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Author Topic: The subject at hand!  (Read 1634 times)

Offline Hawken

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The subject at hand!
« on: June 18, 2016, 01:00:33 AM »
The .45 BACO PP Money Bullet can't be beat....using a 1-18" ROT! The issue is with a ML is how you can align the bullet to be concentric with the bore! Unless one has a false muzzle to load the bullet.....accuracy will be questionable!! :salute
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Offline dbm

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Re: The subject at hand!
« Reply #1 on: July 22, 2016, 03:38:10 PM »
What are you basing this on?

Long range muzzle loading match rifles are routinely used without false muzzle and with cylindrical bullets.

David
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Firearms, Long Range Target Shooting & Associated History

Offline Hawken

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Re: The subject at hand!
« Reply #2 on: July 22, 2016, 09:52:58 PM »
Quote from: "dbm"
What are you basing this on?

Long range muzzle loading match rifles are routinely used without false muzzle and with cylindrical bullets.

David

Ned Robert's writings, the Old Masters, etc. Unless the bullet is concentric with the bore the rifle cannot be expected to deliver it's best accuracy! If the muzzle is counter-bored to accept the right diameter bullet or a false muzzle is employed the bullet will not be concentric! Just because they are 'routinely used' DOES NOT MEAN that the best accuracy will be had!! :USA
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Online Bigsmoke

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Re: The subject at hand!
« Reply #3 on: July 22, 2016, 10:40:24 PM »
Uh, Hawken, I am thinking you are overthinking this.
I'd suggest that you give starting a bullet into the bore with just a short starter and see where you are.
Develop the load first, of course.
I bet the rifle will shoot every bit as well as you can, if not better.  I know mine does, whenever I can do my job.  Sorry to say, that has been a while.  Mabe I need to practice a bit more?
John
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Offline Hawken

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Re: The subject at hand!
« Reply #4 on: July 23, 2016, 04:27:47 AM »
Thank you....but I'm gonna ride with Ole Ned on this one!

An extraction:

 In the early days of the nation, target shooting was almost exclusively for hunting training. With the demands of colonial and frontier life, there was little time for the average person to shoot without an apparent purpose. "Shooting at the mark", which was a charred board with a piece of white paper fastened in the middle, was used initially to train people to shoot. Of course, the competitive nature comes out and people were soon doing "turkey shoots" or even "beef shoots". (Footnote ii) Somewhere between 1790 and 1800, the "match rifle" or "turkey rifle" was produced, with a heavy, full octagon barrel between 38" and 40" long, full stocked, double set triggers and a "tube sight". A tube sight is simply a tube with cross hairs mounted in it, with no lenses. With most target sights, such as the "globe sight"(Footnote iii), the object is to keep shadows and glare off the sights to aid the shooter. The rifling twist was slow, probably between 1:60 and 1:70, as it shot a linen-patched round ball. This seems to be the best spin for a round ball. The primer cap made its debut around 1815, which made things easier for the shooter.

The next development was in the ammunition, i.e. the bullet that the rifle shot. In 1835, match rifles began to shoot the "picket" or "sugarloaf" bullet, a conical shaped round that gave slightly better range than the round ball. It, too, used a linen patch. Because of its shape, it was difficult to get started down the barrel accurately. If the nose of that style bullet is not in alignment with the axis of the bore, one side of the base of the bullet will exit the muzzle sooner than the other, giving an erratic spin to the bullet, thus decreasing accuracy. In order to counter this, the "straight starter" was introduced. The barrel of the rifle was turned down to round for the first 1-1 1/2 inches. Sometimes a shallow depression, the size of the patch, was turned into the end of the muzzle. The bullet and patch were place on the muzzle, over the bore. The starter was machined to fit perfectly over the muzzle, and, on the end of the push rod, was machined to fit the bullet perfectly, so that the bullet was not damaged while being started. With one strike by the ball of the fist, the bullet was rammed about 4-6 inches into the bore. A ramrod finished the job.

The match rifles themselves still weighed in the 9-15 lb. range. They were generally around .45 caliber. The rifling twist had increased to 1:30, sometimes with a "gain twist", starting out with a slower twist, and getting tighter as the rifling neared the muzzle. The faster rate of twist was due to the longer bullet needing the faster rate of spin to stabilize. In 1840 the next significant development was the "false muzzle". This was a piece approximately 1 1/2 to 2" long, which had been cut off the end of the barrel during manufacture, after the bore had been cut, but before the rifling had been cut. Prior to being cut, four equidistant holes were drilled along the long axis of the barrel, from the muzzle end. After being cut, four pins were placed in the holes. The false muzzle was attached to the barrel, then the rifling was cut in both. The bore was reamed smooth at the other end to provide a "funnel" for the bullet being loaded. The false muzzle was placed on the end of the rifle, the base of the straight starter went on over that (with the patch and round placed on it), and finally the straight starter itself. All of this insured that the bullet would go into the rifle as straight as possible, and also protected the all-important rifling at the true muzzle. By this time, paper patches were being used for accuracy, in place of the linen patches. Paper patches are either cross or strip patches. Cross-style is cut with a special cross-shaped cutter, giving an "X" shaped piece of paper. Strip style is several narrow strips of paper, overlaid to give an "X" pattern or, with three strips, an asterisk (*) shaped six-point pattern. The paper was oiled with sperm whale oil (hardly available now!). The base of the straight starter generally had slots cut into it to place the patches in the proper orientation, with the bullet placed on the patch strips. The paper strips were found to be more accurate than the linen, as the bullet could be made to fit the bore more closely.

False Muzzle by Rick Mulhern, on Flickr
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Offline dbm

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Re: The subject at hand!
« Reply #5 on: July 24, 2016, 06:17:15 AM »
Much of what you cite from Roberts is about 1830s and 1840s. The Money Bullet that kicked off the thread owes its design to the 1870s. Picket bullets had very little bearing surface and could be misaligned when loading. A properly fitting paper patched (or grease grooved for that matter) cylindrical bullet doesn't need a starter.

The heavy American bench rest rifles evolved for a specialised form of target shooting. Here in the UK from the 1860s (following the founding of the NRA(UK) in 1859), specialised long range match rifles evolved. Whitworth, Henry, Kerr, Turner and others used deeply grooved rifling, some with mechanically fitting bullets. The Gibbs-Metford (introduced in 1865), followed by Rigby, changed things with shallow rifling and hardened bullets. All these rifles are still used today at ranges out to 1200 yards. Some are fitted with a false muzzle - this is used to protect the muzzle of the barrel from wear by loading and cleaning rods.

The bullet does not need to be forced into the bore - indeed contemporary rifleman (William Metford and Stanford Young) in their published works on match rifle shooting caution against tight bullets ("It is difficult to prevent tight bullets from creeping into the packets at times; these should be easily stopped before they passed the false muzzle" W.E. Metford c1876).

I'm looking forward to August when we have a weekend of long range competition at Bisley. I'll be shooting muzzle loading match rifle at 800, 900, 1000, 1100 & 1200 yards.

David
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Firearms, Long Range Target Shooting & Associated History