Well with your help I got my Cape Gun shooting really nicely. Now next question. I recently found a German gun, double barrel, exposed hammers circa 1890 or thereabouts. The right barrel is about 45 caliber and has some loaded and unloaded brass. Ok I can make up some ammo. However the left barrel appears to be 16 ga. but has full length straight rifling. I couldn't count the lands/grooves but I'd like to know what is supposed to go up the spout before I buy. Can you folks help?
Frank

Frank,

There are two possible reasons to have straight rifling. The first is to allow the use of a lead slug. The second is to stop any possible spin of the shot column. A straight rifled barrel will act as a spreader. In some tests at short range, it will provide a more even pattern than cylinder choke.

Here is an article about it by Bill Hanus:
http://www.gundogsonline.com/Article/pictures-are-worth-a-thousand-words-Page1.htm

Husqvarna shotguns had an option of a second set of barrels with cylinder choke and straight rifling. They would fire tight fitting lead slugs. It has to do with Swedish game laws regarding Moose hunting. Thus allowing a hunter to only have 1 gun and take a wide range of birds and game. Same concept as the drilling, yes? Except the drilling was even more of an adaptation to the game laws and hunting style. From my understanding, a hunter could be invited not to come back if they did not kill a fox they saw while hunting.



Pete

Hello Frank.

I posted quite a bit when I got my 16ga rolling block with straight rifling. The Swedish game law thing made sense because the bore was 16ga but the grooves took it upward of .690 groove. The gun seemed to be retroed.
Mic your barrel and it will let you know if you can use standard cases with a ball or thinner brass cases.

Cheers,

Tom

Straight rifling in bird shotguns improoves pattern. It's not for slugs. It became useless since choke inventions, but some makers made straight rifling till the beginning of 20-th cent.

I've just registered and this is my first post. Probably should lurk for several weeks before saying anything, but this subject is very familiar.

Straight rifling goes back to at least the middle of the 1700's, and was not unusual in pieces made in the American Colonies. It seems to have been a German concept especially with some of the Moravian and German gunmakers in Pennsylvania and North Carolina Colonies. I have a contemporary 1770's .60cal flintlock with straight rifling. This piece was duplicated from an original RevWar Militia piece that is on display at the American Museum in Valley Forge. Original purpose for straight rifling aparently was to provide a collection groove for black powder residue allowing multiple shots to be fired before swabbing out the fouling.

Wow, I should visit this section more often. Pearls of wisdom from posters that do not
post on the "normal" section.

Thanks,

JC