flat rifling?

[caliber45]

Had a friend who showed me a family hand-me-down "hog rifle." Knew a lot less about them the time, so don't recall many details except: Someone had very crudely shortened what had once been a plain-built long rifle by hacksawing the barrel and forend to about (guess) 26 inches. And the "rifling" in the bore appeared to be flats vs. lands-and-grooves. Hexagonal? Octagonal? I don't recall; the former, I think. Was this common? Did it work? Any information on the history of this style? -- paulallen, tucson az

[Blacksmoke]

Sounds like "Minne ball" rifling - three very flat lands and three very flat grooves about .005" deep.   Hugh Toenjes

[Dphariss]

Had a friend who showed me a family hand-me-down "hog rifle." Knew a lot less about them the time, so don't recall many details except: Someone had very crudely shortened what had once been a plain-built long rifle by hacksawing the barrel and forend to about (guess) 26 inches. And the "rifling" in the bore appeared to be flats vs. lands-and-grooves. Hexagonal? Octagonal? I don't recall; the former, I think. Was this common? Did it work? Any information on the history of this style? -- paulallen, tucson az

Whitworth did not invent the 6 sided "hexagonal" bore.
Many old American rifles had 7 (5 or 8 etc) sided bores usually with little round grooves in the corners.
See Ned Roberts' "The ML Caplock Rifle" pg 11.

I do not consider it a good design and never could figure out why the barrels were made that way. Years ago I had a restocked original I bought that was 36 caliber with 7 sided rifling. It was turned for a starter so it was likely a picket rifle. But was too young and ignorant to do any serious shooting with it. Besides it weighed a ton.
Dan