highest round count from a barrel

[tiswell]

      I wondered what the most shots any of you have put through single rifled barrel? When did accuracy start to degrade if it did at all? From those of you that have shot many thousands of shots through single barrel, I then ask what is your patch lube/cleaning/ storage process.

       I have seen all of the threads on cleaning and patch lube but never linked to shooter that has put thousands or tens of thousands of rounds out of the same gun. I thought the info would carry more weight.

                                                                                                                                                   Thanks, Bill

[hanshi]

I don't keep track of rounds fired from each rifle so can only offer a wild guess.  I rotate the few I own but would guess my oldest flintlock.  I don't get to shoot all that much and can only say that several cases of powder has been unevenly divided among them.

[fishdfly]

I shot with a guy who had a T/C cap lock with GM slow twist barrel and he said he had put over 20,000 from the barrel and he shot Teflon coated patches, cleaning was the Murphy's with peroxide and alcohol.

[Shovelbuck]

My first flintlock was built in 82 and has around 15,000 through it. .54 cal. Montana barrel. Has always been cleaned with water. Accuracy is still like the day it was new.

[rich pierce]

Legend has it that Roger Fisher ran an record number of rounds through a barrel. I forget the number but in excess of 20,000. Got it re-cut just a little when group size started to enlarge a little and went back to its winning ways.

[The Irish Mick]

I bought my first M1841 rifle ( Robbins Kendal & Lawrence 1847) in 1971.  Contacted Bill large shortly thereafter.  It was a beautiful fit.  This rifle has been my only ML rifle, and I have put many  thousands of rounds down range.  75grns. of 2FG fine rifle powder, using an original arsenal .526 ball mould.  The ole girl is shootin just fine till this day.  My eye however aren't what they use to be

The Irish Mick
Arizona Territory 

[Eric Krewson]

I have a Bill Large barreled rifle, I am its third owner. The friend who gave it to me said he put a pound of powder a week through it for many years, shooting 30gr. for targets and trick shooting. When he got into something he was all in, the gun was made around 1972 according to the date stamp in the Roller lock. My friend estimated the previous owner and himself put about 50k rounds through it. He was in a very active black powder club in Florida that hosted a lot of events.

It was a 44 when my friend had it, he shot .430 balls in it, when I got it I noticed it was shot out to closer to a .45, I shoot .445 balls in it and they load easily.

In spite of some wear it is still a one ragged hole shooter at 50 yards.

The bore looks like this today;

[Hungry Horse]

I ran seventeen pounds of powder through my old CVA Mountain Rifle, at 70 grains per shot,  before it burned up the drum. I sent it back to CVA, and they put a new drum in it for me. I shot another five or six pounds through it before it got so worn that it wouldn’t group anymore,and I swapped it for a chainsaw. Most of the barrel wear was from the ramrod I suspect. I probably could have made her shoot tighter by shortening the barrel at the muzzle a couple of inches.

  Hungry Horse

[Eric Krewson]

My friend always used a range rod with a bore protector, custom made with a beautiful lathe turned walnut handle, he gave it to me as well.

[tiswell]

  Thanks! This is great info!

   Shovelbuck,
 Just water? Hot, cold, jag and patch, worm and tow, brush and patch, what is the secret? Also, what patch lube and what storage lube?

   Rich, Is Roger around and on this forum?

    Eric,
      Same questions as to Shovelbuck.

     I have a rifle Kibler kit I am about to stain and finish. I want to start it out right. I wanted to see if there is any correlation as to patch lube, cleaning regimen and sustained accuracy and barrel life. It will get passed down and I want to get it on paper so my Son and Grandson don't have to guess.

     Thanks to all that replied and thanks for any follow up info!

[rich pierce]

   Rich, Is Roger around?

     Thanks to all that replied and thanks for any follow up info!

Sadly, Roger has passed away. He was a legendary shooter and all around good guy.

[Shovelbuck]

   




tiswell..................

Usually plain warm water with patch and jag. I've never had a brush down any of my guns.  I use WD-40 after cleaning. I might add, a few years back i had a bad fall with the gun and broke the stock pretty bad. While it was tore down for repairs, I unbreached it for the first time since the build. I never used any anti sieze on the threads when built and it came right out, no troubles.  The frizzen had gotten so worn that the edge would cut you, so I resoled it while I was at it.

[hanshi]

Welcome to the forum, Mick.  I've had a very nice M1841 Euroarms replica for over 15 years and has had quite a few rounds through it.  Love those 1841s.

[Daryl]

Legend has it that Roger Fisher ran an record number of rounds through a barrel. I forget the number but in excess of 20,000. Got it re-cut just a little when group size started to enlarge a little and went back to its winning ways.

Roger told me he was having trouble with is .45 Getz bl.'s accuracy and point of impact.  The POI had dropped something like 2 1/2" at 100 yards and the groups had opened. We discussed what we'd heard about the old time "shooting slick" & the remedies he might use to 'etc' the bore somewhat. At that time, he told me he had 45,000 shots through that barrel.

We had a local lad, went by the handle, Hatchet Jack, who had close to 20,000 I think, through one of his 20 bores, and 10,000 through his Hawken flinter that Taylor built for him - many moons ago.
HJ keeps track, a log of the # of rounds fired, through each of his guns.

[tiswell]

Daryl,
    Do you happen to know what they cleaned their barrels with and what they used for patch lube?

                                                                                                                               Thanks, Bill

[bob in the woods]

Running the #'s , my .54 rifle [  Colerain 42 in " C" weight swamped barrel ]  is approaching 15,000 rounds. My target load was 80 gr of FFg .  Somewhere around 8 to 10,000 groups opened up, . Upping the charge to 90 gr brought it back , but it's now shooting larger groups again with a lower point of impact. The rifle is now used for hunting, with a 100 gr load.
I've heard that roughing the bore can help ..the idea being that the bore becomes too slick,  but I've never had the nerve to try it.  A proper range rod was always used , and clean up is with room temp water, followed by WD 40, and bear oil
Lube was WD40 [  liquid, not the spray ]  or bear oil.   I should say that this rifle has been with me for 30 years. I used to shoot a .535 ball, but in later years switched to a .540 from a Green Mountain mould.

[JamesT]

Roughly speakin if youvd fired 20,000 rounds of .50 caliber thru your rifle at an average of 70gr. a shot that's well over 500 pounds of powder and 200 pounds of lead! Yeah man! Wish I could say I've done that.

[JamesT]

Or rather 500 lead and 200 powder.

[Daryl]

Daryl,
    Do you happen to know what they cleaned their barrels with and what they used for patch lube?

                                                                                                                               Thanks, Bill

Seems to me, Roger used spit for lube. I also think he took his rifle apart to clean with cool water.







Hatchet Jack cleans his rifles and his SB's in his bath tub.

In one year, about 10 years ago, I went through 25 pounds of 2F, just in my .69 - most of those shots were 82gr., ie: 3drams, with the odd shots with 165gr.- likely 2 pounds worth or close to 42 shots?
The other 1,963 shots (about) were with the "light" load.
Just a few weeks ago, I dropped a small light down my bore and it was beautifully shiny, all the way to the breech- as normal. I figure that rifle has well over 5,000 rounds through it. Never a broken lock part, however I have "gone through" 1/2 a dozen or more nipples. I've been shooting that rifle now, for 33 years. I have a few others, but this one is my favourite.

[JamesT]

Daryl,
 Who is the young man with the 24" roundell target? The right margin reads "200 yd offhand champion" I like it!
James

[Pukka Bundook]

Daryl,

I can't help but wonder how many hundred gallons of spit it takes to lube 45,000 patches!   

Looks like fine shooting!

[Daryl]

Correct me if I am wrong, but:
That was a "younger" Roger Fisher, same guy in period clothing when he was barely 78, I think.

The 200yard offhand target was a 'fund raiser' at his club - $1.00 per shot, winner takes 50%, I think. Roger
won it a number of times. That is his centre hit, touching the X in the centre of the 10 ring.

.45 Getz bl.
He used a .445" ball and .020" patch for 'plinking' and a .454" or .457" ball and .020" Teflon coated patch for chunk.
Seems to me he used 65 to 75gr. 3F - not sure on that.

[JamesT]

Thanks Daryl that's really neat. I did notice that x ring. He's a regular Timothy Murphy.

[bptactical]

Not front stuffers but I have 2 rifles with a documented 100k rds through each.
And they were used when I acquired them.
Worst one groups at 4 MOA.
Germans can build a barrel.

[Eric Krewson]

My friend was old school, I distinctly remember him mentioning that he used sperm whale oil as a lube back when there was still some to be had. There is a little silver oiler in the effects he left to me that has some "mystery" oil in it that might indeed be whale oil. Seems like someone in his club had a few gallons of the stuff they had found in storage somewhere.

I have to admit my friend had a bit of blarney in him and was a great storyteller of fact and fiction all packaged to be the same.

One time I googled his name and actually found a quote by one of his childhood friends in California about what a driven individual and leader of the pack he was when he was 12 or so.

He was heavily involved in archery for many of his younger years, I thought his stories about all the wins were fictitious as well but checked a little and found them to be true.

I came to find over the years that he was on the level with most of his tales although he embellished some of them a bit. Did he shoot 50K rounds through his gun? From what I knew about his obsessive nature, it might be actually true.

He was a blacksmith and horse trainer at a race track in Fl. When bad health and the loss of his job forced him into living out of a garage in Tn with his wife, he showed me blacksmith shop he set up in a shed near his converted garage. He had everything, two big anvils, two forges at least a 100 hamers, tongs and dozens of assorted hardy hole tools. He was a master craftsman, everything he made was as perfect as he could make.

He became too ill to use his shop, sick with cancer and out of money he told me he was going to sell off his smithing equipment for $600. I begged him to wait and let me find a buyer for his stuff at a fair price. I had a guy in Pennsylvania coming to look at everything but a local guy heard about the shop and dropped by with 6 crisp 100 dollar bills and took the stuff home with him.  A lifetime collection of blacksmithing tools gone, it made me sick.

The guy who bought the stuff was a hoarder and locked the equipment away never to see the light of day again.