what barrel gives the best accuracy,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

[oldwood]

Just got back from shooting range sighting in new .54 cal Eastern Lehigh valley school longrifle. Barrel is a Colerain "B" wt. taper and flared. Newly cast Lee .530 r/b's , 80 gr. FFFg .. OX-YOKE competition patch lube . .014 compression micro-metered . Patch pkg. labeled .018 . Used 54 bronze brush , and rag wiper between shots.
Last group @ 60 yards was all holes touching in the 10 ring. I can't see the target @ 100 yds. , but could guarantee younger eyes would shoot 3" @ 100. First time using OX-YOKE comp. patch lube. It feels like human spit between the thumb and finger and it wouldn't run out on a 90 Deg. day. Nice smell , too.
All things considered , was a positive experience......oldwood

 

[hanshi]

Scott, My hat's off to you. I wouldn't be able to LIFT a 73 pound gun.

 

[Col. Batguano]

Wow. A "B" weight in a 54 would be really thin in the waist, and make for a really light gun. Did you solder your lugs on or cut them in?

 

[LawrenceA]

In the enlightened words of Plato (on the subject of favorite wine).

Someone else's!

Or is they're just a better shot?
NAHH......

 

[Loyalist Dave]

Scott, My hat's off to you. I wouldn't be able to LIFT a 73 pound gun.

NAH it's just a matter of HOW you go about moving it, not the actual weight....,

These are images of an Amuzette, which was a Wallgun, mounted on a carriage. Generally the smallest would be a 4-Bore, or 1" caliber [1.052 by modern standards] , and they were traditionally employed on the flanks of an artillery battery to "discourage" infantry from overrunning and capturing the artillery.

LD

 

[oldwood]

Col. B.............The "B" wt .54 cal. long rifle shot yesterday, has 4 barrel lugs. Three for pinning and one for sling swivel. They are all the kind you mark the bottom flat w/ a special 2 prong punch , drill 2 shallow holes per under lug in the bottom flat of the barrel and solder each under lug in place. When this kind of underlug was originally marketed by Pete Allen , they were supposed to be inset by a special "U" shaped punch.
In the late 1980's I stopped hammering on our modern soft lead bearing steel gun barrels. That's why i modified the process from setting them w/ punches to soldering them in. The soldered finished product is stronger , as well. I'm not a soldering " genius" , so the sloppy soldering i clean up w/ a 1/4 " cold chisel and coarse well chalked file to make the job pretty. Also , these lugs are too tall . A touch on the belt sander makes them right.
Most guys probably know the trick rediscovered back in the late 1960's and passed on to me by Dick and Donnie Getz , concerning under lugs and pinning barrels in place. The holes drilled through barrel pinning loops must be drilled sloppy and oval shaped longways , so the barrel floats longitudinally in it's mortise. There's barrel/gun stocking science here , that I simply accept. I'm too old to know how it works , but it has something to do w/ barrel harmonics. If the harmonics aren't right , most likely the gun will never be accurate. Hope this helps.......oldwood

 

[Grenadier1758]

The absolutely best barrel of stressed relieved steel, laser aligned for straightness, rifled to optimum width of lands and depth of grooves, lapped to perfect smoothness and consistency of diameter with a 0.003" choke at the muzzle still won't give good accuracy if it is installed in a stock with architecture that does not fit the shooter and the under barrel lugs do not have the longitudinal float as described by @oldwood.

Some folks swear by radius grooved barrels others will swear at them. Radius grooves being deep are not for shooting minie balls or conicals.

 

[Crow-Feather]

With so much else; powder charge, patch thickness, sights, cast vs. swaged balls, amount of pressure on the powder, it would take me a year's worth of powder to figure out how accurate even a Tradition's barrel can be. Then you buy an ACME barrel and get the one bored on a Monday when the gunsmith has a raging hangover. There are companies that have made their mark as they care what they put for sale. My most accurate rifle was a CVA.

 

[oldwood]

Moron barrel pinning , dang there I labeled myself , again.
A bout 1970 when this modern m/ling thing got rolling , some friends conducted a m/l building class @ the local high school shop class area. (Try getting permission to do it nowadays)
As the class went forward , using precarved stocks , w/ barrel and ramrod channels routed , and ramrod holes drilled , the students final fitted their barrels into the stocks. The barrels were quality Getz , and Douglas , and perhaps an aged Paris thrown into the mix. At least three of the students tightly "c" clamped their barrels into the stock's barrel mortis and pinned the barrels tightly. In the months following the class , each one of these rifles had to have their pinning loops loosened before they would shoot accurately .
This loose pinning is more important on thinner barrels of substantial caliber , say 7/8" by 50. 13/16" by .45. , or "B" wt. .50. Thicker barrels are their own boss , so to speak, as are small caliber barrels , which just come w/ thicker metal.
Well again I gotta find my way out'a the weeds.....oldwood