Practicality of different rifle barrel lenghts

[Amikee]

Welcome again all you mighty hunters and shooters

Here is another topic I'd like to post due to some near future plans.

I'm currently putting together parts for a build that will start in a little while.

I'm settled on everything except for a barrel.

First, I'd like to go .45 or .50.
Mostly it'll be plinking/target since CT has only 10 days of muzzleloading hunting season.
So undecided here yet.

Second, I'm pretty sure it'll be Colerain swamped barrel since it has round bottom groves and we can actually get them without several month wait.
I was opting for Rice, but been told 4-6 months wait.

Third, I can't decide on the barrel length.
I do like the look of the longer barrels like 42",
but is there a real advantage of having that long of the barrel for target/hunting? Perchaps 38 or
40" would be enough? I don't see that much of a difference as far as velocities and don't really care for these. I've shot 42" and felt rather comfortable. My area is rather woody and brushy but not so 42" would be uncomfortable. Anyone can collaborate on this?

Would a swamped, longer barrel be still as accurate as straight octagon barrel?
I hope to get an excellent balance in this new piece and don't really want to make a mistake since it'll cost me my arm and leg.

Any and all help will be appreciated.
Thank you kindly

Michael

 

[Rifleman1776]

With the prices and scaricty of lead and powder, the smaller .45 will be more economical to shoot and is plenty of gun for deer.
A barrel of 30" is just fine.
But many ml'ers like to emulate a style and those style generally dictate long or short barrel. It is purely your decision.
Barrel length does not give, or take away inherent accuracy. But and long barrel does have a longer sighting plane and many shooter prefer that for accurate shooting. OTOH, you will see plenty of matches won with short barreled rifles. Again, your choice.
I forgot what else you asked. Mainly this is a do yer own thang game. Except for safety considerations get what you want.

Edit: OK, the swamped thing: Swamping takes away weight from the 'hang' of a long barrel and can make it easier to hold. Do try some rifles belonging to friends to help decide (again) what you want.

 

[Amikee]

Forgot to add and was too late for edit.
This rifle will sport Chambers Deluxe flint lock and Davis single trigger breaking at about 2-3 pounds so it should be sweet for hunting and target practice. Style will be Bucks as it is comfortable but since Bucks are within of Lehigh/Allentown, the butt will show those sharper curves from those schools. It should be a gorgeus looking piece. Barrel and lock stay in the white. I'm kind of undecided whether to go brass or iron. Really like the looks of the iron on the rifle, but most of the rifles are in brass, so is a bit of a toss up.

I think this topic could've been posted in gunbuilders section as well.

Michael

 

[Grenadier1758]

My recommendation is to go with the 45 caliber swamped barrel of 42 inches. The hardware should be brass. The brass takes on a nice patina that will not alarm game when hunting. Makes no difference for target shooting.

The longer length seems to be more pleasing and elegant in a long rifle.

 

[stinkyfeet]

Well where you live and typical weather has alot to do with choice as well. Right now I live in Kansas and perfer to use shorter barrels to help fight the constant 20 mph winds here. So i shoot a heavier hawkens barrel thats 32 inches long, I still have 42 inch rifles laying around but the shorter/heavier barrelled rifle is the trick here to stay on target and reduce the winds factors of catching the barrel and blowing you off target.

 

[roundball]

If its any help, I have a Rice 42" x .45cal B-weight, swamped, round bottom groove barrel on a TVM Early Virginia.
Handles beautifully, front sight just hangs on the target, extremely accurate.
And FWIW, additional barrel lengths (in any rifle) usually add some velocity for the same powder charge.

 

[Billnpatti]

There are so many factors that go into choosing a barrel length. One factor is the general lines of the rifle that you are building. Too short of a barrel or too long of a barrel and your rifle will not look right. So, if you want a particular style of rifle, you will have to accept the correct lengths that would be appropriate for that gun. In almost every instance for a longrifle, I would choose a swamped barrel of the lightest weight for your caliber of choice. That will give you a light and well balanced rifle that will be a joy in the woods. One must bare in mind the kind of territory in which you will be hunting. If you will be in brushy or heavily wooded country, you may wish to build a plains style rifle with a shorter barrel that will be more maneuverable in the trees and brush. If you will be hunting in an area where the longer rifle will not present a problem and you prefer that style, you will need to choose the particular style or "school" of rifle that you want and then select a barrel within those parameters. You will, of course, have to find out if your area, state, etc. has a minimum caliber for deer. Some do and some don't. Many that do have a minimum legal caliber specify .45 or larger. Some will specify a minimum legal caliber of .50 or larger. Be sure what your state minimum legal caliber is before selecting a barrel. In my humble opinion, a .50 caliber is the smallest caliber that I would choose to hunt deer with but many would argue that a .45 is ideal for deer. I would agree that a .45 caliber will do a good job on deer so long as you do your part and put the .45 caliber ball where it needs to go. So, let's not belabor the .45 VS .50 as the best caliber for deer. You will never get a consensus on that point.

Let's say that you choose a .45 caliber barrel and you have carefully chosen the lightest weight barrel for that caliber. I recommend a swamped barrel for its lightness and sweet balance. Okay, within the best lengths for a .45 caliber barrel for the design or school of rifle that you have chosen, you will likely want to select the shortest barrel so your rifle will weigh the least possible. This becomes important when you are carrying it all day long. You can use a bit of math to help you in making your decision or do like many and just pick the shortest barrel you can get for your rifle. There is a rather flawed formula called the Davenport formula that will give you only an idea of the best barrel length depending on your chosen powder charge. It ain't perfect because it does not take into account the various burning rates of the different brands and granulations but it gives you an idea of the best length of barrel. Lets assume that you have chosen a .45 caliber barrel. In general, a good target load will be between 40 and 50 grains of 3f powder and your best hunting load will be somewhere around 60 to 70 grains of 3f powder. These are only approximations and you will have to determine what loads are best for your particular gun. So, if you use the Davenport formula to determine the best length to handle your hunting load, you first determine the radius of your bore. For a .45 bore, your radius will be .225. You square that number to get .0506. Then multiply that by Pi (3.1416) to get .1590. Next multiply .1590 by 11.5 to get 1.8285. Divide your greatest hunting load, in this example, 70 grains, by 1.8285 and you find that any barrel greater in length than 38 1/4 inches will efficiently burn your hunting load of 70 grains of 3f powder. Because of the shortcomings of the very formula itself, this is only a good approximation but, based upon this calculation, I think a 40 inch barrel will be great for a .45 caliber barrel.

The Davenport formula calculates the maximum efficient charge of powder for any given barrel length. I had to rearrange it to calculate the minimum effective barrel length for a given charge. You can find the Davenport formula in its original form in most good ballistics books or contact me and I will send it to you. But remember, it is only a decent approximation and is not exact. Just my suggesting this formula will send some folks into a fit :stir: but in most cases, they simply don't understand it and if they don't understand it, they are "agin it". Usually, their argument is "Grandpapy didn't do it that way" or "Dan'l Boon didn't do it that way" :idunno: No, they probably didn't so you take your choice. You can do it like grandpapy and end up with a WAG (Wild A$$ Guess) or you can do the calculations and end up with an engineering SWAG :hmm: (Scientific Wild A$$ Guess).....heavy on the word "Scientific". :hatsoff:

 

[Bob J]

My 42" swamped .54 "holds" just beautifully. I suggest swamped for offhand shooting and hunting, and they look better, too :thumbsup:

 

[hanshi]

I found that a 42" barrel offers no handicap in the woods or brush. This longer barrel handles just fine in the field. I recommend a .45 x 42" swamped barrel as an ideal combination. You can't beat a .45 on the target range, it's relatively cheap to feed and will handily take deer as well as a 30/30. Go for it!

 

[Flash Pan Dan]

One other factor as far as choice of barrel length is why you are shooting and or hunting with Traditional weapons. If you are doing so just for the ability to hunt an extra season then just get a 26 inch carbine cap lock there that are easily and cheaply available. If on the other hand you wish to experience some of what our ancestors experienced while using similar arms then considerations like most efficient barrel length that will burn powder well should be less important.

I have in my mind a picture of a man hunting and living in a particular time period in history and what he had to deal with to make his way in the world he lived in. The reasons for choosing a particular type and configuration for rifle would have been a bit different than what we have to deal with now. So I study and research to find out what would influence his decision.

After my choice of weapon I can imagine what it might have been like every time I pick that rifle up and shoot it. I don’t know if this is a major consideration for you but something to think about. After all there are more efficient weapons to choose from than muzzleloaders. If the romance and histoy of traditional weapons isn’t part of the decision making than why do it at all?

 

[Dphar]

Long barrels oscillate slower than short ones and have a longer sight radius. Both are an aid in precision shooting.
While its possible to get best accuracy from a swamped barrel I would use a straight or straight taper for a target rifle.
But we need to remember that hunting is not target shooting and a rifle that is perfectly adequate for shooting game may not be competitive in serious rifle matches shot and scored on paper targets. Especially string measure mathes.
Dan

 

[nkbj]

Long shooting, long barrel.
Medium shooting, medium barrel.
Short shooting, short barrel.
And how well it will handle in the manner it is to be used.

 

[kaintuck]

42"swamped 54cal, ~ and don't forget the wow factor of LOOKING at it hanging on the wall most of the year!......so brass furniture contrast's best to me.....more PC for me~

love em all really tho....so aim for getting more than one~ :surrender:

 

[rich pierce]

At a certain length guns get hard to fit into the car or behind the seat on a pickup. A 46 bbl" is about the limit for some vehicles, to fit it easily.

 

[zimmerstutzen]

The only way to transport my long rifle in the car is with the front passenger seat reclined part way and lay it on the seat. Other motorists can see the end of the gun in it's case and most have no clue what it is that is sticking up there.

As another said, long shooting long barrel. Especially for the sight radius.

 

[jdkerstetter]

....Bucks....Lehigh/Allentown.... most of the rifles are in brass....

All of those rifles were brass mounted, not most. Enjoy, J.D.

 

[F.G. Ford]

Mr. Pierce,
You got that right.
Looong barrels are a pain in the a$$ transporting.
Even on horse back!
Try and get a long rifle in a micro car, even in a Buick Regal
Fred

 

[dcriner]

I have a TVM rifle with 42" bbl and brass furniture. Doing it again, I would order steel furniture. The brass looks nice, but rather gaudy and unauthentic. The brass is coated with protective lacquer that will probably last for a long time, unless it is deliberately removed - in the meantime, it won't adopt a nice tarnish. Steel furniture looks good right out of the box.

 

[jdkerstetter]

Fine if that's what one wants on their gun....but steel isn't appropriate to any but a few styles of Southern guns (and then they were really iron mounted)....and not appropriate to any early Pennsylvania pieces.

I always think it a shame to see that someone put so much work into an otherwise correct piece only to see it mounted in steel. And the extra work involved..... :shake:

I don't know what TVM is putting on their mounts but left uncoated real brass will mellow nicely in a short period of time and be non-reflective in the hunting woods. An application of bluing compound buffed back or swabbed with patches with powder residue on them, will expediate the process.

Enjoy, J.D.

 

[hounddog]

well here goes i am going to put my 2 cents in this subject. as a gunsmith for over 40 years i have had the opportunity to shoot many styles and types and calibers of ml rifles. the question of which caliber is the most auccrate 50 or 45. here is my opnion based on my years of shooting. generally 45 cal is more auccrate in most of the styles of guns i have shot, even though i have owned and shot some outstanding 50 cal rifles. for targets the 45 get my vote and is still plenty large enough for deer hunting. your opnion may differ and that is fine but the 45 gets my vote bye now yours hounddog