Is this barrel correct?

[Lancaster54Flint]

Hello Everyone! My name is Rob. I'm starting my first build with help and support from my good friend John Cholin(LongJohn). I recently purchased a early colonial kit from Track of the wolf. I finally got a chance to take it over to John's to get some tips and starting points. Upon checking all the parts we found out that they sent me a 5/8 breech plug but the .54 greenmountain barrel was drilled for 3/4. Upon further inspection the rifleing is very very shallow and doesn't appear to be correct for a 1/66" twist round ball gun. I was looking to see if anyone has had a problem like this before and if you think the barrel is wrong? Thank you for any help. -Rob

[smylee grouch]

Measure the twist rate and get a different plug. The photo looks like a slow twist to me but measure it any way. You can use a tight fitting patch and measure it by pulling the patch through the barrel and measure where the half revolution is on the rod and multiply that by two.

[Marcruger]

My experience, and that of my target shooting friend, is that Green Mountain makes very fine and accurate barrels.

Get the correct breech plug and I think you'll be happy when it is all complete. 

Best wishes and God Bless,  Marc

[rich pierce]

Narrow grooves, wide lands. What markings are on the barrel?

[Lancaster54Flint]

Narrow grooves, wide lands. What markings are on the barrel?

no markings on it.

[Lancaster54Flint]

I think the twist is right. I was more concerned with the shallow groves. It reminds me more of  a slug or conical barrel then a roundball barrel.

[Stoner creek]

That barrel doesn't look like a Green Mountain to me. Never saw one with the narrow grooves.

[longcruise]

Rich Is right, the rifling doesn't look like GM at all and the lack of markings is a red flag.  It would also be unlikely that GM deviated from the standard threads for the breech plug.

Also, a GM 54 RB barrel is usually slower than 1:66.  I think they are 1:70 or 1:72.  I'm tempted to say it's a colerain barrel but it should have some markings.

I would send the barrel back for an exchange.

[JNG3]

Grooves look a little shallow for Colerain. Also they appear to be flat bottom grooves although I'm looking at the picture from a small tablet so I might be in error. Colerain is normally known for radius groove rifling. Barrel resembles a conical bore, not a bore for round balls.

[WadePatton]

A modern bbl with zero markings?

Talk to Track. I don't get the zero markings.

Don't seem right.  Not when bbls by different makers fetch different prices. And Generic gets the least...

[Ky-Flinter]

Here's a picture of how Green Mountain stamps their ML barrels.  It's usually struck pretty deep.  Would be hard to miss.  IIRC, Colerain uses one of those electric pencil engravers.  It's usually pretty light and could be overlooked.



-Ron

[moleeyes36]

Rich Is right, the rifling doesn't look like GM at all and the lack of markings is a red flag.  It would also be unlikely that GM deviated from the standard threads for the breech plug.

Also, a GM 54 RB barrel is usually slower than 1:66.  I think they are 1:70 or 1:72.  I'm tempted to say it's a colerain barrel but it should have some markings.

I would send the barrel back for an exchange.

Green Mountain's website lists their .54 barrels as 1:70 twist.  Iv'e use a number of GM barrels over the years and have never seen one that wasn't clearly marked.  Something isn't right here.

Mole Eyes

[JNG3]

Did my best to count lands/grooves on this small tablets screen. Looks like it's eight lands/grooves. Pretty sure Colerain uses 6 for all rifled barrels. GM uses 8 in the ones I've seen BUT the grooves were MUCH wider than the barrel pictured.

[Lancaster54Flint]

This is the barrel from my order form


free upload without registration

[smylee grouch]

I don't think you got the GM as has already been stated GM has a 1-70 twist. Those narrow groves are just a fouling trap IMHO and any GM that I ever had had wide groves.

[Ky-Flinter]

Here's a link to the part number BBL-54-C-42 barrel on TOW's website..... https://www.trackofthewolf.com/Categories/PartDetail.aspx/1340/1/BBL-54-C-42

No where does it say it is a Green Mountain barrel.  In fact, the only Green Mountain ML barrels I could find on the TOW website were a couple of pistol barrels. 

Did TOW tell you they were sending a Green Mountain barrel?

For what it's worth, here's a shot of a Green Mountain .50 cal. muzzle and rifling.



-Ron

[WadePatton]

O I C.

Okay.  Nobody ever claimed it was anything, so it's catalog generic. No Prob. 

[rich pierce]

Maybe because GM barrels come unbreeched as this one did, led to that conclusion. 

A good many original barrels had wide lands and narrow grooves, so it's not necessarily a deal-breaker.

[Lancaster54Flint]

So I guess I see what's going on here. In the build, TOTW describes two barrels. A GM and a colerain. So in my selection I only saw two options, a colerain and the one I selected. Figuring it had to be a GM since I did not select a Colerain. But what I'm gathering is that these are just a generic muzzleloader barrel with no make on them correct? If this is true I kinda feel like I was bait and switched.

[JNG3]

In my most certainly NON expert opinion, I would say that your barrel is neither a GM, Colerain, or a Rice based on my experience with them. It also does not look like an Investarms (Lyman) or a Ardesa (Traditions/CVA). I also doubt it's a Getz, Rayl or one of the other less common and more expensive barrels (due to them being uncommon and expensive). Call ToW and find out what they sent you. I know I would.

edit- I would like to also add that while the barrel ToW sent you may be just fine from a safety aspect and an accuracy aspect, I personally would want to know what it was if it was mine. Also in the black powder cartridge shooting sport a while back there was a brief trend towards wide lands and narrow grooves. This was given up quickly due to rapid fouling of the bore compared to designs that featured normal wider grooves. Just a thought to consider.

[Mike Brooks]

Looks like a Webertown barrel to me. I never could get any of them to shoot well. I had three of them and sent them all to Hoyt to rebore and cut new rifling. Then they work Great!

[Ky-Flinter]

....... But what I'm gathering is that these are just a generic muzzleloader barrel with no make on them correct? ......

That's how it appears to me.

-Ron

[jerrywh]

 I would never accept that barrel for a round ball gun. Best to have a wide groove narrow land.  No good whatsoever. Somebody made a mistake.

[bgf]

I think Track couldn't/can't get green mountain barrels and switched suppliers, but didn't update descriptions accurately.  Maybe it is webertown barrel.  Please post if you find out from Track.

Definitely different design parameters from GM, and it would be interesting to see how to get it to shoot, but that may not be a special passion of yours.  Probably simplest just to change it for the Colerain.

[Darkhorse]

At least one other kit supplier that I know of includes generic barrels in their kits. They also offer both Rice and Colerain  as optional. I gleaned this info from reading the discriptions of a couple of rifle kits. It is very confusing as to what comes with the rifle for the price and what can be ordered as an option. I hate to hear TOW is following this practice as my dealings with them have always been recommended by me to others as a topnotch supplier.
Last rifle I ordered my barrel direct from Rice and my lock direct from Chambers to avoid issues like this.