JOHN L. HINNANT
45 Cal.
- Joined
- May 29, 2004
- Messages
- 711
- Reaction score
- 2
Greetings Mossie and All,
The QLA (false muzzle) was incorporated to ensure that a conical was not tipped to one side during the loading procedure. A very, very slight tipping of a conical while loading will cause a major accuracy problem.
This problem was discovered about the time of the American Civil War by the competitive riflemen of that day. That was the beginning of the transition from shooting the patched RB to the conical of various designs.
The gunsmiths of that day solved the tipping problem by the invention and refinement of the removeable false muzzle. The false muzzle was attached to the barrel with metal pins. It was bored to just allow the elongated bullet to just fit without tipping. The bullet was then seated down the barrel on top of the powder charge.
The rifling was of the shallow groove type with a quick twist that varied from 1-18 to 1-26. The bullet being bore size or slightly larger was engraved into the rifling. A lot of experimenting with patching (does that sound familar) was conducted. The most generally used was two crossed strips of high quality paper.
The same basic method is used in fitting a false muzzle to the slug gun barrels.
That these rifles and loading methods were extremely accurate is evidenced by the group shot by G. W. Rowland before the turn of the 20th century. Shot in front of witnesses, this record size group shot at 200 yards was not broken until 1952, and then by a bench rest shooter in a registered match and using a modern (for the time) bench rest rifle using a centerfire cartridge.
Today, at the NMLRA CHAMPIONSHIPS, the benchrest gentlemen shoot a bench rifle slug gun event at 100, 200, and 300 yards. Accuracy at all of the ranges has to be seened to be believed. The false muzzle is a major contributing factor to this accuracy.
The round ball bench rest boys also use the false muzzle idea. In this case the application is slightly different.
The false muzzle is fitted to the barrel before the drilling, boring, reaming, rifling operations and finished in place. Afer the rifling and lapping procedure, the false muzzle is removed and slightly tappered from the muzzle. This allows the loading of an oversize ball. In the case of my 58 caliber BR rifle, I load a .575 PRB into a .565 bore.
Tipping is not a problem with a round ball. A number of my shooting friends have false muzzle rifle barrels on their offhand target rifles and cross sticks rifles. Others (encluding me) do not.
Somewhere on this forum is a picture of my PRB bench rifle. If you look closely the full length photo of this rifle, you can see the detachable false muzzle.
For those of us that are using PRB hunting rifles, the QLA (false muzzle) is not needed. Those using shooting conicals should find the QLA feature quite useful.
Hope you find this information useful.
Best regards and good shooting,
John L Hinnant
If you are not an NRA Member, why not? I am carrying your load.
The QLA (false muzzle) was incorporated to ensure that a conical was not tipped to one side during the loading procedure. A very, very slight tipping of a conical while loading will cause a major accuracy problem.
This problem was discovered about the time of the American Civil War by the competitive riflemen of that day. That was the beginning of the transition from shooting the patched RB to the conical of various designs.
The gunsmiths of that day solved the tipping problem by the invention and refinement of the removeable false muzzle. The false muzzle was attached to the barrel with metal pins. It was bored to just allow the elongated bullet to just fit without tipping. The bullet was then seated down the barrel on top of the powder charge.
The rifling was of the shallow groove type with a quick twist that varied from 1-18 to 1-26. The bullet being bore size or slightly larger was engraved into the rifling. A lot of experimenting with patching (does that sound familar) was conducted. The most generally used was two crossed strips of high quality paper.
The same basic method is used in fitting a false muzzle to the slug gun barrels.
That these rifles and loading methods were extremely accurate is evidenced by the group shot by G. W. Rowland before the turn of the 20th century. Shot in front of witnesses, this record size group shot at 200 yards was not broken until 1952, and then by a bench rest shooter in a registered match and using a modern (for the time) bench rest rifle using a centerfire cartridge.
Today, at the NMLRA CHAMPIONSHIPS, the benchrest gentlemen shoot a bench rifle slug gun event at 100, 200, and 300 yards. Accuracy at all of the ranges has to be seened to be believed. The false muzzle is a major contributing factor to this accuracy.
The round ball bench rest boys also use the false muzzle idea. In this case the application is slightly different.
The false muzzle is fitted to the barrel before the drilling, boring, reaming, rifling operations and finished in place. Afer the rifling and lapping procedure, the false muzzle is removed and slightly tappered from the muzzle. This allows the loading of an oversize ball. In the case of my 58 caliber BR rifle, I load a .575 PRB into a .565 bore.
Tipping is not a problem with a round ball. A number of my shooting friends have false muzzle rifle barrels on their offhand target rifles and cross sticks rifles. Others (encluding me) do not.
Somewhere on this forum is a picture of my PRB bench rifle. If you look closely the full length photo of this rifle, you can see the detachable false muzzle.
For those of us that are using PRB hunting rifles, the QLA (false muzzle) is not needed. Those using shooting conicals should find the QLA feature quite useful.
Hope you find this information useful.
Best regards and good shooting,
John L Hinnant
If you are not an NRA Member, why not? I am carrying your load.
