Bottom corners Ground Round

[Fiftyfour]

On original guns, were the bottom corners between the octogon flats ever filed or ground round for ease of inletting?

[D. Taylor Sapergia]

I have never seen that, but I've seen very coarse grinding diagonally across the length of old barrels on longrifles and on Brown Bess muskets.

[bob in the woods]

I haven't seen the barrel bottom corners ground round , but as far as ease of inletting goes;  I've seen rounded corner barrel channels 

[Pukka Bundook]

Yes as above.
Very common on old rifles /shotguns for the barrel channel to be rounded out, not fitting the octagonal barrel.
("Fits where it touches" , you might say.
Never seen barrels rounded on octagonals.

Richard.

[Eric Kettenburg]

I've seen the bottom corners knocked off a bit with a draw file type, longitudinally along the length of the barrel, contrasting with the very coarse grinding or file marks mentioned above that usually run across or diagonally to the axis of the bore, as mentioned above.  Not often, though.

[Fiftyfour]

Thanks for the replies.  I had bought a small book at a flea market which was the instructions for building a trade gun.
I don't think it went with a kit as it suggested grinding the bottom of the octagon section round to make it easier to inlet the barrel
and it had a pattern for the stock. I think the book was for building from scratch.

 

 

[Mike Brooks]

Some trade guns didn't have any bottom flats at all and were made that way on purpose to save labor on barrel making, didn't have to hammer in the flats. I have also  seen this on low end british export grade fowling guns.

[Longknife]

The early model 1803 Harpers ferry rifles had the bottom flats rounded. This was changed in 1805 and the bottom flats were then left octagonal. This made the barrels slightly heavier.....Ed

[Mike Brooks]

The oct/rnd barrels I have seen that were round on the bottom weren't ground off round, they were just left round and no flats hammered/filed/ground in. Probably actually left them heavier.

[Goo]

I thought barrels were made round then the top 5 flats were filed after ?  At least on pistols and fowlers?

[Mike Brooks]

I thought barrels were made round then the top 5 flats were filed after ?  At least on pistols and fowlers?

They were either forged, ground or filed in.

[Fiftyfour]

To build a gun today using a purchased octagon to round barrel, I don't see that rounding the bottom would save time in the long run given the time involve in grinding and clean up of the bottom of the barrel.