Why no traditional thin groove rifled barrels?

[NDduckhunter]

Walter cline’s book the muzzleloading rifle then and now, has a good description of that operation (shimming the cutter) during barrel production. It is a pretty good resource for traditional barrel production methods.

[Pukka Bundook]

Yes, the wooden part that holds the cutter is stacked with paper to deepen the cut the next time around.
I made cutters out of old files.

As Scota said, a smooth bore is more important than style of rifling.

[Leatherbark]

Helped use one a few times.  When you put a small slice of paper under the cutter the first cut with that new shim is tough to start.  Once it starts you can really feel the cutter scraping out the steel.

Bob

[Pukka Bundook]

Bob,
I did mine on my own, and reckoned I walked 14 miles rifling a barrel!
The file cutter did a lovely job, never raising a burr. 

[whetrock]

What paper did you guys use? And how thick was it?

[rich pierce]

I used cigarette paper which is about 0.0015” thick. But I found the plastic labels on 2 liter soda bottles were of similar thickness and I didn’t get raised eyebrows like when I bought rolling papers.  Of course my shooting club friends told me “that won’t work!”

Tissue paper for gift wrapping works also. Anything 2 thousandths or more causes the cutter to mush down into the lead lap and nothing extra is gained. The hardest trick is getting the cutter level or close to it.

[whetrock]

That sounds like a helpful discovery, Rich.
On his "Flintriflesmith" site, Gary Brumfield had posted: "I use the real thin paper that comes in new shirts as shim material. It has more body than cigarette paper which some recommend". That was in a post about freshening barrels.
Despite your friends' protest, if Gary could use the paper out of a shirt box, I figure you can use the wrapper off a soda bottle.    (And I'm guessing that back in the day, they didn't have cigarette rolling papers, either. But maybe I'm wrong?)

https://www.flintriflesmith.com/ToolsandTechniques/freshening.htm

[Pukka Bundook]

Whetrock,
I used  typing paper, as it's about a thou thick.
Newspaper is ok for fine boring and is about 2 thou.  Too thick for a rifling shim.
Rich,
I never used a lead plug to set the cutter in. a hard wood like maple was my choice and it seemed to last forever with lube. It was attached to a metal rod, in turn attached to the wooden rifling guide.

[Leatherbark]

I have seen people use a paper match from a matchbook and peel off thin laminations of the match.  Mainly because the match paper was the same size as the area under the cutter.  Really convenient but some matches peel off neater than others.

Bob

[rich pierce]

Whetrock,
I used  typing paper, as it's about a thou thick.
Newspaper is ok for fine boring and is about 2 thou.  Too thick for a rifling shim.
Rich,
I never used a lead plug to set the cutter in. a hard wood like maple was my choice and it seemed to last forever with lube. It was attached to a metal rod, in turn attached to the wooden rifling guide.

I’ve only freshed old barrels already rifled but in bad shape.

[Pukka Bundook]

Rich,
By what I have seen , you do a grand job as well!!

[rich pierce]

Rich,
By what I have seen , you do a grand job as well!!

Mostly. I had a couple that got the better of me. One was a modern barrel with a horrid gouge in the rifling, as though a loose jag had been fired out of it and the steel threaded portion had plowed a rough furrow. There was no getting rid of it - the lead laps got chewed up and though I poured 4 laps as I progressed and got an extra 0.015” increase in caliber, it was still a mess. Disappointing for me and the customer, though I returned my regular fee to him. Some jobs are like that.

[Bob Roller]

I remember visiting the rifle shop at Colonial Williamsburg. The gun maker was demonstrating the rifling jig, explaining how after a few passes, a slop of paper was put under the cutting blades. They looked thin, like a piece of hacksaw blade to me.

Is George Suiter still working in Colonial Williamsburg? My semi military Whitworth was made for a long bullet and long distance shots,
The rifling was Alex Henry style with very wide grooves and very narrow lands and I shot it in round ball matches with a 445 pure lead ball and military surplus patches dampened with Black Solve and 45 grains of  DuPont 3fg.No felt recoil and I let small boys shoot it.Accuracy was equal to the best of Bill Large's barrels.I used it in 50 and 100 yard matches only because I consider 25 yards as a pistol range and still do.My formula was 'Charge it lightly and patch it tightly" with that barrel.Does anyone today copy the Henry rifling?
Bob Roller