Barrel length

[hortonstn]

Is accuracy affected by barrel length I've got a barrel that has been cut off due to improper care of the previous owner it's now 27 inches long 1-1/2 Douglas xx (what a shame) the rifling is about 90%
Is it possible to hit a 60yd target with some degree of accuracy?

[Daryl]

If the bore is only 90%, I suggest a scrub with maroon ScotchBrite wet with WD40- about 40 full length strokes.
The 27" bl. will be accurate if you loaded it well, ie: snug combination. .005" undersized pure lead ball and 10 ounce denim.
See threads for muzzle crown pictures and methods.
The .50 TC I had with .004" rifling easily made 1 1/2" 5 shot groups at 50 yards off the bags. The crown was nicely rounded and polished
& I used a .495" ball and .022" denim for patches, coupled with 80gr. 2F. It's barrel was 28".

[hortonstn]

Thanks that's what I thought the sight adjustment may be tedious

[Daryl]

Short sight radius will effect your accuracy.  You might think about an aperture sight mounted on a longer tang screw, if allowed in matches where you shoot.
I've won matches out to 200yards with my .69 and it only has a 31" bl.
The shorter the sight radius, the less movement is required to change the point of impact.

[Lucky R A]

      Remember that there are a lot of Jaegers that were built with even shorter barrels and they seemed to fill the bill.  I would not be too concerned with the length of the barrel.
Ron

[Dphariss]

Short barrels have a faster wobble rate and shorter sight radius. Other than that it should shoot fine. Unless shortened to very short the range will not change. If loaded the same though the trajectory might be a little higher. Round balls are range limited regardless of barrel length. Sight radius can effect accuracy since sight alignment errors produce greater dispersion with the short radius. Other than these  there is no real downside for a 27” barrel.
Last spring I freshed (actual cutting operation) a XX Douglas that was in a Don King Flint Hawken I had bought via the mail. It was pitted for about 12” up from the breech pretty heavily. I have only shot it 4 shots and the last three went about 2” at 100. This with a .535 with a .024 Linen patch.
A few weeks ago I freshed a pitted 60 caliber Mortimer sporting rifle for a friend. I would have cut it out farther as all the pits were not cleaned in one place but he wanted to stop and its shoots good enough to hunt with in Kentucky.  He was happy when he shot it.

The problem today with percussion guns and even some flints if they use a BP booster is the propellant. One of the replica powders on the market has been ruining bores for decades now. Its very corrosive.
Daryls advice is good. But if its been used with a corrosive BP substitute you need to use a lot of fairly hot water on the  bore the make sure all the salts are removed or it will never stop eating the steel and it can do it without any visible rust. Dissolves the steel at  the molecular level.  If needed you can cast a lap in the bore and lap it with 280-400 Clover compound and it will cut a little faster than what Daryl recommends. If pitted badly unless its freshed to clean the pits out it will foul pretty heavily. I would recommend debreeching to really look at the bore. In case it has a “crawdad hole” started somewhere in the bore or breech.
Clean it well, polish the bore and see how it works. If it shoots good and does not foule excessively you are golden.

[Herb]

This is a .58 Leman I built with a 24 inch barrel.  50 yard targets here.  Left-click twice to enlarge.