would make a great Joe Long....wrong.  The gun turned out pretty well but the barrel was too small, just doesn't look
right.   Should have been at least 7/8", or better yet a 15/16"......probably would be heavy, but that's the way they were.
Don

[pathfinder]

And thats the way I shall build mine!