Muzzle thickness

[Michael]

Looking for opinions.

I am starting to make a officers fusil. I'm using a heavy barrel ( read that as thick walled) and am turning it down in diameter to make it look right and feel right. Most of the muzzles on the originals I have had the opportunity to handle had very thin barrel walls at the muzzle, less than a 1/16". Never having the chance to actually measure one I would guess they are around .040-.050 thick. If I turn mine down to this size am I going to have an unsafe barrel? Most of the shooting with the fusil will be firing blanks at reenactments. Any firing of live ammo would be with a naked ball with wadding on top or using the military style paper cartridge. The barrel is a modern made muzzle loading barrel which has been sitting in a corner of the shop for a number of years, finally found a use for it.

Michael

[Daryl]

Muzzle pressure is very low.  Greener once made a set of barrels with muzzles so thin, he could cut a do-nut off the end with his pocket knife, yet they didn't expand when shot.   I'd probably not go thinner than .1", as the heavier muzzles and therefore heavier barrels are generally more accurate that thin, light ones where smoothbores are concerned.

[Acer Saccharum]

I think some muzzles are down to 1/32 (.031), but the guns are for close encounters, and not for accuracy.

From the West Point Museum

Italian, about .60 cal, estimated .05 wall at the muzzle?

[Acer Saccharum]

I just went thru my catalogs of photos, and NO shots, muzzle end on. I have a Hudson River Fowler here with a 52" bbl, already been long ago cut down 6", and the muzzle is .04 wall x .60 cal.

[Scott Bumpus]

Keep in mind that thin walls get dinged and dented easily.  You might consider a slight flare at the muzzle similar to a swamp barrel muzzle.

[Jerry V Lape]

Doesn't the thickness depend upon the steel of which the barrel is made as well as expected pressures?  I have and use a German made 16ga with minimum wall thickness of .021" near the muzzle.  But it is made of a highly regarded steel.   Other guns of lesser quality steel are in the .030" range. 

[Daryl]

Steel quality certainly makes a difference.  In the book on English Pistols, available from Track for less than $15.00, each gun has dimensions listed, length as well as width at various 'spots' along the barrel.  One I figured out to have .013" walls at the swamp - and it was a brass barrel.

[keweenaw]

Wall thickness on modern British shotgun barrels is considered acceptable at 0.025" and the powder in modern shells generates considerably more pressure than black powder loads.  From a practical point of view, the problem in turning down a long thin tube is chatter.  You're turning along just fine at what you think will be your 0.040" final thickness and suddenly the piece starts to chatter.  By the time you draw file out the chatter marks you're down to 0.025"  For that reason those really thin barrels were struck by hand using files and very large grinding wheels with someone of long, long experience doing the work.

Tom