Todays barrel length to short

[hawkeye1755]

Wow, that's a nice loonngg Bucks. :grin: :bow:
I read here at the forum, don't know which thread,that most of the Bucks County rifles were smooth-rifles?! :hmm:
:hatsoff:

 

Thanks guys for the good word. I'll finish 'er one a these days. Maybe this winter.
I have seen a bunch of smooth bored Bucks rifle in books and articles but many rifled as well. The Bucks gun that this barrel was copied from was a smooth bore of about 54 caliber or so. The outside dimensions are accurately copied from the original but the bore is rifled at 50 caliber. I have shot it and am sure the sights are lined up now, so she is ready to finish up.

It seems the Bucks and Lehigh Valley guns/rifles were prone to be lengthy. Average barrel length must have been a school by school preference.

 

[Donny]

FYI..If you get a chance to see the JM Davis Museum in Oklahoma. There a large number of 1/2 stock percussion rifles, I suppose most were made from 1840-1900. On my last visit I noticed most were longish barrels, bbl length for 1/2 stocks was ave. 39".

 

[Vaino]

Nice looking Bucks County....the "long look" not only results from the long bbl but also from the trim architecture which you accomplished.....Fred

 

I second that on the Davis Gun Museum. Great collection and you better have all day to see them all. If ya wanna really see them all ya better take a week vacation and spend it all right there. They have a heck of a lot of any kind of gun there.

Fred, thanks for the compliment. When I get 'er done I'll post the pix.

 

[TDW]

When I was a kid (a great long time ago), I worked in a gun shop in Anaheim that specialized in muzzleloading firearms. There was a beautiful old rifle on the wall that had a 61 inch barrel. I was amazed, not only that the barrel was soooo long, but that it balanced so well. I can't even imagine a 76 incher WOW!!!
Tom

 

[hawkeye1755]

I can't even imagine a 76 incher WOW!!!
Tom

In the book Flintlock Fowlers, there is a pic of a 17th century Dutch swan or goose gun.The overall length is 7 feet 8 inches mounting a 6'4-1/2" barrel, that is 76 1/2 inches. :shocked2:
:hatsoff:

 

[xxgrampa]

tdw,

that must have been the 'flintlock' if so, it'd been sold and moved.. do miss it..

..ttfn..grampa..

 

[TDW]

Grampa,
Yes it was. I worked there from the early 70's til '79. Worked my way up from ball caster to manager. Probably the best job I've ever had, and the Taylors were outstanding folks to work for. Wish I could get my hands on that old rifle one more time (sigh!).
Tom

 

[Doc Rogers]

I looked at some measurements of originals and chose 44" for my flintlock rifle approximating the illusive AWI era longrifle. Seemed to be the norm - and looks to be borne out by your data.

I also chose .54" bore as I found some data on balls unearthed at various forts and that also seemed to be the peak of the Bell curve.

I also choose 44 inches for my "early rife" (whatever that is :wink: ) but went with 0.62 cal as I thought that was more common in the pre-AWI to AWI time frame.

Am I way off base here? The makers have not started yet so I could down size to a 0.54 if that was truly much more common.

Thanks, Doc

 

[tg]

I suspect that the pre AWI guns would average under .62 but that caliber would likely be correct for the period.
I would say anything from .50-.70 would have been used, there were likely some sub .50's around also.There are not as many guns from thattime to judge by as from later on.

 

[Doc Rogers]

Thanks for the reply!

I realize there is not too much to go on for actual data for rifles pre-AWI.

I guess I'll leave it at a 0.62 as long as it is not completely wrong, as far as we can tell with what we know.

Thanks aagin,
Doc

 

[Stumpkiller]

Be practical, too. If you need a .62 go for it. I take the occasional squirrel and bunny and a .54 is a multi use caliber. ;-)

Once you start to get into the .60's it's hard to judge from a dropped ball found in a dig whether it was intended for a musket or a rifle. Same for the smaller sizes: was it swan drops for a smoothie or single balls for a rifle?

 

[tg]

Some of the digs are in areas and time periods where the rifle would not have likely been that common, the ball size for smoothbores can be decieving due to the tolerances in bore size a .562 ball was likely used in a gun with a .60 or larger bore, it is likely most studies of digs try to use as much written docums as possible to go with the items found, we also have bores of existing guns (rifles) but do not know which ones were reamed or how undersize a ball was used, I suspect the width of the breech when compared to existing bore may be a clue if the gun was bored out or close to original, it is hard to say a cal. is wrong for the early period unless you get very small then unlikely would be a better choice.

 

[Slamfire]

So now we know, barrels are shorter these days so photographers can git close enough to capture details. :shake: