"scratch" rifling

[bob in the woods]

I have heard about this , but wondered how effective it really is?  I have thought about casting a plug around a rod, [ like as for freshing a barrel] and pulling a cutter straight through my 10 bore. Would this improve my patterns?  Is it worth it, or just a waste of time?  Any comments are appreciated.

[Dphariss]

I have heard about this , but wondered how effective it really is?  I have thought about casting a plug around a rod, [ like as for freshing a barrel] and pulling a cutter straight through my 10 bore. Would this improve my patterns?  Is it worth it, or just a waste of time?  Any comments are appreciated.

Sometime in the later ML era I suppose a gunsmith named Kendall  (can't recall his first name) in the NE planned to attend a smooth bore shoot. So he cast a lead slug in a smooth reamed barrel and then with the slug, coarse emery and his rifling machine scratch rifled it. He and the man who went with him won all the prizes at the match. Its in the Warner-Lowe papers a friend of mine has a copy of. It is stated that a barrel so rifled will shoot almost as well a normal rifle for about 100 shots.

I have thought about trying this to see how it works. But would have to travel to find a SB shoot I suspect.

Dan

[bob in the woods]

Thanks Dan. I actually read about it with regard to the first few inches from the breach on smoothbore dueling pistols. The point being that you couldn't see anything unusual looking in from the muzzle.
I thought about using a coarse abrasive, or multiple cutters to draw out a one pass straight "scratch"
in order to perhaps tighten up my patterns using shot.

[Dphariss]

Thanks Dan. I actually read about it with regard to the first few inches from the breach on smoothbore dueling pistols. The point being that you couldn't see anything unusual looking in from the muzzle.
I thought about using a coarse abrasive, or multiple cutters to draw out a one pass straight "scratch"
in order to perhaps tighten up my patterns using shot.

I would use a hone or maybe a "split stick" and wet or dry for this to roughen the bore slightly. Roughing the breech increases velocity, it seems anyway and was thought to do so in the 18th-19th century.
Roughing the muzzle end slightly is thought to retard to wads to keep them from blowing the patterns.

Dan