Sam Fadala's Book " Black Powder Handbook"

[ike]

How long will a barrel last?

A section on page 53 of this book asks this question. He says that a barrel will shoot very well after the first hundred or so shots and then shoot very well for a thousand shots then the accuracy will begin to get worse. He says that the barrell is wearing out.

It seems to me that with todays metal and taking care of our barrels that they should not wear our so fast. I would like to see what long time shooters on this forum think.

 

Ike,
The first thing I would do is get Fadala's book out of your library, along with Toby Bridges stuff. You will find more than one foolish statement in their writings and some outlandish pictures. I don't think the "average" shooter will wear out a barrel in his/her lifetime. The big time long range shooters are another story.
Mark

 

[justtim]

I have not seen that book in many a year and do not have it at hand, but if that's what he said , he's flat out in left field.Barrel qualities have not changed so much in that time period (writing of book to today) to make much difference if at all. A friend of mine who shoots more than I do a year (and I shoot a lot) and I were sitting around the campfire one night and we got to counting the shots that went thru his Green Mountain barrel before he put a new barrel in the rifle. By counting the number of shoots he went to a year and the amount of practice he took, we came up with 50,000 shots at the MINIMUM. At some point in the barrel's life he did have to go from .445 rbls to .451, but I can tell you he won a ton of trophies and medals in that barrel's lifetime.

 

[Mike Brooks]

Fadala is a knuckle head writer who has no real practical ML experience. Throw that stupid book away. :shake:

 

[tecum-tha]

My 275 year old rifle shots pretty darn good. The minor pitting it got probably from a period where it was neglected by someone. The barrel had a shot out bronze touchhole liner when I bought it,that means that gun saw a lot of action during its lifetime.Considering the barrel is only 25" long and .65 cal, I can hold a 1-1.5" group at 75yards benched shooting a .633 PRB. And that is with the somehow wide notched first flip up sight.I don't want to work on the original sights, so my sighting options are limited. The rifling is probably deeper than on some new modern barrels...

 

[BrownBear]

Readers forget that writers are paid on volume rather than quality or accuracy.

I've read the book cover to cover, including the parts that don't interest me. He's long on keyboard experience and short on shooting experience in much of it. You see the same thing here, with folks reciting other sources more than reporting on their own experience.

Even saying all that, there are a few places in the book that are worth a read. I think he did some honest shooting and testing and good reporting on those at least. I can only dredge up one at the moment, but it's notably good in the face of some of the bad chapters. It's the one on shooting the TC 56 cal smoothbore. Anyone lucky enough to have one of those would be well advised to read Fadala's chapter on it.

Of course, they'd be well advised to find the book in a garage sale or used book store rather than paying full price for it. You'll get your money's worth that way, considering how much shlock you're buying too! :rotf:

 

[necchi]

I'm with the others when they say Fadala is good for little more than entertainment.

I think your right ike, I've a few rifles that have way over 1000 shot's and they're still shooting fine. It's all about proper care.

 

[justtim]

Sam goes whichever way the wind is blowing. To my knowledge he's written two "complete " books on the .22 and one on muzzleloading. I'm sure there are several more on various topics. When traditional archery started it comeback he wrote on on that topic too. What drivel ! Just shows that our sport or hobby has it's share of prostitutes

 

[wattlebuster]

I have his books an they have a few intresting pages in them an I do like the photos of some of the custom built guns in them but I think he is full of mudd on lots of things he says. I have a Haines rifle with a 54 rice barrel that I built in 2006 an that gun has had way more than a 1000 rnds put through it an it still shoots great. I think its all in how well you take care of them :thumbsup:

 

[Skychief]

What has Fadala written in his book(s) that is so erroneous, specifically?

I know of some small caliber suggested loads that raised my eyebrows, but.......

Other than that, what's he written that is so off-base? :idunno:

Respectfully and non-argumentatively, Skychief.

 

[smoothy]

I got Sam Fadala's book in the early 80's in the beginning of my serious black powder search. I read all of it. He may not have been the best authoritarian on the subject, but there was some good info for a beginner that had very little options to go (no internet at the time). The other experts back then were not known by me.

 

[stormcrow]

I was just going to post nearly the same thing as smoothflinter. When I bought my first ML I literally knew noone else who owned one. This book is the one that got me started and for a beginner I think it is still a good read. The third person references to himself get tiresome but there are few other books from the time that lay out the landscape for beginners as well as Fadala's (yes,I still have my copy) :grin:

 

[Skychief]

What has Fadala written in his book(s) that is so erroneous, specifically?

I know of some small caliber suggested loads that raised my eyebrows, but.......

Other than that, what's he written that is so off-base? :idunno:

Respectfully and non-argumentatively, Skychief.

Anybody? :idunno:

 

[pchwcf50110]

What has Fadala written in his book(s) that is so erroneous, specifically?

I know of some small caliber suggested loads that raised my eyebrows, but.......

Other than that, what's he written that is so off-base? :idunno:

Respectfully and non-argumentatively, Skychief.

Anybody? :idunno:

i want to hear too Skychief. i have that book, paid $1.99 for it. i don't recall anything that egregious in there. i do remember the 1000 shots and accuracy starts going away part.

 

[Spikebuck]

I still have my copy too, and still pull it out every now and then for reference, even though it's about 14 years old.

I'd imagine that anyone with great experience in a topic can find things in almost any book they don't like or that aren't perfectly correct in their experience, but I agree with the comments that for a beginner Fadala's book covers a breadth of material I couldn't find anywhere else. It got me going and gave me the confidence to experiment and learn more on my own.

 

[rabjr]

This one book I've seen mentioned or talked about for years but I've never owned. In fact I never owned any "How to" books on shooting black powder guns. From the sounds of it, guess its a good thing. :idunno:

 

[RedFeather]

Well, at least it's better than two books I started out with in the early 70's. Passages such as "Don't worry about putting too much powder in the barrel. All of that excess powder will just blow down range.", etc. And those old books gave glowing and/or kind of inaccurate reviews of the guns which were on the market at the time. Fadala always came off as a bit more down to earth. At least he shows enthusiasm for the sport.

 

[stormcrow]

This one book I've seen mentioned or talked about for years but I've never owned. In fact I never owned any "How to" books on shooting black powder guns. From the sounds of it, guess its a good thing. :idunno:

It may very well be a good thing and its true that experience is the best teacher. However, I do think that Fadala's book fills a role that to this day is conspicuously absent in readily available summary material that will allow a newcomer to have a functional understanding of the ML machine for which they are about drop some significant coin.

As to the OP question, I have no idea about the 1000 shot theory from Fadala. It seems similar to the "how long should a knife edge last" question. All depends on the steel, grind, heat treat, how it's being used an cared for, etc, etc.

 

[Skychief]

This one book I've seen mentioned or talked about for years but I've never owned. In fact I never owned any "How to" books on shooting black powder guns. From the sounds of it, guess its a good thing. :idunno:

I wish you had a copy Swampy. I would like to hear your opinion on his book(s).

I have 3 different editions of his 'Blackpowder Handbook' and a copy of ~'The Blackpowder Loading Manual'. I still thumb through them from time to time. I think they are well written with great photographs.

I know of no other modern books quite like them so dedicated to our favorite diversion. I am glad that he authored them and not ashamed to say it!

I asked for specifics regarding what's so terrible about his writings and have had no response, though a lot of general disgust (?) was offered toward his book earlier in this thread. :idunno:

To the OP....Is it possible that Fadala was referring to older iron barrels needing freshening every now and then, compared to today's steel barrels? I haven't looked for the page you mentioned.

I can only hope to live long enough to "shoot out" a well taken care of barrel. I do have a couple that I shoot larger diameter balls out of than I did years ago, but, they are a far cry from "done for"! :thumbsup:

Best regards to all, Skychief.

 

[napolean]

With the HEAVY loads I remember him writing about, he probably did wear out barrels quick.
JDD