Straight rifle group. For those interested.

[P.Bigham]

Shot today 3rd time out with my .54 caliber straight rifled barrel from Rice. Starting to show promising results. Off a bench at 50 yards 75grains of 3 f goex  .525 balls and .014 ticking for patches. This will be my trekking and woods walk Gun. I believe I will be able to fine tune it some more.  Posting for anyone who may be interested. You can also shoot shot out of these with good results. My experience and results.  Others will differ.

[rich pierce]

Looks good, Paul!

[Daryl]

Is this your best grouping at this range with this load, or is it part of your load development?
I mean, it's looking good - better than the 13 bore straight rifled barrel I had once upon a time.
Mine was doing that at 40yards.  Do you have a rear sight on the gun?

[alacran]

I will admit to ignorance here. So my question is why would you want a straight rifling barrel? Is there any advantage?  What is the point?

[P.Bigham]

Daryl this is the 3rd time I’ve been to the range with it at 50yards. Ive been trying to get a good load worked up for it. The 1st 2 times I couldn’t keep them inside a basketball size target. I used your trick of smoothing the crown and ran some steel wool down the barrel. This was my best group so far.  Yes it has a rear sight.  They are versatile as you can shoot round ball and shot. Supposed to be a little more accurate than a smoothbore.

[rich pierce]

I will admit to ignorance here. So my question is why would you want a straight rifling barrel? Is there any advantage?  What is the point?

People want them nowadays because they are an interesting period arm. It’s suggested they were first made to handle fouling buildup in a smoothbore. I have an original late 1700s Germanic bore gun with such a barrel.

[Pukka Bundook]

To add a little to Rich P's reply, they were quite popular at one time for shot of a specific size, and did throw good patterns, but the barrels are heavier than a normal sporting barrel designed solely for shot.

According to Geo. Shumway, they were quite popular for boar -hunting, for some reason.
Rich's suggestion as an aid in handling fouling is what I've heard as well.  ..less friction.

Good results P-B!

Richard.

[rich pierce]

Here’s mine. The straight rifling is visible when the barrel is unbreeched.
This gun was probably used here based on the style of conversion to percussion.

[Daryl]

Paul, I am really pleased with your improvement. It may take a time or two more to the range to get "things" narrowed as much as possible.
You are certainly on the right path.  Good work.

[hanshi]

I really see no reason you won't end up with excellent accuracy seeing that you're doing so well already.  Smoothbores seem to be a bit more picky than rifles and straight rifled barrels likely are as well.

[Daryl]

Here’s mine. The straight rifling is visible when the barrel is unbreeched.
This gun was probably used here based on the style of conversion to percussion.

That's a good sized hole. The bottom of the grooves appears visible.

[R.J.Bruce]

P.Bigham

Congatulations on your barrel's shooting improvement.

What specific size shot did Jason rifle the barrel for? How many grooves are there? How deep is the rifling?

It is my understanding that the shallow grooves are supposed to be designed to loosely fit a certain size shot, so that when fired the shot column fills the grooves, thus "sweeping" the grooves clean of fouling.

Is this how your barrel was made?

Thanks,
              Bruce

[P.Bigham]

I picked this barrel up on a trade it’s a Rice 38 inches long. It has 7 grooves. Grooves measure .560. Lands are .550.   I had a Getz 44 inch years ago same caliber. Grouped as good as a rifle at 50 yds. I’ve never shot much shot from these or my smoothbores. Other than a few fly birds at shoots.

[Daryl]

Good sharp picture.
Those grooves look closer to .010" each, to me, which would make make the groove dia. .570".
Is that 8 grooves or 7? Nice wide grooves.  Bit of a sharp crown, though.

[P.Bigham]

Your probably right Daryl. I was using a dial caliber and couldn’t get a straight across measurement. Thanks for looking at the crown. I’ll hit it some more with the thumb and fine sandpaper.

[Pukka Bundook]

It looks to have a very nice bore, P-B!   Really Nice.

[Daryl]

It certainly does, Richard. I like the land/groove width ratio.
As to the handling of fouling by adding grooves, I also have 'heard' that and it followed into
some military rifles as well by adding really deep grooves in early 1871.

[axelp]

I have a 62 cal straight rifled barrel on a fowler style gun that was made by John Getz. I have not done my homework yet on working up a proper load for roundball, but I have killed a few squirrels with it with shot, and it is a really nice handling gun.

Ken

[Too-Tall Hunter]

My straight rifle is a 58 cal. I spent several range sessions last summer getting it dialed in to the point where I felt comfortable hunting with it. I was getting cool whip bowl size groups out to 50 yards with 75gr of Goex, over powder card, .020” patch, and a .563” round ball. As you can see, it’s a double gun and the sights are a shallow V rear with a bead front, not exactly target grade. I am planning on spending more range time with it this summer and stretch it out to 75-80 yards or so. I was not really familiar with the concept of the straight rifle until I started researching the restoration on this gun.

[Pukka Bundook]

In another thread, I think a good many of us would like to see more of this gun, TooTall!

[Daryl]

This was mine, a 13 bore straight rifled, and 16 bore smooth.

[Pukka Bundook]

I'd like to see a thread on that one as well, Daryl.

[Daryl]

PM sent, Richard.