Rifled ML PRB shotgun

[Lonegun1894]

Does anyone here know of a rifled ML shotgun for use with PRB only? I mean, if modern shotguns can be rifled, why not a ML shotgun? This ought to stir the pot a bit between hunting seasons... :slap:

 

[azmntman]

I think if you rifled a shot gun barrel you'd have a rifle?

 

[Billnpatti]

By definition, a gun with a rifled barrel is a rifle. If you start with a thin walled shotgun, your rifling would have to be mighty shallow and the grooves could even compromise the barrel and result in the barrel splitting under a heavy load. If you start with a smoothbore rifle or fouler, you would end up with a rifle. Having rifled the bore, it would no longer work with shot. A shot pattern from a rifled barrel will be a doughnut with a large hole in the center. Nothing will rectify that. That is just the way rifled barrels work with shot loads. it is because the spinning of the shot load causes it to open up in the center forming a ring pattern. Depending on the twist rate, it can be made to shoot either round balls if you have a slow twist rate or conicals if you have a fast twist rate. If you have a twist rate of around 1:48, it can be made to shoot either conicals or patched round balls but its days as a shotgun are over.

 

[mooman76]

Reminds me of when I was young, in my teen years. Just to be funny I would go to A&W, back when they had the root beer stands and I would order a chilidog w/ onions and a hotdog with chili and onions. :rotf:

 

[FishDFly]

Does anyone here know of a rifled ML shotgun for use with PRB only? I mean, if modern shotguns can be rifled, why not a ML shotgun? This ought to stir the pot a bit between hunting seasons...


Moonman76,
Reminds me of when I was young, in my teen years. Just to be funny I would go to A&W, back when they had the root beer stands and I would order a chilidog w/ onions and a hotdog with chili and onions.

Moonman 76, his A&W fun makes more sense, at least you can eat his creations.

Trolling, trolling, trolling on..........

 

[zimmerstutzen]

Our local Pa Game authorities think a cartridge 12 ga is a shotgun whether rifled or not. To confuse matters even worse, according to them, a 45 long colt pistol loaded with 410 shot shells is also a shotgun when loaded with shot shells. But a smoothbore 62 caliber flintlock pistol is always a pistol and not legal for deer in the shotgun only part of the state.

To me it is eminently simple a rifle has rifling and a shotgun does not. A 12 ga with rifling is a 72 caliber rifle. But bureaucrats can always find a way to obsfucate the issue.

 

[azmntman]

...and they get paid well for it too! :cursing:

 

[Lonegun1894]

Same here as PA. A shotgun can be rifled or smoothbore, and the only difference is the ammo in the case of a modern, or the markings in the case of a ML. Some of y'all probably know what I'm thinking...

 

[stinkyfeet]

My buddy has a 16 ga shotty fully rifled and it is a beast of a gun.

 

[Billnpatti]

Yes, you can get rifled barrels for a shotgun. They are intended for shooting slugs not for shooting shot. Whether it is a rifle or a rifled shotgun depends on where you live and what the laws for that state say it is. But, a rifled barrel will not shoot shot worth a darn. It gives big doughnut patterns. So, is it really still a shotgun? Not in my book. If it shoots a single projectile from a rifled barrel, it is just a large caliber rifle. Not all states will agree and not all people will agree. So, I guess each state and each person will have to figure out whether it is a chilidog with onions or a hotdog with chili and onions.

 

[nkbj]

To answer the original question, militaries around the world turned their smoothbores into rifled muskets when hollow base bullets were adopted. It worked because the depth of rifling was kept pretty shallow, not taking away too much metal at the muzzle.

As regards shooting round ball in such shallow rifling, the bigger the bore gets, it is generally the three grooves and lands of equal width (the rifling geometry) rather than the depth of rifling that makes it difficult to get patched round ball to shoot accurately. If the same barrel had seven or eight or more lands it would work much more easily.
So, if you have enough wall thickness at the muzzle, multiple grooves can make it work.

 

[mooman76]

I'm sure that some starts define a shot gun by gauge rather than if it's rifled because of game laws. Many have shotgun season and allow rifled slugs so it cuts down on confusion. If they called them rifles then they would not be allowed or rifles would be allowed also.

 

[kopfjaeger]

 

[satx78247]

Google "Paradox Gun", which is a PARTIALLY-rifled shotgun, for use with balls or conicals.
(As little as 2-3 inches at the muzzle will work & NOT turn your shot-patterns into doughnuts.)

Fwiw, I'm considering having one of our VERY TALENTED forum members build me a "Plain Jane" SxS 12-bore cape-gun with a set of smooth barrels furnished, too for my hunting trip to Africa in 2015 and for "elsewhere", too.
(I would guess that a 12-bore rifle, beside a smoothbore barrel loaded with buckshot, would handle anything that one can hunt these days with a muzzleloader, ANYPLACE.)

yours, satx

 

[satx78247]

Unless the game laws have changed in PA (the laws may well now be different), since I was stationed at Ft Indiantown Gap, anything larger in bore than a 28-gauge is considered to be a SHOTGUN by the PAG&FD, regardless of whether it is rifled or smoothbore.
(Therefore my school-chum from Philly, who has a Rigby's Best Quality SxS in .500EBP double-rifle, has according to the G&F folks, a double-barrel shotgun. )

ImVho, bureaucrats, of every persuasion, are generally EMPTY-HEADS.

yours, satx