Found a .32 caliber rifle that has bad rust pitting in the last several inches of barrel. The rest of the barrel looks good. How short can a .32 caliber barrel be and still be a good squirrel rifle? For examble is 20" too short for powder to burn effectively? I would rather cut it off and have a shorter barrel than drill it out and line it if the shorter barrel would work.
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.32 caliber barrel length
- Thread starter theoldredneck
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Junior1942
32 Cal.
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I suspect my 32 Crockett Rifle is capable of 2500 fps with a PRB, but if you shot a squirrel at that velocity all you'd have left is the tail. 1050 - 1100 fps works well on squirrels. You could easily get that or more with a 20" barrel.
hanshi
Cannon
Barrel length is not as important for ballistics as it is for subjective handling. If you like shorter barrels the .32 will handle it just fine.
I have a .40 caliber with a 16 inch barrel. It is quite accurate and a delight to shoot.
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My oh my. 16 inch. What twist does it have? Not that it matters a whit but wanted to know.
I had never measured it before and ya got me to thinking. As near as I can figure in such a short barrel it's 1:60 maybe 1:66. I could only get a quarter turn in 15 1/4 inches from the breech plug.
LOL... I just took a close look at the muzzle and it has 40 and 66 stamped on it so I guess it's 1 in 66.
:grin:Guest
2500 seems out of the question but 2000 is achievable no doubt with surprisingly light loads.
Guest
Well, how long is the barrel to begin with? I had the same question with short barreled smoothbore. It turns out you get most of your initial velocity in the first 16 inches and you only gain 10 fps more per inch of barrel. Negligable with the right loads. Its possible to push that 32 ball at about 2000 fps. If you had the typical squirrel rifle length of 42 inches you get only about 200 fps more velocity than you do with a 20 incher. But you dont even need 2000 fps or even 1500 to get small stuff. I say just lop it off. Thats how they used to do it when one part of the barrel became unusable. Good luck my friend.
The barrel is 32 1/4" from crown to breech plug. I need to pull the breech plug again and get an exact measurement. When I do I'll cut, crown and recut the front sight dove tail. I am lazy and would rather mill than file except for final fitting. Would like to save as much barrel length as possible. Handguns and rifles with short barrels are loud and longer sight radius helps older eyes.
