Author Topic: barrel length  (Read 758 times)

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Offline gunsofliberty

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barrel length
« on: September 01, 2009, 02:45:03 PM »
what the best barrel length for 54 cal ,twist 1/22 .540 riflling .012

Offline necchi

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Re: barrel length
« Reply #1 on: September 01, 2009, 06:56:40 PM »
That fast a twist is for pistol and revolvers, so 9-12" is good..
If your thinking rifle length, it's IMO that's too fast for any full lead projectile, even under light loads it's very likley to skip the rifling instead of spinning giving poor results.
If your thinking sabot loads you'll get much more info on the Modern ML page
found elsewhere

Offline Black Jaque Janaviac

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Re: barrel length
« Reply #2 on: September 03, 2009, 04:00:30 AM »
There's way too many other variables that are at play.  We can't give you a simple "such-n-such" answer.  It sound like a highly specialized gun barrel.  Either a pistol, a modern sabot shooter, an Elephant gun, or a short-range target gun.

As Necchi correctly stated 1:20" twist sounds more like a pistol barrel for that caliber, OR it sounds like a modern muzzle loading rifle. 

I suppose 1:20" twist could be used for very long bullets - like a .54 caliber version of a Whitworth or Volunteer rifle.  But such a bullet would likely weigh in the 800 to 1,000 grain range.  We're talking serious recoil or extremely heavy guns.  Something like African Elephant medicine.

I would disagree with Necchi that light loads would cause skipping in a rifle-length barrel.  If you had a .54 pistol that had a 1:20" pitch and it shot 50 grain charges with a roundball; there's no reason why the same load wouldn't work just as well out of a carbine or rifle length bore.  In fact I had just such a gun.  It was a Cabela's .54 caliber Hawken carbine, 21" barrel, 1:24" pitch.  That shot patched balls really well with pistol charges (20-50 grains).

If I had to make a wild guess, I would imagine that you would cease benefitting from barrel lengths in excess of 30 inches with that twist.  Just because the twist is going to limit you to small charges more appropriate for pistols.  35 grains of powder will cease exerting force on the projectile sooner than an 85 grain charge.  If all you intended to do was poke holes in paper at distances less than 100 yards you could have a very mild recoiling gun.  However, I would wonder why not shoot a .32 or .36 then.  You'd get the same minimal recoil, a flatter trajectory, cheaper lead, & it would also be hell on squirrels.
Black Jaque Janaviac - Dat's who!

Hawken - the gun that made the west wild!

Offline necchi

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Re: barrel length
« Reply #3 on: September 03, 2009, 04:37:09 AM »
With respect to Black Jaque, I had one of those Cabelas Sporterized hawkins carbines too in .54, I luckily live near a cabels store and returned it a week later for instore credit, (I got a bunch of stuff).
I didn't care for the minimal groups I got with that thing. I tried a bunch of different combinations of PRB and full lead bullet projectiles and could only get about 4" groups at 50 yards..I didn't try any sabots,,not my style.
But If I remember,( it's been 8-9 years) I also never tried loads less than 60 grns of 2f,,my plan at the time was to use it as a hunter, I guess that would be good for some as the "carbine" was ment for close work anyway's and 4" groups that close is defenatly "minute of deer" accuracy.
It could be that loads of 50 and under would work for PRB but I guess it would have to be a special use gun. If it was the only barrel I had, and my intention was to use PRB, I trade it for the more common 1-48 at least. :)
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Offline longcaribiner

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Re: barrel length
« Reply #4 on: September 03, 2009, 06:16:00 AM »
1 in 20 is either a shallow twist for very heavy conicals or deeper for round ball pistol,or perhaps a highly specialized short range offhand rifle.    know folks who shoot large caliber fast twist rifle barrels with such twist, but with very moderate powder charges. 30 to 40 grains.

Offline Black Jaque Janaviac

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Re: barrel length
« Reply #5 on: September 03, 2009, 11:02:05 AM »
Necchi,

Yep it sounds like you and I must have had guns that had consecutive serial numbers.  Note I never made any rave claims about that guns performance with other bullets and loads.  I just learned that it liked pistol charges and roundballs.

Oh, I also struggled with it for many years with no success whatsoever until I noticed the muzzle crown was not concentric with the bore.  I locked her up in a vise and filed until there was no crown left.  That improved the accuracy at least with the roundballs.  By then I was so fed up that I traded it off.  I was at least confident that I could tell the shop owner that the only success I found was with roundballs and pistol charges.  He was happy to take it off my hands anyway.

I was not as smart as you and I should have returned it promptly.

After having discovered that muzzle crown thing, I quickly checked my other guns with similar problems and gave them the same fix.  Now, I thoroughly examine the crown before buying a gun, and if it looks off I negotiate a crown-job into the price or pass it up.

Black Jaque Janaviac - Dat's who!

Hawken - the gun that made the west wild!