Barrel shopping

I've so far zeroed in on two Rice profiles. The American Heritage and the Lancaster/Dickert, Both 44" and will be in 40 cal. This will be for an offhand target application. My current impasse is whether to save 1/2 lb. by going for the A wght. vs the B. 'Any one here shooting either of these profiles in .40 ? I'm curious as to whether the extra weight of the B profile translates into any notable improvement in overall accuracy and how they might 'hold' compared to each other. I keep going in circles on this so inputs and observations would helpful. Thanks all.

In my experience the "B" would be the better of the two when considering swamped barrels. I have to say however that a straight barrel with some muzzle "hang" will or should work even better. It's an individual choice and not necessarily carved in stone but then offhand shooting is the most difficult position for the majority of shooters. Speaking only for myself a .50 straight barrel rifle I owned and used prior to my last move proved to be my most accurate rifle for target shooting under 100 yards. It all came down to the fact that the muzzle heavy barrel moved slowly and would hang on target just long enough for a much less hurried shot and a better score. I'm far from an expert but this was just my experience.

hanshi said:

In my experience the "B" would be the better of the two when considering swamped barrels. I have to say however that a straight barrel with some muzzle "hang" will or should work even better. It's an individual choice and not necessarily carved in stone but then offhand shooting is the most difficult position for the majority of shooters. Speaking only for myself a .50 straight barrel rifle I owned and used prior to my last move proved to be my most accurate rifle for target shooting under 100 yards. It all came down to the fact that the muzzle heavy barrel moved slowly and would hang on target just long enough for a much less hurried shot and a better score. I'm far from an expert but this was just my experience.

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Thanks Hanshi, My gut feel preference is the B. The B profile comes in at 5.1 lbs., the A at 4.6 so without something to hold in my grubby mitt's it's really hard to anticipate the feel, balance, and 'hang' I would get with either. I have two 38" C wght. .54's that I shoot now but the plan is to build myself a more user friendly (less punishing) lighter cal. for down the line as time overtakes me. I just went thru a long post here yesterday on a similar topic that gained me some insights. Thanks for your response !

How old or fit are you to support the heavier bbl? Think about a few years down the road.

A "B" weight barrel in a .40 is not going to be a light gun.

I have a 40 cal SMR with a Rice 42 inch B wt barrel. Off a rest, shoots like a laser. Offhand, heavier than I would like. There’s no way on earth I would want the same barrel to be 2 inches longer.

In a .40 cal. , why torture yourself. To make the weight long term acceptable , use a 3/4" Oct. shape. Will be plenty stiff , while supplying good sight radius for accuracy. I scratch built a long rifle like this , and love it. When young , I shot competition w/ a 44" C wt. .50 cal . Getz barrel longrifle. It was a dream , but the wt. finally got me , at 9 lbs.. The 38" long , 3/4" Oct. .40 cal . rifle is about 6 lb.. Good for an old timer.

Great posts. Thank you all ! These are exactly the types of input I was looking for. Now I'm back to the A wght. at the least and the straight 3/4 was an option I hadn't even thought of. I'll be giving that a hard look now too. I'm pushing 72 and a bit of a runt so that last thing I want to do is create a 'no fun' gun.

Godutch..........I'm 77 yrs. old. Went on a scout to find some "close to the truck" , deer paths for the first day of deer season. Took my younger friend w/me since he was unfamiliar w/the area. He didn't bring a gun w/ him , and asked to carry my light 6 lb. .40 cal. longrifle. I handed the .40 over to him , and he really enjoyed how easy it handled , and carried it for the last hour travel to the truck. The two rifles i enjoy most , are the above mentioned light .40 , and an ultra light .50 longrifle 7/8 oct. , 38 " .50 cal. , copied from a1775 Lancaster rifle made by Valentine Fondersmith. This one has a sling making it easier to carry . When ya get old , easy sounds better. Oh forgot , put a modified "Johnson " tang peep sight on the .50 , so I could see the front sight and the target clearly. ........oldwood

I have a Lehigh Valley in 45 cal. with a 44 in. Douglas barrel. At 80 I cannot hold it off hand any longer.

I figure barrel plus 3 pounds equals gun weight much of the time. Heavy furniture like an Oerter buttplate and thick cast patchbox could make it a half pound more.

Personally If off hand shooting for targets only go with B-weight. The extra weight will help you hold on target better. That is if you can effectively hold the slight weight gain up on target. Hunting I prefer lighter, targets heavier.

I’ve got a flintlock offhand rifle in the planning stages and I’m looking at a 36-38” straight octagon 15/16” in .40. Heavier barrel to help with harmonics, shorter length for a steadier hold and a little less barrel to get that ball on its way.
I have 42” and 44” barrels on my current rifles and I like them a lot, especially the aesthetics, but after a lot of research I want to build a dedicated offhand rifle.
I don’t see many long barreled guns on the offhand line at Friendship.

Building a Tenn mt. with A weight 50 cal Rice, that's about as light as you can get in a 42" barrel. Got it together enough so I can hold it up and it feels real good.

Again, thanks everybody for your observations! As of this moment I'm going to shy away from the heavier B even though I know it would be of more benefit stability/wise. Except for when I was hunting I've done 98% of my shooting off the bench with both M/L's and reloads for modern stuff and I'd like to wean my way off that a bit with this one. So, being in the same boat as a few have mentioned prior re: age and physical condition I'd like to keep the wght/balance in a 'happy place' for as long as possible for myself. As far as the long bbl length goes.., well, it's pretty much an aesthetic thing including using a swamp as opposed to straight profiles. In essence what I think I'm in the process of doing is talking my way out of a more dedicated target rifle into a nice shooting offhand rifle and you guy's are helping me greatly. Using Rich's estimation of 3 #'s +/- and the bbl profiles I'm looking at I think I could bring this in at roughly 7# and if it would hold well I'd be happy with that. Of course I'll need to punish and second guess my self a bit more just for fun. Excuse me please while I go pace the floor, grind my teeth, and wring my hands (chuckle). Thanks again all.

If you ever find that you want the “ feel” of a heavier barrel for that stability folks talk about you can always slide a length of steel rod into the ramrod channel. Use as much or little as you wish to see if the added weight helps you hold better or just wears you out. If you start out with a heavier barrel… it’s real difficult to lighten it up.

Update: I went with the "A" wght in .40 I'd wanted Rice's Lancaster/Dickert 44" but no one had one on hand so i opted for his Allentown profile 45" which was on the shelf. That little A profile at 4.2# is the same wght as my 38" C wght's in .54. I'm not used to such slender little bbls so it looks like extra care in bedding, lug slotting, etc. will be in order. Good grief, it must have the characteristics of a tuning fork when fired (chuckle). It's on it's way to Bill Wright now for bbl and r/r channel inlets. I'll probably stock it fowler style like I did the others since we had no rifle culture here in the Hudson Valley anyway, which is kind of fun to do. And yes, it's going to fall into that 'fantasy gun' category ( again).