Rifled Smoothbore?

[Amikee]

Hello my fellow Muzzies

My wife and I just had a talk a couple of days ago after I came back from shooting range, and she asked me a question I couldn't answer. Just out of pure curiosity: Can a smoothbore barrel be rifled? I have a .62 Centermark smoothie, and I guess I could say it can be done, but just wasn't sure. Of course the smoothbore wouldn't be a smoothbore anymore. What You gentleman think? Can this be done? Do you know anyone who could do this project? I'm in for deer, so shot isn't my primary goal. Yet. :grin: Just curious.
Thank You all for the responses.
Michael from Connecticut

 

[wattlebuster]

Never have heard of it being done but I guess anything is possible :idunno:

 

[roundball]

Absolutely...I bought a GM .62cal Flint smoothbore drop-in barrel for a T/C Hawken, sent it to Ed Rayle to add .012" x 1:70" rifling to it...terrific accuracy.

 

[Robert Egler]

Why would you want to put them spiral scratches in a perfectly good barrel? :wink: :haha:

 

[BrownBear]

Absolutely...I bought a GM .62cal Flint smoothbore drop-in barrel for a T/C Hawken, sent it to Ed Rayle to add .012" x 1:70" rifling to it...terrific accuracy.

I have the same barrel (cap) and am close to having the same thing done. I'm not really drawn to PRB in smoothies after a little experience, and it's too "clunky" for my tastes to dedicate it for use with shot. Kind of a neither/nor for my western tastes and shooting arenas.

But there's another route that's possible. A friend is in the very final stages of finishing a 72 cal flinter fullstock with interchangeable smooth and rifled barrels, both octagon-to-round. It's light and quick enough for very reasonable use as a shotgun, but with rifling and sights for more accuracy if ranges stretch. Talking to him the cost of the extra barrel was well south of $300, headed toward the price of GM drop-ins. My mind is starting to run the same way for my next build, though it's likely to be a 62 cal.

 

[roundball]

Talking to him the cost of the extra barrel was well south of $300, headed toward the price of GM drop-ins. My mind is starting to run the same way for my next build, though it's likely to be a 62 cal.

I did something like that...had Matt build an Early Virginia with a pair of identical / interchangeable 42" Rice B-weight swamped barrels (.45 rifled and .54 smooth).

 

[Rifleman1776]

It can be done but, I'm of a similar mind with Squirrel Tail. Why?
Downside is you might think of it as a rifle and try stoking up the loads. Rifle barrels are thicker than shotguns for a reason.

 

[flintlock75]

The problem i see is that the barrel of a tulle is too thin to cut rifeling into. My buddy has one and the muzzle is pretty thin. if you cut it shorter you might have enough meat to work with. I would not want to weaken the barrel by cutting grooves. I would try to fins another barrel to use.

 

[Amikee]

I thought of that. Looks too thin for rifling unless it'll be very shallow. Anyway, I do have a .54 hawken rifle so my smoothie stays smoothie. Like I said- my wife's curiosity made me post that question. I will post the range review of my centermark very soon.
Thank you gentlemen for kind responses

 

[Amikee]

Maybe I'll just ask him to make me a rifled barrel for tulle. It's going to be badly heavy I think... and not in the correct looking stock, lol. But seems that even a very shallow rifling would do the trick and make barrel more accurate with prb.

 

[wvbuckbuster]

Since your wife is so understanding why not just buy another gun? Can't have just one you know. :grin:

 

[Amikee]

Oh I know. I got 4. :wink: just got my .62 couple months ago so this will be pushing, :rotf: gotta baby on the way so got to cool down a little :v thanks

 

[tg]

Out to about 50 yds many folks can shoot a smoothbore pretty much on par with a rifled barrel once the right load is found, a better choice might be a rifle or smoothrilfe with the architecture and grip rail/cheek piece that aid in accuracy the latter still offering the used of shot :idunno:

 

[Dphar]

Hello my fellow Muzzies

My wife and I just had a talk a couple of days ago after I came back from shooting range, and she asked me a question I couldn't answer. Just out of pure curiosity: Can a smoothbore barrel be rifled? I have a .62 Centermark smoothie, and I guess I could say it can be done, but just wasn't sure. Of course the smoothbore wouldn't be a smoothbore anymore. What You gentleman think? Can this be done? Do you know anyone who could do this project? I'm in for deer, so shot isn't my primary goal. Yet. :grin: Just curious.
Thank You all for the responses.
Michael from Connecticut

If the barrel wall is adequate its not a problem.
I would make a dedicated rifle of smaller bore or have a rifled barrel made to replace the smooth bore but make it in 50-54.

Dan
Dan

 

[Grandpa Ron]

I am curious why no one has tried Paradox rifling.

The Brits found that by only rifling the last few inches of their breach loading shotguns,they could handle both shot and ball.

Perhaps it is to cumbersome to load with a muzzle loader but I thought someone might have tried it.

 

[paulvallandigham]

Its been done. The problem with any rifling in a smooth bore barrel used to fire shot loads is that the rifling- no matter how short-- imparts ROTATION( ie. Spin) to the cards and wads, which in turn sins the shot, so that it forms a helical pattern, with a bigger and bigger hole in the middle of the "pattern" the further it travels from the muzzle. Depending on gauge, and load of shot fired, its good to 10- 15 yards at best on small game.

 

[Amikee]

My guess is, it's best to leave a smooth barrel the way it is, and rifle for greater ranges.

 

[Deadeye]

All barrels were smoothbore before they were rifled.
Deadeye

 

[varsity07840]

I shoot an original rifled .69 cal 1842 Springfield that was originally a smoothbore.

Duane

 

[CoyoteJoe]

I am curious why no one has tried Paradox rifling.

The Brits found that by only rifling the last few inches of their breach loading shotguns,they could handle both shot and ball.

Perhaps it is to cumbersome to load with a muzzle loader but I thought someone might have tried it.

Actually the paradox did not pattern as well as shotgun nor shoot so accurately as a rifle, it kinda worked more or less. The rifled portion of the barrel has to be of smaller diameter than the smooth portion so that the lands of the rifling stand above the smoothbore and that would likely pose some problems in loading from the muzzle.