contrarian said:
You mentioned twist rate.
How can this be measured?
I know that this is often published information on new equipment, but how can one measure this at home?
Mount a cleaning jag on a cleaning rod or your ramrod and lightly oil a clean patch.
Shove the patched jag down to the bottom of the barrel bore.
Now, wrap a piece of masking, painting or Magic tape around the exposed rod so it is flush with the muzzle.
Using a pen or marker, make a line on the tape that is lined up with the front sight.
Slowly and carefully, pull the rod back out of the bore taking special care to allow the rod to rotate freely while the patch follows the rifling grooves.
If your doing this right, you will see the mark on the tape rotate so it is no longer aligned with the front sight.
Continue to pull the rotating rod out until the mark on the tape is directly opposite the front sight. In other words, the rod has rotated 1/2 of a full turn. Then stop moving the rod.
Get a tape measure and measure the distance from the muzzle of the barrel to the lower (closest) edge of the tape.
Multiply this distance times 2. That will give you the rate of twist for your barrel.
Often when doing this, the patch will jump a groove as you pull the patched jag up the barrel so, repeat this proceedure several times, recording the distance from the muzzle to the tape.
Take an average of the distances or better yet, use the distance that was most often seen, multiply it times 2 and call it good. :grin: