long barrel vs shorter

[Comfortably_Numb]

I have never had trouble with any barrel length. I have had guns with 28 inch barrels and 72" barrels and everything in between. No problems with any of them.

 

[büchsenmacher64]

I have never had trouble with any barrel length. I have had guns with 28 inch barrels and 72" barrels and everything in between. No problems with any of them.

Did you build that rifle for Warner Brothers Studios? I think I saw it on an episode of Bugs Bunny. Lol

 

[Comfortably_Numb]

Do you even know what it is?

 

[büchsenmacher64]

Looks like an market gun reproduction.

 

[DOUBLEDEUCE 1]

Larry (Omaha),
Excellent idea about digging that 16” hole to drop the butt of the rifle into for loading. And I know from experience, that works great. Having the shooting bench constructed with a step/ bench is brilliant.

Don’t get me wrong. The hole is simpler and doesn’t require a lot of skill to construct. My main concern with the hole, once you have one that works for you, is the portability.

 

[Comfortably_Numb]

When you shoot a long barreled gun you grab it by the muzzle and walk away from it until it's at the right level to load. I can load a gun with a 4' barrel in a canoe while sitting down.

 

[Comfortably_Numb]

Looks like an market gun reproduction.

They use blunderbusses in cartoons.....

 

[NorthFork]

All I know is I just bought a 'short' 28.5" barreled full stock rifle. A Pedersoli cap lock .45 Scout that weighs in at around 6#. I can hold that thing offhand tremble free for literally forever. I can dry fire (onto a piece of leather to protect hammer and nipple) and the front sight NEVER moves. Can't say that for my custom multi-thousand dollar .45 caliber 44" barrel custom long rifle that weights 11+ pounds.

 

[Kmcmichael]

Do you even know what it is?

Not really. I would guess an over the log gun. The stock sort of looks like one of those Afghan “over the rocks gun”.

 

[Mulebrain]

I have never had trouble with any barrel length. I have had guns with 28 inch barrels and 72" barrels and everything in between. No problems with any of them.

I would like to try shooting that!

 

[Rob M.]

The Vincent's of Ohio were and are respected for the quality of their guns. I saw a picture of Caleb Vincent, who was vertically challenged, loading a long rifle. He held the rifle at an angle with the heel on the ground. He seemed to be having no problem with it. Wish I could find that picture.

Here ya go . I dont live too far from where their shop was .

 

[longcruise]

@Rob M. That's exactly the one I'm thinking of. Thanks for looking it up.

 

[Rob M.]

@Rob M. That's exactly the one I'm thinking of. Thanks for looking it up.

Your welcome bud . Its a neat pic

 

[earlwb]

I think there was a few factors as to why a barrel might be really long. One reason was the quality of the black powder way back then. A longer barrel helped with slower burning powders with questionable quality. Then as already mentioned it helps with some aiming more accurately too. Then maybe personal reasons where someone just likes a extra long barrel. There are probably other reasons but I can’t think of them at the moment.

But yes a longer barrel may be more trouble to load for some especially if they are short. Then as noted cleaning the barrel would be a problem too. Handling in some cases can be a issue as well.

I think it might be pretty neat to have a 40 inch or more barrel length gun myself. But that is just me.

 

[hunter thompson]

Agree with Thingamajiggy: I hate standing over a short barreled gun while loading. Looking down into the barrel is just not my idea of a good time.

ADK Bigfoot

THE NUMBER 1 safty factor..is relizing the safty is in your head. IF you dont know that if its loaded or unsafe and your looking down /standing over... then you shouldnt own one

 

[Comfortably_Numb]

Your height or lack there of doesn't have any relationship to how long of barrel your rifle has.

 

[Tumbledown]

Well, yes, longer barrel higher velocity. But it's not because BP burns slow. BP actually burns fast. Almost immediate. The higher velocity in the longer barrel is because the ball has a longer exposure to the expanded gasses.

I have chronographed a 45 rifle with 28" barrel starting at 70 grains and going up in 10 grain increments to 120 grains. There were velocity gains every step of the way.

Black powder does take a bit of time to burn. It's not instantaneous, and is slower than smokeless. A longer barrel allows for a more complete burn. With today's cleaner powders, it's less of an issue, but still is a factor.

 

[Comfortably_Numb]

All I know is I just bought a 'short' 28.5" barreled full stock rifle. A Pedersoli cap lock .45 Scout that weighs in at around 6#. I can hold that thing offhand tremble free for literally forever. I can dry fire (onto a piece of leather to protect hammer and nipple) and the front sight NEVER moves. Can't say that for my custom multi-thousand dollar .45 caliber 44" barrel custom long rifle that weights 11+ pounds.

Why would you spend multi thousands of dollars on a custom gun with a relatively short barrel of 44 inches and have it end up weighing 11 pounds?

 

[Comfortably_Numb]

Here ya go . I dont live too far from where their shop was .

The man isn't vertically challenged, he's of average height. It's his gun that is long and he's loading it the proper way. If you look closely you'll see he is actually a step down from where the rifle butt is.
I load that Hudson Valley fowling gun pictured above the same way.
This isn't hard concept to grasp .
.

 

[Packrat]

In Theory every extra inch adds about 40 FPS to the ball. There is diminishing returns on to much powder, a old Dixie catalog said to shoot over snow, ot a white sheet, load until you saw unburned powder. That was your max charge.