Straight Rifling

[rr11]

I have seen several early jaeger rifles with stright rifling always was told it was to ease loading on repeat shots.

 

[jaegerboy]

Yup,this is the intent.Its not really "rifling"its more like "grooving",and would be easier and quicker to do than a twist.I see a few 19th.century military guns done like this also.
This indeed limits the effects of fouling,but quickly fell out of favor with the use of Minie type projectiles.
Regards,
H.

 

[jaegerboy]

You are correct.Smoothbores do shoot straight,but for close distances.A good man with a quality smoothbore can hit about as good as a rifle for at least 50 yards or so.I have done it,using a correctly patched ball.
As the distance grows,the inherent inaccuracy due to lack of ball rotation on its axis,will cause the smoothbore to veer off drastically.
I can hit a man-size silouhette at 200 yards with a smoothbore musket,but only about 2/10 shots.More luck than skill,but with a .54 rifle its easy.
Regards,
H.

 

[Twisted_1in66]

Hey Hirsch, been trying to wrap my mind around the idea of straight rifling. Best I can figger,a rifled barrel twists a chunk of lead and it goes straight at what you,re aimin' at. From what the smoothies tells me and from what I have seen, guns without rifling shoot straight too. What did I miss in this picture?...never did understand some Technological advances or hard to see their need sometimes :rotf: GrampaJ in NC.

There's no comparison at all on the accuracy of the smoothbore vs the rifle.

Guns without rifling shoot straight, just don't shoot straight all that far. It's like throwing a knuckle ball because there is no spin to stabilize the flight of the ball. If you use a patched ball that fits the bore with a smoothbore, you can hit what you're aiming at out to about 70 yards or so. You may not hit it where you're aiming but it will be in the general area.

Most of the woods walks I've seen don't put a smoothbore target more distant than 50 yards. Rifle targets on the other hand usually go out to 100 yards and some have hanging metal targets at 200 yards. Deer within 50-yards can reliably and humanely be killed by either smoothbore or rifle. At 100 yards, only the rifle will consistently and humanely kill deer. Wishing it was different, won't make it so.

That straight rifling is not going to impart any spin to the ball to stabilize it in flight though it will give the patched ball some grooves for the patch to dig into. It might shoot a little straighter a little farther, but it's not going to be as accurate as a slow twist rifle with a round ball at 100 yards.

If I recall correctly, the main reason straight rifling was originally used was to make it easier to clean and give the fouling a place to go so you could use a patched ball of the right size without the need to clean it every two shots. The British Brown Bess was a 75 caliber smoothbore and they loaded it with 69 caliber lead balls so they could fire it a lot before they had to wipe the barrel. If they tried to shoot a 73 caliber ball with it, the fouling would make it impossible to load after just a few shots. This straight rifling gave the fouling a place to go.

Twisted_1in66 :thumbsup:

 

[paulvallandigham]

That may be what they theorized, but it does not work very well. Straight grooves load up with crud very fast. If it did work, we would see all Smooth Rifles built that way. :hmm: :thumbsup:

 

[Stophel]

Yeah, I never bought the crud buildup thing...They knew what they were doing right from the beginning. :wink:

I got my barrel now, and it's pretty. :grin: I had it made at .58. I'll get it stocked up sooner or later.

In the 18th century, the Germans called these "Schrotbüchsen" - Shot rifles. Generally, but not always, guns like this were made full stocked (smoothbores were most often half stocked), no rear sight, and no patchbox. I am TOLD that they were intended for boar hunting...I think they were general purpose hunting guns.

 

[flintriflesmith]

Here's a link to a very short web article on the subject.
Gary
straight rifling short answer

 

[Dphar]

No gimmick. I had a 1780's Durrs Egg that was a 14 bore and straight rifled, about 14 grooves or so. Fowling weight barrel, super thin at the muzzle.

I once saw a European Rolling Block, breech loader, about 16 bore with straight grooves 10 or so pretty deep too.
There were some articles written on this years ago in MB about 1968-69.
I have read that some original rifles with straight grooves really have a very slow twist but I have not experience other than reading about it.
Dan