BARREL LENGTH QUESTION

[redbaron80]

About what would be the max length for a .50 Cal naval barrel? I have a 7.5 inch .44 cal that works fine,so I figure that a .50 Cal barrel with a 10-12inch length from 2 inch brass stock should be fine for naval barrel and still look proper. Any opinions?
Tks,Bill

[cannonmn]

What period of cannon barrel do you want to simulate, or what model, meaning WWII, Civil War, or what?  Naval gun barrels have gone from only a few calibers back when caronnades were used, up to 60 calibers currently.  The vast majority of naval barrels were cast iron or later, steel, only a very few US Navy barrels around the time of the Civil War through the 1870's, were made in bronze.  If you want some nice drawings which are fairly accurate as far as proportion, I'd look in Peterson's classic book Round Shot and Rammers.

[redbaron80]

Cannonmn,
I am planning on building a firing, close to scale model section of a gun deck, to include 3 naval cannons on their carriages along with the pulleys and gun ports. The display would be from the "Nelson" era. I think with 2 inch stock, a 10 barrel at 50 cal might work.
Bill

[GGaskill]

This is a 24 pounder of 1779 of the English style.  This one is 1/5 scale which makes the barrel about 24" long with a maximum diameter of 4".  It has a one inch bore which is a little underscale.  A 1/10 scale model would be 12" long, 2" in diameter and have a .58 cal bore (I think 37/64" or .578" would be close enough and easier to find tooling.)

This pattern is the one used on the USS Constitution (launched in late 1797 so only a few years before Trafalgar [1805]) and plans are available from the Naval Historical Center - Detachment Boston on the engineering drawings and prints CD-ROM.

[cannonmn]

I looked in Muller's 1780 book Treatise o Artillery.  It looks like, generally, naval guns should be 14 calibers or even a bit more in length.  For your case, if you want a .50 bore to be in proper scale, make the barrel about 7" long.  If you want the barrel to be 10" long, make the bore about 0.71".  I think .50 will be too small a bore for a 10" long barrel, if you want the scale to look right.

[Terry C.]

It looks like, generally, naval guns should be 14 calibers or even a bit more in length.  For your case, if you want a .50 bore to be in proper scale, make the barrel about 7" long.

I believe that the 14 caliber spec refers to bore depth, not overall length. When you add the breech wall and the cascabel you will probably get a figure closer to 8˝".

This is a bit shorter than the 10" length desired, but there's no reason that the barrel can't be slightly underbored. Many larger gun barrels, commercial and home-built, are significantly underbored for extra strength and safety.

As long as the external proportions are accurate, the smaller bore diameter would not be that noticeable.

[Double D]

I don't know how authentic you want to go, but if you haven't already looked here, this is where to start HMS Victory and Wikpedia-HMS Victory

The HMS Victory Museum Shop might be able to point you plans or drawing.  Contact them and ask.  You might want to know which gun you wanted to replicate first as the Victory carried serveral different kinds.

[Victor3]

 I suppose you could make the diameter to exact scale at the muzzle and then taper-bore it back (Like a cone) to whatever actual bore diameter you choose (?)