Moody rifle barrel with w-i-d-e grooves

[Ky-Flinter]

Recently picked this barrel up, new but old stock.  Breech is stamped M-M, .36 caliber, 7/8" straight x 39".  A little research turned up M-M is Moody Metalworks.  I've never seen grooves so wide and lands so narrow.  Anyone have any experience with Moody barrels, or this rifling profile?



-Ron

[gumboman]

There is a Bill Moody in Seymour, Missouri who made barrels. Retired now. I have one of his barrels. It is a 50 caliber with fast twist to shoot bullets. Very good quality and very accurate. Well made barrel.

At one time he was making barrels for Roger Renner who is a promoter of Forsyth rifling and underhammer guns. He owned Pacific Rifle Company. The Forsyth style of rifling utilizes very narrow lands, wide groves and very slow twist of 104" and slower. Usually large bore.

Yours could be a barrel Bill experimented with using the Forsyth style of rifling. He made the tooling for the narrow lands so it would seem logical that he would try different bore, rifling and twist combinations to test out Forsyth's theory.

Just a WAG on my part as to who made the barrel.

[Acer Saccharum]

Exquisite rifling!

On this style of rifling, the ball guiding surface is actually the bottom of the grooves, not the tops of the lands.

The groove cutter was shaped to create a surface for the ball to ride on. The grooves are narrow enough to swage into the patched ball with little effort. Do you know the twist? Front the photo, it appears to be a slow roundball twist.

I caution that the lands are delicate, and any rod that you use should not contact the bore in any way.

[Hungry Horse]

A friend years ago had a full stocked Hawken's with this kind of rifling. It was the most accurate muzzleloader I ever shot. The barrel was marked W.M.Large.

   Hungry Horse

[Marcruger]

I love the vast knowledge base here, and the willingness to share. Generally civil behavior too. 😀
When I saw that rifling, it reminded me of Marlin "Micro-groove" rifling. Let us know how it shoots when built.
Best wishes and God Bless, Marc

[Ted Kramer]

Bill Moody made a very good barrel. I had the first one he sold when he began making barrels, a .50 caliber which I ordered with 1-60" twist. Then he had the grooves at twice the width of the lands. Later he went to wider grooves yet and they all shot great and loaded easily.

I sent him a target I shot with that first .50 barrel with a very nice tight group. A few years later, my wife and I stopped at his shop on our way back from the Smokey Mtns. to pick up another barrel I had ordered. First thing I noticed when we walked in the door was the target I had sent him stapled to the wall. Got a nice tour of his shop and he showed us each machine in action.

I called him a few years back and he said he was enjoying his grand kids and fishing.

Ted K.

[Daryl]

I'd love to have rifling like that in a 16 bore, 80" to 85" twist.

[hortonstn]

i,ve owned several of his barrels,all 50 cal most were 11/2 bench rest they all shot
very well

[Ky-Flinter]

Thanks for all the replies and info.  This barrel has me intrigued.

Gumboman, The barrel definitely came from Moody Metalworks.  The barrel came to me in a well traveled shipping tube.  I peeled the stacked address labels off one by one, and the name on the one on the very bottom was Moody Metalworks, Seymour, MO.  The newspaper packing in the bottom of the tube was dated 1996.

I haven't tried to measure the twist. Will try to do that this weekend.

Mr. Moody must have sold his equipment/business or passed it on, when he retired.  I wonder if his successor is making barrels?

-Ron

[shortbarrel]

If you can find a copy of  Forsyths book you should get it. 

[Mike Brooks]

I have built three guns around those barrels. I personally couldn't get them to shoot. Hopefully somebody else down the road did. I still have one in the shop and will have Hoyt rerifle it before I use it.

[Turtle]

 Didn't the old Green River barrels have wide grooves  that? I had a gun with one and it shot well.
                                                                       Turtle

[Stophel]

Many years ago, I had a Moody barrel with really wide grooves, but the lands were not nearly as narrow as shown above.  It was a slick bore with nice patch-grabbing rifling.  I don't remember how well it shot, but I suspect quite well.

[gumboman]

I have owned two barrels with Forsyth rifling. Not by Mr. Moody however but by a different maker. Could not get them to shoot at all. The first barrel had lands of about .018 with a 104 twist. Best group I could get at 50 yards was about 20 inches. Then tried one with .040 lands and 90" twist. It shot better but still 13 inch groups at 100 yards. Loaded up to 200 grains BP on both barrels with an unending combination of patch thickness, material type, lubes, ball diameters and over powder wads. Caliber was .62. I finally gave up on them and ordered a 72 twist with conventional land and groove dimensions. That shoots more accurately for me.

Because of that experience, I am not a fan of Forsyth rifling but others report excellent results. Accuracy is relative however.  I would say that rifling type would make a great elephant gun at 75 yards. In fact that is how the slow twist rifling with shallow grooves came to be. Forsyth needed fast easy loading of round balls shot from a gun that could handle very heavy loads to take down dangerous game. Pin point accuracy was not needed. The demand from Forsyth was high energy and knock down power that large calibers could deliver. Elephants have a very large kill zone so 20 inch groups at 75 yards was sufficient for the task. Accuracy was secondary to the need for high killing power.

[Mike Brooks]

I have built three guns around those barrels. I personally couldn't get them to shoot. Hopefully somebody else down the road did. I still have one in the shop and will have Hoyt rerifle it before I use it.

After some thought I'll have to retract what I said before. It was Kelly made barrels I had trouble with. They were rifled just the opposite as the Moody barrel. Super narrow grooves and WIDE lands. Didn't work at all for me.

[Ky-Flinter]

I have built three guns around those barrels. I personally couldn't get them to shoot. Hopefully somebody else down the road did. I still have one in the shop and will have Hoyt rerifle it before I use it.

After some thought I'll have to retract what I said before. It was Kelly made barrels I had trouble with. They were rifled just the opposite as the Moody barrel. Super narrow grooves and WIDE lands. Didn't work at all for me.

Whew!!  Mike, based on your original comments I was about to use this barrel for a tomato stake.

-Ron

[Mike Brooks]

I have built three guns around those barrels. I personally couldn't get them to shoot. Hopefully somebody else down the road did. I still have one in the shop and will have Hoyt rerifle it before I use it.

After some thought I'll have to retract what I said before. It was Kelly made barrels I had trouble with. They were rifled just the opposite as the Moody barrel. Super narrow grooves and WIDE lands. Didn't work at all for me.

Whew!!  Mike, based on your original comments I was about to use this barrel for a tomato stake.

-Ron

Nah, you should have a great barrel there. I been doing this too long and am getting confused what is what these days.....

[gumboman]

Your Moody barrel should be a fine shooter. Based on my experience with his barrel and on several conversations with him, I found him to be meticulous in his approach to quality and his desire to produce effective and accurate barrels. I doubt that he would sell a barrel that did not meet his high standards of quality and accuracy. Let us know how she shoots when you are finished with the build.