Today's safe barrels?

[Bob Roller]

5-18-17

Bob Roller,

Do you know the AISI number plus any letter such as (L) etc. of the Gun Barrel Certified steel that Jim McLemore uses?

Best Regards,

Robert T Adams

Seems to me, Dphar noted it was 4150  here on the forum some time ago.

That's the number I remember and NO letter "L".

Bob Roller

[Shovelbuck]

I am with Mike on this. I load an shoot safely an have taught my 2 grandsons the same. Nobody has proved to me that my barrels are unsafe. I have been shooting these style guns for 40 yrs with zero problems an I sure aint gonna quit now because some metal expert says my barrels aint safe. If these barrels were blowing up like they say then the ambulance chasing lawyers would have a field day in the courts trying to get some money out of someone an then NO ONE would still be turning out barrels of 12L14 but im sure Rice an Burton an whomever will be at work making barrels next week. I can blow up any barrel no matter what its made of if I let stupidity take over

Ditto!  I've been at this a long time and don't worry one bit about my barrels blowing up or what they are made of. Even when I take my old timer out with the forged wrought iron barrel. It seems that with so many sites and groups now days, The internet safety nannys really can ruin a good thing.

[Naphtali]

With all the talk of unsafe barrels and unsafe barrel materials, past and present, here and on other boards, I have a question for this board.

Which manufacturers, past and/or present, should be considered "as safe as can be"?

Appreciate feedback from all, especially any metalurgists, engineers, 'smiths, builders, etc, which should be knowledgeable regarding this.

PT' s welcomed, if need be.

Best regards, Skychief

If you have a compulsion to personally prove your barrel, I have circa 1868 procedures for various British proofs for firearms/barrels. Having typed that, I've decided that, for me, such proving has not been necessary for commercially made black powder barrels and breeches.

[Joe S]

I have had some conversation with Jason at Rice Barrels about 4140 barrels.  He has made some.  It is not clear to me whether this is something he can or will do on a regular basis, but you could ask him.

Here's another option for 4140 barrels up to 41”

http://www.ershawbarrels.com/sam-product-offerings.php

[Hungry Horse]

 I suspect that anybody that is concerned with the barrel steel that's used today by American muzzleloading barrel makers is either worrying about things that aren't problem, or are planning to do something stupid. 

Hungry Horse

[Daryl]

Jose Gordo- the ER Shaw barrels are not really appropriate to round ball guns.

" We currently produce more than 2,700 configurations, including rimfire, centerfire, shotgun and black powder—all button-rifled. "

[Joe S]

Do you object to button rifling?  Personally, I don't really know anything about it.

For round ball black powder, twist rate and groove depth certainly matter.  Folks like to argue about square and round bottom grooves, but I'm not convinced it's that big of an issue.

I have no idea what profiles or twist rates Shaw makes.  I just happened across their site, and thought it might be of interest to someone.

In any case, if someone really wanted a 4041 barrel, it seems like you could buy it unrifled, then borrow Dave Rase's rifling machine and spend a couple of weeks rifling it yourself.  It would be good exercise.

[Hungry Horse]

Most commercially mass produced muzzleloading guns today have button rifled barrels. There's nothing wrong with them, other than the rifleing is rarely over eight thousandths. This is primarily where the swabbing after every shot came from. Several of the old timers at Friendship back in the day, cut, and recut, their barrels to the shallow side on their target rifles, and said they sealed up better, and were more consistent.
 The softer the wrought iron, the better the old match shooters liked it. They swore it never shot slick, and freshened out easier, and so smooth it didn't require a lot of break in shooting. The old match shooters would have run from these diamond hard barrels like their hair was on fire.

  Hungry Horse

[Ky-Flinter]

the ER Shaw barrels are not really appropriate to round ball guns.

Agreed.  Looks like they make barrels for cartridge guns.  The slowest twist they offer is 1 in 22".

-Ron

[Daryl]

Jose - button rifling usually runs from .0015" to .005" deep.  This is too shallow IMHO for round ball and cloth patch - IF you want to be in the winner's circle.  The odd button rifled guy, still hits the winner's circle at Rendezvous BC, but not very often. Yes- at one time I had a button rifled TC barrel and in those days of most of us just starting out, it shot well enough to win - often - woithj .495" ball and .022" denim patch.  I switched to Bauska cut rifled barrels as soon as I learned the difference and have not shot buttoned rifling (except ctg. guns) since.

Hal Sharon tried deep button rifling in the mid 70's- I watched - his whole shop shook, walls, ceiling and floor as the button was 'pulled' through the bore.  You could not look at a 60 watt bulb through the bore - the button rifling attempt resulting in faceting inside the bore was hard on the eyes.