Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Muzzleloaders 54 cal round ball barrel length

How short would you go on a barrel for 54 cal shooting PRB's?

Even with today's BP substitutes I don't think I would go below 24 inches. Shooting black only no less than 36.

http://powderburns.tripod.com/powder.html

Pretty good read.

I'd be concerned with sight radius as much as velocity. Those of a certain "vintage" often have issues with barrel mounted sights. Placing the rear sight out farther helps, but shortens the radius. A longer barrel helps with that. Long barrels hang better for offhand shooting and look nice too.

I would be more concerned with twist than I would length.

Mines 34". Green Mountain. It's on a Hawken so not inclined to go shorter.

56 round rifled.

Wondering how short I can go...

Round rifling, how cool is that?

here's a pic from the build phase:



It's a lot easier to clean, IMO.

And you can cut up your old jeans up and use them for patches.

as a matter of fact, yes.....

But it was better with the 530 balls, not the 535.

here's part of the finished(?) build from last year, but I am contemplating using the barrel for an additional barrel on the Billinghurst action

I'd not go shorter than 36". YMMV

Round bottomed grooves look really good.

Might I ask who cut em ?

GTC

It's a Colerain rifle barrel, I ordered it from Muzzleloader builders supply

BL541542C

shoots great, she's at 42" right now. Guess I'll leave it that way.

Not sure taking off any length will be worth the return in weight.

I may find a faster twist 54 ("carbine length") to shoot maxi balls and mount that to the Billinghurst Underhammer.

You mean something like onto this:

Flintrifle by Rick Mulhern, on Flickr

As long as we are talking 54's, what would be the optimum bore/groove, twist and barrel length for a maxiball?

.542 diameter driving band, 0.540 for the other two, 0.90" long. About 420 gr.

Thinking the 56 twist may be too slow for that, but maybe not?

Just spitballing here, but I think around a 1-32 for conicals.

Someone once told me that the 1-48 was the compromise for PRB and conicals, since it sat about in the middle of the optimum twist for PRB and conicals.

Trust either of the above statements at your own risk.

36" works real well with a 70 or 77 twist....my green mountain shoots the .535 round Balls very well !

By the early Nineteenth Century PRB Military rifles had evolved into an exact science: 0.53-0.54 cal., 33"-36" barrels. Culminating in the US Rifle of 1841 AKA the "Mississippi Rifle".

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M1841_Mississippi_rifle

It remained state of the art in US Military rifles until Jeff Davis had it replaced with the Model 1855 Springfield which used the then-revolutionary French-inspired Minie ball system.

Lots of Mississippis ended up in State arsenals. Most of them were eventually bored out to 0.58 Minie but the rifle in its original .54 cal. PRB configuration played a major role on the Texas Frontier throughout the 1850's and into the '60's.

Birdwatcher

A pistol in this cal. is 8 inch. an works great I made a pistol 14 inch.rifle barrel that will group under 1 inch. with 75 gr powder 2 ffg all day long at 80 yards with a pistol scope