How common were shorter barreled BP rifles?

[tv_racin_fan]

Apparently a Baker Cavalry Carbine had a 20 inch barrel. Tho I aint done the research.. so it may never have been in reality.

 

[tecum-tha]

The original short barreled rifle is called a "Stutzen", which has its "origins" in Austria, southern parts of Germany and nowadays Switzerland. All famous southern german gunmakers "Kuchenreither for example" mostly built "Stutzen", unless they spezialized in pistols. You may refer to a "Stutzen" as a jaeger rifle, but that would be too short-sighted. There were early german rifles with long barrels as well, a lot of them half-stocks and they look more like a rifled fowling gun thus the longer barrel was not an invention in the colonies. From the number of guns built with longer rifled barrels, they were more commom in the colonies.
Usually cavalry muskets were shorter, but they were usually not rifled.
A good site to check some ancient guns out:
http://www.bolk-antiques.nl/index.cfm?page=collection&cat=1209&subcat=2185&catname=Antique

 

[CoyoteJoe]

The 1803 Harpers Ferry rifle with 33" barrel was called a "short rifle" and apparently some thought it "TOO short" since later versions went to 36". Barrels did become shorter during the percussion era but not all that much shorter, 36" was still common for original Hawkens. Even the smokeless powder rifles of WW-1 mostly had barrels of 28-32", the U.S. Springfield was the shorty at 24". Just as a broad generality I'd say few flintlocks had barrels shorter than 36" and few percussions shorter than 32".
All the same, if you like your 24" barrel that's what matters.

 

[Mike Brooks]

Gonna have to narrow down a time period if you want intelligent conversation on the subject.

 

[dyemaker]

What tecum-tha said. Almost excactly what I was gonna say. I saw a Kuchenreuter holster pistol that had a detachable rifle stock also. Alot of the wheellocks I've looked at have very short barrels too. Some look like modern self defence or close combat weapons in a way. :thumbsup:

 

[tecum-tha]

They were "close" combat weapons mostly designed to shoot at wild boar at close range in heavy cover. A lot of the hunting took place from horseback or with horses to get after the game. Some jaeger batallions later recruited from "mounted" hunters, which were paid by the local nobility to protect their game and supply the estate with meat. It was the sport of nobility to go after the big boars, because only high nobility was allowed to hunt red stag and wild boar. Commonly, the Stutzen did extremely well for those applications...

 

morehops,
For what it's worth, I just measured the barrels on 24 original Ohio made "half stock" rifles ranging in period from 1850-1880. The barrel lengths ran from a short of 30" to a long of 36". This includes 12 different builders.
Mark

 

[Grizzled Roberts]

The rifles used by the British and Hessian riflemen during the American Revolution all had short barrels compared to the American Longrifle.
The had shorter barrels because the Germans developed a better higher quality double glazed black powder. These rifles included the 1776 Tower Rifles, 1766 Ferguson rifles and Jaeger rifles. These rifles all were sighted in for 200 yards with leaf sights out past 300 yards. This high grade powder used by the King's riflemen was eight times as expensive as the crude musket powder used by the colonists.