And the bartender asked, why the long......barrel?

[The Crisco Kid]

Now that we have the longer barrel part all figured out, why octagon instead of round? Easier to get the sights aligned? Easier to inlet? Beats me!

 

[tenngun]

Several reasons. You need a flat to set a lock against.
it’s easier to make flat sides then round and keep it even. Octagon over a long barrel is easier to keep straight then square
Six and ten sided doesn’t work well and sixteen a pia.
Eight becomes pretty standard pretty early, but other shapes were tried. Square and five sided are seen.
It’s easy on the eyes. While round was military/tradegun, ie: cheap, octagon states well made.

 

[Walkingeagle]

Another consideration as far as a military gun is the fighting style. If lined up in rows as the British conducted themselves , when leveling their muskets to fire the end of the barrel from the second row would be in the face of the front row.
A coworker does civil war re-enactments and the few with two band Enfields are always in the front row for this reason

As well, when bayonet equipped you will likely be further from your opponent’s sharp end on a charge.
Walk

 

[smoothshooter]

Ok. Punchline from an old joke, sorta. Anyways...

I'm a carbine kinda guy and being newish to muzzleloaders a bit ignorant on top of it. That said, what's with the crazy long rifle barrels? I mean, howinell is a settler supposed to sneak through the piney woods with a rifle sporting a barrel that has the front sight somewhere in the next county?
KnowhatImean?

wm

I never had a problem with it, even when I was 12 years old.
Don’t understand why people have a problem with it. Just keep your barrel pointed in the same direction you are pointed when going through any thick stuff. Amateurs often make the mistake of carrying their gun at “ Port Arms “ at all times, even in brushy places.
Aren’t piney woods pretty open most of the time anyway?

 

[SDSmlf]

I never had a problem with it, even when I was 12 years old.
Don’t understand why people have a problem with it. Just keep your barrel pointed in the same direction you are pointed when going through any thick stuff. Amateurs often make the mistake of carrying their gun at “ Port Arms “ at all times, even in brushy places.
Aren’t piney woods pretty open most of the time anyway?

From a modern perspective. guessing you have never hunted from a small blind with multiple openings with a gun sporting a 40” plus barrel. Personally, have never carried a gun on a horse with a 40” plus long barrel, but can tell you that a 30” plus barrel can be very challenging to carry on an iron horse, aka an ATV.

That said, I do prefer the aesthetics of the longer gun barrels and happen to use split bamboo fly rods. Just prefer a shorter barreled guns for the type of hunting I do. Again, just my opinion.

 

[Smokey Plainsman]

From a modern perspective. guessing you have never hunted from a small blind with multiple openings with a gun sporting a 40” plus barrel. Personally, have never carried a gun on a horse with a 40” plus long barrel, but can tell you that a 30” plus barrel can be very challenging to carry on an iron horse, aka an ATV.

That said, I do prefer the aesthetics of the longer gun barrels and happen to use split bamboo fly rods. Just prefer a shorter barreled guns for the type of hunting I do. Again, just my opinion.

These guns were not built for our modern perspective.

 

[smoothshooter]

From a modern perspective. guessing you have never hunted from a small blind with multiple openings with a gun sporting a 40” plus barrel. Personally, have never carried a gun on a horse with a 40” plus long barrel, but can tell you that a 30” plus barrel can be very challenging to carry on an iron horse, aka an ATV.

That said, I do prefer the aesthetics of the longer gun barrels and happen to use split bamboo fly rods. Just prefer a shorter barreled guns for the type of hunting I do. Again, just my opinion.

Never hunted from an ATV, and only from a blind occasionally, usually one made up from materials gathered up from the immediate area where I was sitting. Still no problem.
ATV’s are a totally different ball game. I would not even consider transporting really long barreled gun on one.
I prefer barrels from about 32” to 38”, BTW.

 

[tenngun]

I was taught that the poorer quality powder called for a longer barrel but I can't vouch for the quality of my teacher.

And that seems to make sense, as does the story of poor American powder. But barrels started getting short here before Dupoint showed up.
Jaegar developed about 1650 and rarely had barreled over 36” most closer to 30”. Central Europe was the backwoods of Europe at the time with France and the Low Countries the center of scientific advancement. And France, the Low Countries and the UK turned to longer barrels first.