Antique Longrifle with Straight Rifling

[BigSkyRambler]

This is something new to me: an antique longrifle with straight rifling. The 40"x7/8" mics .562/.580. Round bottom rifling.  Bore is roachy, but I can get it in shooting condition. It was loaded with old black powder and wadding, but no ball or shot. It has a Ketland lock that has been reconverted to flint(?). I can't tell if stock is modern replacement or just well cared for.  I have seen European guns with straight rifling, but not American.  Any ideas?

[Carl Young]

I straight-rifled a barrel as an experiment while working in the gunshop at Tannehill State Park in AL. Slightly modified the cutter for proper geometry. Did not see any particular advantage in shooting, but it was easier and faster to rifle the barrel! 

Carl

[Joe Stein]

They are out there. I have a James Marker percussion rifle with straight rifling.
Joe Stein

[Buck]

A swivel rifle I owned had straight rifling in one barrel and a twist in the other.

Buck

[BigSkyRambler]

When Sweden passed a law in the late 19th century (?) requiring only rifled guns for big game, economy minded hunters could purchase single shot gauge guns with straight rifling.  This also allowed the use of shot without blowing the pattern.

[Seth Isaacson]

A swivel rifle I owned had straight rifling in one barrel and a twist in the other.

Buck

That was a fairly common arrangement from the examples I've seen. You'll find that on German combination muzzleloaders sometimes as well. A lot of the time both barrels are the same caliber. Is yours two different calibers or one?

[rich pierce]

From the pictures I am seeing, it looks like a restock at some point.

There’s a JP Beck with straight rifling in the barrel.

[Bill Paton]

This post is from a long thread about straight rifling on this site in March of 2014. It’s pertinent to this discussion.
Bill Paton   


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Re: Straight rifling
« Reply #9 on: March 16, 2014, 09:29:40 PM »
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Dillin writes that straight rifling was probably for better patched ball accuracy than a smooth bore would produce, and therefore done to make a combination gun. He also states that straight rifled barrels comprised about 15% of all American rifles (seems too high to me), and those he had examined were made before 1800 (many original percussion double rifles exist with one straight rifled barrel). He reports a shooting trial between smooth bore, straight rifle, and twist rifle at 100, 200, and 300 yards at a man sized target in which the straight rifle performed slightly better than the smooth rifle.

A modern maker of swivel rifles told me several years ago that he used straight rifled barrels to shoot shot better than a smooth bore, but they were touchy in that respect and needed very careful load workup to get the tightest pattern, which was better than a cylinder bore.

However, I have examined two flint swivel breeches (one early Reading and one jaeger) with one smooth barrel and one straight rifled barrel. Given the great accuracy advantage of spiral rifling, I think the makers of those two swivels intended them to be combination barrels for shot or more accurate ball shooting than a smooth bore would deliver. If they hadn't intended for shot use, they likely would have spiral rifled the rifle barrel for better accuracy.

Dan mentioned a friend who reported more accurate shooting with straight rifling than a smooth bore. I would like some of you shooters to do an experiment to compare straight and smooth rifle accuracy, working up the most accurate patched ball load possible. Maybe Dan's friend already has the data I am after and could report it to us.

My take is that straight rifled barrels were intended to shoot shot, and also a patched ball more accurately than a smooth bore could.
Maybe some data from you modern shooters could shed light on this issue. I am eager for the materials and methods, and the results to be reported.

I think the European 16 ga straight rifled rolling block Dan mentioned is like my fancy German double SXS pin fire with one spiral and one straight barrel, likely intended for shooting balls at red deer and boars in the woods, and hares and birds as well.

Bill Paton
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[BigSkyRambler]

Great information, Bill. Thanks for repost.