oct/round rifle barrels??

[TinStar]

As long as we are discussing swamped vs. straight barrels on another thread I thought I would ask folks opinion about tapered oct/round rifle barrels. Colerain, Burton, Mold & Gun Shop, Track of the Wolf; ...brand really isn't important at all. Any opinions on handling, balance etc.? I like the 20 ga. smoothie barrel on my trade gun.

TinStar
Soli Deo Gloria!

 

[jdkerstetter]

I, for one, love O/R barrels on rifles....especially on guns that are to be primarily used for hunting.

I am building a rifle for my 11 year old daughter right now with a custom 38" Colerain in .45. She's not strong enough to heft even the lightest octagon barrel in .45...our minimum legal caliber for deer hunting. The OR contour allowed me to build it long and slender as it should be and it handles beautifully and swings likd a whip.

I am also working on an early PA LR in .50 with an old 42" OR .50 caliber Getz that I picked up. This one is shaping up to be another gem and will be my next deer gun.

OR barrels allow you to shave onces off the barrel where you don't need 'em and just look good. Keeping the barrel long and the weight down can be an advantage esthetically and practically.

I have 3 other OR barrels in .62 smooth, one of which is turkey choked.

Enjoy, J.D.

 

[Many Klatch]

My .54 rifle has an O/R barrel. I like the way it balances in my hand. The only drawback to an O/R barrel is figuring out how to fasten a front sight onto the round barrel.

Many Klatch

 

[jdkerstetter]

I've seen the front sight both soldered and dovetailed on O/R barrels. Thickness at the muzzle and the builders skill at dovetailing could dictate which is most practical for him.

Enjoy, J.D.

 

[larry wv]

I like the feel of the oct to round barrel but really hate the look. Larry

 

[robtattoo]

My .54 has a 42" oct/round Colerain barrel & I'm having a Tulle built with a .62 44" Oct/Round.

It's much lighter than either a straight or swamped octagon & with the weight being at the breech end, it swings & points very quickly. If they were dedicated target guns, I'd probably go a different way as the light muzzle doesn't 'hang' on target like a heavier barrel does, but my rifles are built to hunt with & pointability & ease of carrying all day over a long hike is more important to me that out & out, ball-on-ball accuracy. Now, that's not to say that they're any less accurate than a heavier barrel- I can hold a great group with my .54- it just takes a little steadier hand.
The front sight on the .54 is dovetailed into the muzzle, but it is a very shallow cut. I'm having the sight on the .62 soldered.

Just out of interest, the .54 with it's full stock & 42" barrel weight 2oz less than my .54 Great Plains Rifle. I'm not certain how much of that is due purely to the barrel profile, as opposed to the weight of Maple compared with whatever the GPR stock is made of, but it's still pretty surprising!

 

[zimmerstutzen]

It isn't just straight or swamped.

there's:
straight octagon,
straight taper octagon,
swamped oct,
straight oct/round,
tapered oct/round,
swamped oct/round,
straight round,
swamped round and
tapered round.

I had an original smooth rifle that was octagon/round swamped.
I have an original percussion gun with a Remington barrel that goes from Oct to round, but has no taper.
Also two original percussion guns with a straight oct.

 

[rich pierce]

I set the front sight blade into a longitudinal slot chased/engraved into the barrel. Lift up a good bur at the end of the slot and tamp it down- it's locked into place.

 

[TinStar]

Anyone have pics to post of their oct/round rifles??

TinStar
Soli Deo Gloria!

 

[user 922]

Sure.

 

[hanshi]

Decisions, decisions. I have a headache! :rotf:

 

[Dphar]

As long as we are discussing swamped vs. straight barrels on another thread I thought I would ask folks opinion about tapered oct/round rifle barrels. Colerain, Burton, Mold & Gun Shop, Track of the Wolf; ...brand really isn't important at all. Any opinions on handling, balance etc.? I like the 20 ga. smoothie barrel on my trade gun.

TinStar
Soli Deo Gloria!

(Holding up crossed fingers like facing a Vampire)
Now able to type again... :rotf:
I would avoid these like the plague.
The more weird machining you do on a barrel the more likely you are to experience variations in the bore. 1/2 octagonal is the worst.
Sharps adopted round barrels for the Borchardt Longrange rifle and accuracy was their stated reason.
In modern button rifled barrel that are not properly annealed after rifling the round section is ALWAYS looser than the octagonal with a "step" at the junction of the two contours.
This applies to tapers as well. Button rifle with no anneal and then taper the barrel and it will have a reverse choke EVERY TIME. I have looked at a LOT of these...
If a blank with a lot of stress is cut rifled then machined the effect may be the same but less pronounced.
Even in properly heat treated blanks the machine work can and does cause variations. Krieger for example drills their Garand barrels, machines them, then reams and rifles them when they are at final contour.
Cutting a barrel octagonal added 8 machining operations to the barrel. But I like Octagonal barrels anyway...

Dan

 

[Walks with fire]

I have a TC PA Hunter barrel that is octagon to round and it handles and points really well but it is a cantankerous and fussy barrel---maybe the octagon to round is the reason. There was a time I hated that barrel but as long as I give it exactly what it wants it will shoot fairly well.

 

[George T.]

That is a fine looking rifle there! Geo. T.

 

[TinStar]

Gorgeous rifle BucksCo! Love the look of that barrel!

TinStar
Soli Deo Gloria!

 

[user 922]

Thanks. LC Rice was offering o/r barrels about 6 years ago. I purchased a .50 smoothie. My project was a reproduction of a Shuler style Bucks gun. The only change to the barrel was reshaping the wedding band to a more "correct" style. I did the basic stock shaping and inletting and made some of the hardware. Ron Luckenbill corrected my style errors (mostly in the wrist area), and engraved, carved and finished the gun for me. It shoots extremely well.

 

[Col. Batguano]

And then there's "cannon", and "blunderbuss" profile too. Grenade launcher.

It's all fun and games until someone shoots their eye out. :shocked2:

 

[Capt. Jas.]

Anyone have pics to post of their oct/round rifles??

TinStar
Soli Deo Gloria!

http://contemporarymakers.blogspot.com/2012/05/jim-hash-rifle.html?m=1

 

[TinStar]

Thanks for that link. Very nice rifle.

TinStar
Soli Deo Gloria!

 

[robtattoo]

My .54