Stan - all good points, all useful, and all much appreciated. Gain twist is one of those things a gun guy might hear about occasionally, but not really encounter without purposefully looking for it. I did post a query about it on the muzzleloading forum. The responses were pretty helpful, some amazingly so (a barrel maker, a competitive BP shooter, a book worm), but nothing definitive. Like a lot of people who use this site here, I own British double rifles. Those guns are incredibly accurate. The BPE ones all have both gain twist and a tapered bore. We all know that the British sporting rifle makers were tops. They knew what they were doing. It seems like we have to rebuild the British wheel to find out how it turns.
Colerain made the barrels on our other muzzleloading guns, and they are very accurate. I think my son's child-size .45 flintlock has gain twist. It is a tack driver. Gun builder Bill Slusser swears by the gain twist in Colerain barrels, and he says he has been able to get both round balls and bullets/sabots to shoot very well from them.
Your point about the .62 cal round ball is a good point, one I need to remember again and again. I am so searching for raw knockdown power that I am just about to overdo it with this project. The gun is supposed to be for our early season bear and deer season, for bear, elk and deer in places where flintlocks are not required. A round ball is probably enough for all that...
Last edited by pamtnman; 08/29/19 11:38 PM.
