Kentucky Rifle

[J.D.]

Kentucky rifles were never Kentucky rifles!

No offense to those from KY, but that's the truth :grin:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_rifle[/quote]

Well, that is not exactly the truth. There were some very nice longrifles made in Kentucky by makers who migrated there, primarily from Virginia. So, IMHO, Kentucky rifles were made in Kentucky, Pennsylvania rifles were made in Pennsylvania, Virginia rifles were made in Virginia, etc, etc. Although, many rifles made in the style of Va rifles, with some variation, were made well west of VA, into KY, MO, and probably beyond.

Just kinda thinkin'...typin' out loud, so to speak...type.

God Bless,
J.D.

 

[FS58]

Lots of great responses here. I think I'm starting to get the idea. Now, another question. What kinds of Black Powder are some of you guys using? I have plenty of 2f and 3f Goex express on hand. Will this perform the same in the Muzzleloaders as it does in the cartridge rifles?

 

[mykeal]

By 'perform', do you mean produce the same pressure time history?

Probably, given the same powder chamber dimensions.

 

[Twisted_1in66]

Seems to me a year or two ago their were some questions that came up caliber of rifles made and they were all over the board up through the AWI, with most of them being .50 cal or larger as opposed to under .50 cal. IIRC someone came up with an average or ~52 cal, but that average was like having one foot in freezing water and one foot boiling water with the average being in the middle.

I thought that the move to the consistently smaller caliber didn't come until after the war? The smaller caliber is what allowed the narrower stock and wrist that is more common with the golden age guns than those made before and during the Rev War. Certainly early on as the first longrifles started to appear, they were heavier calibers. The Jaegers, which were the predecessors to the longrifle and certainly what the German gunsmiths who settled in PA had been making prior to the evolution of the longrifle, were usually around 62 caliber or so.

To confuse matters, the technique of hammer-welding barrels didn't/doesn't produce consistently the same caliber barrel using the same tools. This was basically heating up the iron and hammering it between forms to curl it around a mandrel. Once finally formed the mandrel was removed and the barrel reamed out and rifled. This resulted in slightly different calibers from the same mandrel. The variations were large enough that the bag mold to cast the ball to fit the rifle was included with the rifle when it was sold.

Anyone have more info on this??

Twisted_1in66 :thumbsup:

 

[J.D.]

To confuse matters, the technique of hammer-welding barrels didn't/doesn't produce consistently the same caliber barrel using the same tools. This was basically heating up the iron and hammering it between forms to curl it around a mandrel. Once finally formed the mandrel was removed and the barrel reamed out and rifled. This resulted in slightly different calibers from the same mandrel. The variations were large enough that the bag mold to cast the ball to fit the rifle was included with the rifle when it was sold.

Anyone have more info on this??

Since no one has replied, I will give it a shot, based on limited knowledge.

To my knowledge, various sized mandrels were not necessarily sized for the proposed bore diameter. Bore diameters often depended on how much metal needed to be removed to provide a smooth, pit free, surface to be rifled.

A series of tapered "drills" or bits were used to drill out the bore until the correct bore dia. was achieved, or until all of the forging scale and pits were removed. The barrel was then reamed smooth and rifled.

If you are looking for more information on forging barrels, there are a coupla books, that I can't remember the titles of, and a coupla articles that describe the forging, drilling, reaming, and rifling process'.

There is usually a demonstration of barrel forging at Dixon's gunmakers fair. The demonstrators are very knowledgeable and freely share their knowledge with anyone who happens by.

 

[Twisted_1in66]

Thanks JD. I was actually asking about more info on the caliber of rifle's used.

I'm familiar with hammer welding barrels, reaming and rifling them. You can get more info on that at Toad Hall's web site. He has some nice shots of hammer welding a pistol barrel. He also has a book on how to make your own hand powered rifling machine. Here's a link to Toad Hall.

There's a bunch of links at the top of the page. If you click on "Book #2", that will take you to his book about hand rifling.

Twisted_1in66 :thumbsup:

 

[Kentuckywindage]

and then theres the Hawken of then and the hawken of today :blah: