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Douglas Barrel

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.32-cal

Pilgrim
Joined
Mar 11, 2006
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Hello guys...A friend of mine was shown a handsmade cap and ball mzzleloading target rifle and was told it had a Douglas Barrel. I'm rather new at shooting muzzleloaders and have never heard of a Douglas Barrel. Does any one have any info on that barrel.
Thanks in advance
 
They were a very good quality. If the barrel is in good condition,(no rust or pitting in the bore) it should be a good shooter.
 
I have a .50 cal. Douglas barrel on one of my rifles. It is a 1 in 66" twist. They are verry good barrels but I don't thank they are being made any more.
 
:grin:
Thanks Rebel....I wasn't planning on buying it as the cost is $1,200.00 and it is 11 years old. I had just never heard of a Douglas barrel.
 
Thanks Rifleball36....If they aren't made any more maybe that's why I hadn't heard of them before.
 
I think they still make smokless barrels. Quit the black barrels due to people trying to sue. They are good barrels. Dilly
 
Douglas ML bbls were as good as they come. Put one on a rock lock over 30 years ago, still throws them plumb center.
 
I am currently building a 32 cal for my grandson and it is a Douglas Barrel 1 in 66 twist. My brother had this barrel for 25 years or more and never built the gun and gave the barrel to me.
Douglas still makes barrels for the smokeless market but has quit makeing black powder barrels due to lawsuit from someone who loaded a black powder barrel with smokless powder and blowing it up.
Google Douglas Barrel and you will get hits for them but probably not a muzzeloader barrel.
Midway USA among other suppiers still sell the smokless barrels by Douglas.
As mentioned they are an excellent barrel. Sad they still don't make BP barrels.
 
Douglas makes barrels of the button rifling type. They run a hot carbide button throuh a bore, which presses the rifling into the steel. It is supposed to be smoother than cut rifling. :v
 
I live about 20 miles from the Douglas plant though I haven't been in it in quite a few years. They made top of the line ML barrels for years until some idiot figured they were good enough for smokeless powder and put a big gob into one. He blew it up and sued Douglas for negligence or some such nincompoopery. They figured they didn't need the hassle and quit the BP business, but still make top of the line smokeless barrels. It's a shame they didn't stick it out. Every once in a while you'll see one on an off the shelf TC rifle and on some custom jobs.
 
kanawha ranger where is the Douglas plant in WV.? My shooting buddy is .32 cal. he put the thread online when I told him about the Douglas Barrel Co. I told him I thought it was here in WV but didn't know where.
 
How can you tell if an early T/C bbl is Douglas? By the way, my GGG Grandpaw was a Kanawha ranger and indian spy for the Army in your country, we could be related. :thumbsup:
 
The Douglas plant is between Charleston and Cross Lanes in Kanawha County. If I remember right, on Big Tyler Mt. Like I said, it's been a good while and I don't get over that way very often.
I tried to get a job there once when I was laid off years ago.
 
thanks I will relay that on to .32 cal. I must say the barrel was something like I have never seen. Scott dropped a bore light down it and it glistened in the light like fine polished silver or something like it. Beautiful rifle but too much of a price tag for me. :grin:
 
The few I've seen were marked GR Douglas. I may be mistaken, but if I remember right, some of the Hawken style rifles they made had them. Others I'm sure were added by owners.

My GGGGG Grandfather John Young was appointed by Colonel George Clendenin as a spy in April 1788. He had served as a teenage rifleman in the Revolution and moved to the Kanawha Valley in 1783. He married Lewis Tackett's daughter Keziah in May of 1789 and on October 5 of that year was named one of two lieutenants in the first government of Kanawha County. His first born, my GGGG Grandfather was the first white child recorded as being born in Kanawha. The next day Tackett's Fort was attacked and burned with several killed and captured and John with his wife and baby escaped to Ft. Lee. Later Young and Tackett bought the first two town lots in what is now Charleston and Young was one of the first trustees. In 1791, he was under the command of Daniel Boone who made his home in the what is now known as Kanawha City section. Boone listed him as being in command at Elk River with 17 men.

My muzzleloading group's range is just about 3 miles south of the site of Tackett's Fort on Coal River.

Who knows? We may be kin. There were several other Rangers who worked with Grandaddy. His brothers, Fleming Cobbs and the Morris boys to name a few.
 
They use a very hard tool that presses the rifling into the barrel rather than cutting. It's done under very high pressure. I can't explain exactly how. It seems to work better with the shallow rifling used in modern firearms than in muzzleloaders. Is the rifling very deep on your friend's rifle?

They used to have a very high quality control standard and I'm sure they still do. Their rejected barrels were much better than most that make their way into the gun shops. A friend of mine used to cull through those rejects and get barrels to use on his rifles. There was really nothing wrong with them, just a blemish or two, mostly on the exterior.
 
I had a Douglas barrel from the late '70s. It was marked GR Douglas in a very small font near the breech.
 
fusil de chasse said:
I had a Douglas barrel from the late '70s. It was marked GR Douglas in a very small font near the breech.

I had a Douglas .40 caliber barrel on a rifle I bought in the late 70's. It was marked"Douglas XX".
 
XX was premium. As they were bored and rifled from octagon bar stock, bore run out was common and they were sorted. XX had little to no bore run out.
 
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