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RPM of a bullet.. incredible

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If nothing else, doing a little arithmetic once in a while is good for the old brain cells (however many are left).
 
Math? I have enough problem with the wifes checking account, I can't be out of money I still have checks and in a former life 40+ years ago she was a bank AVP. [yes Blond]

Rotation will continue with very small degradation. Try shooting a thin jacket varmint bullet out of a 22/250 and watch the smoke trail in the scope as it disintegrates into a blue puff of smoke trail headed toward the target it will never reach.

We have no worry in ML of that problem.
 
This is like when you hear that the lifespan of a centerfire barrel is only 3 seconds, because for the entire life of your rifle if you reach the point of accuracy loss, the bore has only had a bullet going down the rifling for a total of 3 seconds total
 
This is like when you hear that the lifespan of a centerfire barrel is only 3 seconds, because for the entire life of your rifle if you reach the point of accuracy loss, the bore has only had a bullet going down the rifling for a total of 3 seconds total

In our game the bores will last for decades if loaded and cleaned properly although I have read of patch shooting guns shooting smooth and accuracy deteriorating from a glaze forming. My guess is this is actually carbon fouling which is hard to see looking down bore.
 
In our game the bores will last for decades if loaded and cleaned properly although I have read of patch shooting guns shooting smooth and accuracy deteriorating from a glaze forming. My guess is this is actually carbon fouling which is hard to see looking down bore.
I'm not too worried about the heat of blackpowder and friction from pure lead balls or bullets wearing out the bores of any of my rifles within my lifetime. Lock parts giving out and protecting the crown from rod wear are far bigger concerns.

I would have thought patched round balls would be pretty much wear-free on a bore but maybe the cloth is harder on a bore than lead?

Even if say , 20,000 Minie Balls is the "lifespan" of a rifled-musket I don't think I'll get there with any of mine, with 50 rounds per range trip being pretty much an afternoon out at the range 1-2x times per week if I'm really lucky. Given that I even take the same rifle each time, even 2,000 per year in one rifle would take some focused effort on my part . And if you can afford to shoot that much you can afford new rifles, or at least a new barrel or a reline if any of that is still available by then. I think I'll run out of time on Earth before any of my muzzleloaders run out of barrel life. I'd honestly be proud of myself if I ever fired one of my Parker-Hale Enfields enough to wear a bore out, I'd just hang it on my wall with a plaque under it "Fired this rifle until Minies hit sideways, it lived a full life , enjoy your retirement "
 
Harry Pope the famous barrel maker of early last century said his match rifle , a .33 cal on a 32-40 case had over 100,000 rounds down it and was still to accurate to re-barrel. These were lead bullets with low pressure Shutzen loads and breech seated. The powder was semi-smokeless.
Few if any of us who shoot for fun or casually in matches will ever wear a barrel out in anything or probably even have a mechanical failure in a lock

The only guys I personally know and talk to who shoot barrels out are Bench Rest shooters who compete in Regional Championships at my gun club, with those heavy bull barrel rifles. They have rebarreling setups at home because they install a new barrel, carefully break it in and by their standards it is "shot out " after as few as 500 rounds.

I had a pic of a target I shot years ago where the paper was full of sideways bullet holes as bullets tumbled into the paper and the thing still put up a 12" group at 100. It was a Mosin Nagant with a sewer pipe for a bore. I'm like , no rifle is ever really "shot out " as long as it safely fires......you just have to adjust your expectations

I've shot .54 Minies in a .58 rifle because I read about Confederates using .54 Lorenz cartridges they took of dead US troops in their Enfields. Those bullets flew downrange and hit somewhere , I can tell that much. Maybe the guy 5 feet over was taking one but no one in a 30 foot fan of my muzzle would be safe 😀
 
My match unmentionable was 1 in 7, do the math on that at 3,000 FPS, :eek: BTW at that twist the bullet turns about 3,000 times in theory on it's way to a 600 yard target.
wager you lost a few zeros in the rotation
What’s the wager? By my calculations 600 yards equals 21,600”. Divided by 7 equals 3086. So how many bullet revolutions over 600 yards if the bullet completes one revolution every 7” could possibly occur. If @Whitworth lost a few zeros that would mean the bullet continued to dramatically increase it’s rotation rate, or have I missed something? Would love to see @nhmoose math.
 
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