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45 cal barrel length.

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himem777

40 Cal.
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Feb 16, 2010
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I have a good friend who wants to make a plains pistol. He wants to use it for hunting deer. His barrel will have started its life as a rifle barrel so he knows it will handle a good size charge. So here is the $24,000 question (oops thats $13,300,000,000 now) how long would a barrel have to be to burn 80grns of powder? Is there a source for this info. I think he needs another rifle, but he insist that he wants a medium range (100-150 yards) pistol. :idunno:
 
OOps He said 60-80grns :shocked2: ....thought that sounded like a heavy charge for a lighter gun.
 
Don't think ANY pistol is gonna be up to hunting deer at 100 to 150 yards.(100 to 150 FEET would be more realistic) Regardless of load.

Jon D
 
what he is describing to me is basicly a carbine rifle with no butt-stock. He wants it for a ligth rough moutain rifle. I personally do not think the but-stock adds much, but that is what he wants. :youcrazy: I do not think there is a historical president for this but I do not know.
 
If I use Paul V's formula for calculating an effective burn your friends pistol barrel will have to be 43.74" long to burn 80 grains of powder. :rotf:
 
I have been looking on other forums, and the more I look the more it looks like even 75 grains would be stout.... :shocked2: But he is insistent.
 
I am starting to find my own answers. Ill post them for all. 11.5 grains of FFg per cubic inch of barrel volume. For a 12 inch barrel thats 88.205 grains of FFG. If my math is right.
 
Ooooops :redface: I used the diameter not the radius. It comes out to 22.054479857142837 but that dose not seem right ether. My ROA likes more than that.
 
The original topic asked, "how long would a barrel have to be to burn 80grns of powder?" so I think my answer was exactly "on topic". :)


Because the formula is set up to calculate the load and in this case we know the load and we want to calculate barrel length we must rearrange the known and unknown things.
We come up with the powder load divided by the product of the bores area times 11.5 equals the barrel length.

The area is:(.45/2)^2 X 3.1416 = .1590 square inches (area of bore)

The bores area times 11.5 is: .159 X 11.5 = 1.8285

The powder load divided by that product is: 80/1.8285 = 43.7517"

Checking this, .159 sq in X 43.7517 X 11.5 = 80.000 grains. IMO, this validates the calculation.
 
I am sorry I thought you were kidding, and picking on someone. My apologies, and thanks for the reply.

So basically I can keep telling my friend that he needs to keep his rifle barrel on a rifle stock to make use of the longer barrel. The only way he can make a Kentucky pistol shoot like a Kentucky rifle is to take his rifle and saw off the but-stock. After that he can work out more so he can hold it when it goes off. :grin:
 
Muzzleloading handguns are difficult to load in the field; have a limited amount of power and range and are more difficult to carry than a standard centerfire handgun.

If you want to build a muzzleloading handgun use a fast twist and limit the range to a max of 50 yards. If your using it for deer use the biggest ball you can handle. A .54 makes a nice handgun.

I would suggest a carbine in .54 or .58 caliber if he wants something a bit more handy for deer hunting. A 26" long barrel is about the perfect length IMO for a carbine but 24" is pretty good too. Again with the shorter barrel the larger the caliber the more it will burn; the ball will be slower but still have enough weight to do the job on deer. I use my carbines for deer more than anything else I own.

For my carbines I use 3f powder and as tight a load as I can load reasonably in the field; my sight in is 1" high at 50 yards. A tighter load burns better in a carbine or pistol. I paper patch a hornady 240 grain PA conical for a nice snug fit on a clean barrel in my 21" TC PA Hunter flinter and the proof it works is always in the freezer.
 
The twist of a rifle barrel will not be the correct twist for a pistol barrel, accuracy will suffer.

RDE
 
I have been looking at a long barrel muzzleloading bull elk hunting pistol myself. The Pedersoli Bounty has a 16-3/8" long barrel and a 1x18" twist in 45 or 50 cal. I imagine they have done a lot of research to come to this formula to burn the powder and get the maximum velocity and accuracy. Using a heavy charge of powder does not always give a velocity gain if it does not burn effeciantly.
 
Out of curiosity I just went out in back and pushed my Traditions Trapper .50 caliber 9-3/4" barrel to 40 grains of FFFG Pyrodex.015 well oxed lubed patch, .490 ball to see if it would burn the powder clean. That load makes a whopper of a handfull and the ball is hauling down the throat. I would say the powder did burn. No muzzle flash or unburned powder that I could see.
If I had a bull elk at 50 yards with that load and 50 caliber ball I would take him.
I would feel much better as was said above with a .54 caliber ball with heavy load and 50 yards.
 
Well heck, I shoot my Lyman Great Plains Pistol all the time with 45 grs of Pyrodex "P". The recoil doesn't seem all that bad. :idunno:

Now, I sure would not want to take it elk hunting, no way. :bull:

I forgot to say the pistol is .54 cal using a .530 round ball about 222 gr weight. :thumbsup:

Dale
 
Not trying to make a joke here, but to have a pistol capable of 100~150 yard rage, you need a minimum of a 24" barrel. No matter hw strong the barrel, you need sufficient length to burn a 80 gr. charge.
 
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