How did the bore diameters like say .54 become established ?

[M. De Land]

I looked up and listed the coming uk Holts auction on flintlocks , one must remember in the old uk country and Europe engineering was taking off in every direction. Locks were made in Birmingham and shipped to the new lands, I have one. Although we made barrels the Dutch and Belgium’s became very skilled at making Damascus barrels.which you can find on English guns. Indeed one great English maker unearthed hundreds of 200 year Damascus barrels blanks they are now building into modern guns They must have use measuring plugs, as we do today, to gauge the bore Most of the flintlock guns coming up at auction are measured in bore 12,14,16,8,20 whilst rifles .750,.750, .750,.750, & 38 bore,

But the new world was far from engineering tools and machinery , so you just had very skilled blacksmiths , they had to make their own tool files etc not to mention barrels
Non of these blacksmith rifle came up in my San Francisco auction catalogs , all these we more military others undated but were over .54. Not what I was looking for.

Oh well an interesting hour of research

My eBay .49 ball mould arrived today , a happy man £28 but 40 yard archery not so good using cheap arrows 12/£14 eBay uk China

That’s it. God bless you are , or may your God be with you

I'm into self bow making and archery as well. Odd how the two interests seem to flow together the world over. I suspect caliber establishment works much the same way as interest,needs/requirements and ideas seem merge over time.
The type of usage wither competitive or hunting requirements and needs would play a huge part in bore diameter establishment.

 

[Sonny from Vincennes]

The bore to gauge table has been worked out several years ago. I am attaching the table from the NRA Questions & Answers Handbook. Apparently this question was asked many times being it was among the 150 most asked questions. I always used this in my NRA classes. I am attaching the formula for calculating the bore to gauge and gauge to bore relationship. I have attached question #115 to show how I arrived at my calculations. Hope this helps

 

[bpd303]

so the larger the balls the more you get?? dont figure.

No No the larger the balls the less you get from a pound of lead.

 

[Sonny from Vincennes]

You will see LETTERED gauges in my chart. When the hand held micrometer was invented, the LETTERED gauges was added to the gauge chart. Please notice were are wide gaps between some of the gauges. The LETTERED gauges were added to these gaps. Also diameters smaller than 50 gauge are considered calibers. Please notice this NRA table is from the British Proof Act of 1868.

 

[Gordoncourtney]

I'm into self bow making and archery as well. Odd how the two interests seem to flow together the world over. I suspect caliber establishment works much the same way as interest,needs/requirements and ideas seem merge over time.
The type of usage wither competitive or hunting requirements and needs would play a huge part in bore diameter establishment.

I got fed up with sailing club and joined Woking archery club uk. I was suprised many of the guys were ex pistol shooters like me, Handguns were banned a few years back in uk. I was also very suprised how accurate modern bows were I left in 2020
as I got cancer and immunology made me weak. But I fell in love with your usa Hoyt ionx bow and got my strength back the rest is history in my 100 yard garden. My pall makes Robbin hood bows and always carries a saw for a yew branch in a church yard , he made me one with horn tips. Friends club are 15th century hunters and have wooden deer targets in the woods , they enjoy great fun. In the Middle Ages all able bodied men had to practice with their bow Sunday mornings. At 10 I had a bow and a cork firing rifle and plastic crows deadly at 8 ft. And years went by , by 13 I was driving a Ferguson tractor with a .410 shotgun for rabbits on a friends farm. My bro Andy Courtney was secretary and president of British muzzle loaders he would shoot a cannon and a flintlock shotgun for fun. Not seen him in years . Flintlock or bow we are firmly all hunters

I have stuck to 40 yards as perfect for deer with 28lb limbs. I move target to 50 yards but struggled so I need to put on 34 or 38lbs limbs. My 49 year old son started shooting Sunday and did ok I got my eldest sun an ionx bow a few years back.

If to choose my favourite gun it would be the ionx x bow for it’s beauty and accuracy

Do I have other guns. Think 30 but been buying one at Auction for years. Just eall hangers in uk. I lived in Africa, well Nigeria. So for making 70 with cancer I bought a 450-400 nitro express , ok it’s an unmentionable. TOUGH!!!!!!’ In the nicest possible way .

 

[KevinC]

Number of balls per pound is guage, as previously stated.
And as for the .54? I believe that started in 1803 with the first (standardized) US rifle model of 1803 from Harpers Ferry.
I read somewhere that .54 was more economical (balls per pound, and powder required) and manageable (recoil) to use, but still large enough to stop large animals (horses, elk, bears)
Louis and Clark were outfitted with them in their expedition (along with other cool "experimental" stuff like air rifles).
And because a US armory developed it, .54 became a standard. Burnside, Sharps, Smith, and many others were all made in .54.
And after the US Civil War, you began to see decimal inch calibers developed and improved performance of modern rifles.

* Also interesting to note was the relative independence of the US armories from each other at that time. After about 1812, there was a director of ordinance put in place and a very large push to standardize all military goods.
Whitney was involved in a lot of that as well from the manufacturing side of things.
A very interesting period in our US history

 

[M. De Land]

Number of balls per pound is guage, as previously stated.
And as for the .54? I believe that started in 1803 with the first (standardized) US rifle model of 1803 from Harpers Ferry.
I read somewhere that .54 was more economical (balls per pound, and powder required) and manageable (recoil) to use, but still large enough to stop large animals (horses, elk, bears)
Louis and Clark were outfitted with them in their expedition (along with other cool "experimental" stuff like air rifles).
And because a US armory developed it, .54 became a standard. Burnside, Sharps, Smith, and many others were all made in .54.
And after the US Civil War, you began to see decimal inch calibers developed and improved performance of modern rifles.

* Also interesting to note was the relative independence of the US armories from each other at that time. After about 1812, there was a director of ordinance put in place and a very large push to standardize all military goods.
Whitney was involved in a lot of that as well from the manufacturing side of things.
A very interesting period in our US history

I thought Lewis and Clark guns were .52 or .53 cal and I never could figure out for sure if smooth bore or rifle.

 

[westrayer]

Here is some insight into Lewis and Clark's expedition firearms
https://lewis-clark.org/tools-and-techniques/weapons/muskets-and-rifles/

 

[shorthair]

When did the bore size terminology change from balls per pound to an actual measurement of caliber?

Why do the British call it bore and North America says gauge?.
I do enjoy when people bring up questions that arises my curiosity and derails my train of thought .

 

[Gordoncourtney]

Why do the British call it bore and North America says gauge?.
I do enjoy when people bring up questions that arises my curiosity and derails my train of thought .

I am British perhaps guage is something to do with railways. Ha ha some say 12 gauge but I say 12bore

Anyway who cares, I try to entertain with information. And I must thank you all , today I see I got 100 “love reactions “
and some 1700 likes , ha ha very nice of you. From across the pond .

 

[shorthair]

I was wondering if these random bore diameters did not become standardized in modern times more from the repair end than from the mass production end of the chain. I was guessing that caliber genius would have begun in even tenths because of our (imperial) measuring system in thousands of an inch rather than Millimeters.
I would think one would want to re- use an already bored barrel that is re-breeched , bored out and rifled on the frontier rather than order a brand new tube if it was salvageable. I know for sure that would be my approach.
The mills of course would be driven by and responding to customer demand then as now.
The mold end of the equation was also an ingredient in the mix I had not considered as they are not particularly and easy proposition even when boring conicals in a lathe and lapping them out.
Making a ball cherry is much more envolved than turning a conical nose cutter and boring out the body and grease grooves.

I suspect that the smith's that did work at Rendezvous likely carried a few mold cherries in popular sizes and just recut your existing molds, and you made the difference up in patch thickness.