long barrel vs shorter

[hunter thompson]

I Always used a 34 inch barrel and then bought a 44 inch 40 cal flintlock. what a pain it is to load and wipe out.No reason for these long barrels,hard to load and more barrel to clean and hold fouling more being a 40 cal... and no better accuracy .Actually i did better with a 45 with a 35 inch barrel.. so iam definitly going to sell it.

 

[ETipp]

I Always used a 34 inch barrel and then bought a 44 inch 40 cal flintlock. what a pain it is to load and wipe out.No reason for these long barrels,hard to load and more barrel to clean and hold fouling more being a 40 cal... and no better accuracy .Actually i did better with a 45 with a 35 inch barrel.. so iam definitly going to sell it.

I can respect that. I have never even held a ML with such a long barrel but I have read where several people contend the same thing as you.

Heck, I sometimes have a difficult enough time packing around both of my ML's that have 32" barrels. Much of that has to do with the curved buttstock. Seems like I'm always banging and clanging those on something, especially in the woods.

 

[Johnny Tremain]

Velocity means range, range means far enough away for a second shot if needed.
The longer the barrel the longer the shot.
Sane in BP Cartridge guns. They started with a 2.5 in shell and ended with a 4 inch shell, just to get more range.

 

[ADK Bigfoot]

At 6'3", I don't find a 42-44 inch barrel hard to load or wipe. The long sight radius and "hang" of the long barrel makes for great accuracy "out there." A long barrel is not ideal for "snap shooting" but I don't shoot running deer. A shorter barrel is handier in a tree stand or picking your way through heavy brush. Still hunting through open timber the long barrel is not an issue.

ADK Bigfoot

 

[IanH]

A tall man in 1780 was a lot shorter than a tall man today and they managed 5-6' rifles and muskets just fine.

 

[büchsenmacher64]

You’re not loading it right son!

 

[alcessapiens]

bp burns slowly so if you want velocity you need length. I had an old, beat up cva .50 that I experimented with using my chronometer. after 80 gr ffg there was no improvement in velocity and at 90 the velocity began to drop ( pushing powder that burns outside the barrel just adds weight so it slows down) my 10 inch longer rifle (same 1:48 twist, same patch and ball) increased velocity up to 98gr
Additionally, the longer sight radius on a longer barrel makes picking up imperfections in the sight picture much easier.
Years ago I had a dan wesson pistol pack ( a stainless.44mag with 4”,6”,8” barrels and shrouds an extra grip and barrel tool all in a fitted briefcase) and a guy was yapping that short barrels are inherently inaccurate. I tried to explain than the short sight radius is the problem, not the length. He wanted to bet so i dragged out my ransom rest (with the extra heavy springs as muzzle whip is considerable in a 4” .44mag). Lo and behold, all 3 barrels tuned in nearly identical groups ( the longer barrels printing higher due to greater velocity). Made $190 ($200 bet -$10 of ammo).

 

[büchsenmacher64]

You’re not loading it right son!

Plus girls like longer barrels.

 

[longcruise]

bp burns slowly so if you want velocity you need length.

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.

 

[HSmithTX]

How well I can shoot a rifle offhand has more to do with balance than length, if your long barrel is a straight profile boat anchor with no swamp or taper it very well could be excessively heavy in the front hand and harder to shoot than a shorter straight profile barrel. If your long barrel is a nice swamped profile or tapered the weight in the front hand goes down quickly. I need some weight in the front hand, helps the barrel 'hang' and steady up, too little weight in the front hand is bad and too much is bad. I am only doing swamped barrels or pretty heavy tapers going forward to get the balance I want without limiting barrel length to an arbitrary number.

From a bench this one is pretty simple, the longer sight radius of the long barrel wins every time as long as the barrels are capable of the same accuracy.

 

[hunter thompson]

LONG rifle barrels are just for traditional looks i have concluded and arnt woth the trouble .... I can do anything out to 100 yards with a short barrel that i need too, and anybody shooting game targets with roundballs past that shouldnt.IF sighting radius was the issue then i think that your 30/30 or bolt action would be 44 inches long also

 

[Thingamajiggy]

Here's where I've found the biggest difference between long and short barrels, loading in the field. I'm 6'2" and it's a whole lot easier loading from bag and horn into my .54 late lancaster or .58 lehigh with their 42' and 40" barrels respectively then it is loading my 28" .54 TC and 28" .58 Investarms the same way. Not sure if that's what the founding fathers had in mind with the longer barrels but It works better for me.

 

[smokepolehall]

The shortest barrel i have is 26" that is on my Renegade .54. My other 4 have 28" barrels. The 2 barrels i have ordered are 32" both are .40 cal.

 

[Larry (Omaha)]

You’re not loading it right son!

WTG! I like it, but why don't ya just dig a 16" hole?
Larry

 

[ADK Bigfoot]

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

 

[smokepolehall]

Geez i want a barrel short enough to see loading process. Don't like holding it at knee level to load. Sumpin wrong to have 4' long barrels to shoot a tree rat at 30 yds.

 

[büchsenmacher64]

WTG! I like it, but why don't ya just dig a 16" hole?
Larry

Because I already had the shooting bench built Larry. Lol

 

[tenngun]

I Always used a 34 inch barrel and then bought a 44 inch 40 cal flintlock. what a pain it is to load and wipe out.No reason for these long barrels,hard to load and more barrel to clean and hold fouling more being a 40 cal... and no better accuracy .Actually i did better with a 45 with a 35 inch barrel.. so iam definitly going to sell it.

44” will equate around a hundred feet per second faster MV, that down range equals zilch.
Should you want to do living history you will find various periods where short is incorrect.
However the only ‘reason’ to have a long barrel is looks.
I like the looks of long, but if it’s just shooting there is no reason except that you want long.

 

[longcruise]

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.

 

[tenngun]

Lots of very sad photos from the late unpleasantness with the north. Many show these baby faced boys besides guns that tower over them.
German rifles of late seventeenth and early eighteenth century were in the 32” range. Hines made 38” and Im thinking the Marshal rifle was about 36”.
Yet in to the revolution and beyond in to federal ‘golden age’ we see long.
I’m hard pressed to think it was anything more then style.