proverbial dumb question about bore diameter - use the same diameter ball as .36 revolver?

[wganz]

Was reading some history of revolvers and an author made the claim that the .36 was an established caliber when S. Colt chose it for the 1851.
I'm guessing that it would have been called a .38" bore in a rifle. Don't recall seeing that in previous readings.
Anyone have a reference on this?

 

[Phil Coffins]

I don’t believe there are any standards when dealing with fire arms particularly in calibre. Today that is still clear, a 38 uses a .357” bullet, a 44 is .427”, a 303 uses a larger bullet then a 308 and the list goes on and on!

 

[sleepingbulldog]

I think a rifle in the same bore as a Colt Navy would be a fine thing to have.

 

[user 48679]

Was reading some history of revolvers and an author made the claim that the .36 was an established caliber when S. Colt chose it for the 1851.
I'm guessing that it would have been called a .38" bore in a rifle. Don't recall seeing that in previous readings.
Anyone have a reference on this?

Look up the bore diameter for a .36 C&B revolver, and you'll find they use .375 balls - a .38 if you will.

OTOH, .36cal rifles generally use balls around .350" - a lot closer to .36cal

Here's the background:

"These .36 caliber revolvers actually fired a slug that had a 0.357-inch diameter (rounded to .36 at the time).
However, these revolvers had cylindrical firing chambers of approximately 0.374-inch diameter (rounded to .38) "

 

[Dale Allen Raby]

Prior to the Civil War, machining was hit and miss for production guns... and even some modern guns for that matter. Thank Eli Whitney for the improvements in that area. A .36 rifle was always a .36, but a percussion revolver needs to be a bit larger in order to facilitate a good gas seal in the chamber... say .375 or so. The ball will shave a ring of lead as it is chambered and when it goes through the forcing cone, it will get sized to .36 or so which is the approximate diameter of the lands, and will obturate into the grooves as it passes into the bore. If memory serves, .38 is approximately the diameter of the grooves, which is how later revolvers got labeled .38, even though the bullets are actually .357 - .358.

You can, in fact, paper patch a .357 LSWC and shoot it in a .36 caliber muzzleloader with some as yet undetermined by myself level of accuracy. I'm waiting for warmer weather for this experiment.

I agree, a muzzleloading rifle in .38 caliber that would take .375 patched round balls would be a glorious thing, but I would like one that takes a .429 bullet with a paper patch to match the bullets I use in my .44 Special revolver. I'm just weird like that.

 

[wganz]

Look up the bore diameter for a .36 C&B revolver, and you'll find they use .375 balls - a .38 if you will. <=- got an 1851 replica from Dixie Gun Works in 1976, so been aware of that

OTOH, .36cal rifles generally use balls around .350" - a lot closer to .36cal

Here's the background:

"These .36 caliber revolvers actually fired a slug that had a 0.357-inch diameter (rounded to .36 at the time). <=- Curious on that point
However, these revolvers had cylindrical firing chambers of approximately 0.374-inch diameter (rounded to .38) "

need a citation on the 0.357 slug, for the successful conversion from .36 C&B requires the relining of the bore to a .357 bore else you're restricted to HBWC design bullets. But that leads off into unmentionables.

My main interest here is to find out the assertion is true that .38" bore rifles were common in prior to 1851.

 

[wganz]

I don’t believe there are any standards when dealing with fire arms particularly in calibre. Today that is still clear, a 38 uses a .357” bullet, a 44 is .427”, a 303 uses a larger bullet then a 308 and the list goes on and on!

to totally blow your mind, there was an unmentionable cartridge that used a 0.375" diameter bullet. It was the original caliber for the unmentionable designed in 1935 by a one John Moses Browning. The unmentionable was then modified for a 0.355" diameter bullet when that contract fell through. even Colt used the round in their unmentionable but used the metric designation of 9.3mm.