Wrinkle on the inside of the barrel?

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BowerR64

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Is this normal? I noticed it when cleaning and i can feel it when im pushing the wire brush down the barrel. It feels like its swelled when the brush gets to this point its easy to push then it feels normal again once it passes the wrinkle.

You can see it on the outside of the barrel also if you hold it in the light just right.

It is a colt .44 navy

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Your Barrel has Bulged at that point,it has been subject to a restriction when firing.Could be dangerous, it would not pass a proof House test or would be rejected as not good enough for Proof.The barrel could be cut off at that point and submitted for reproof.
 
What would cause it to do this?

To large of a load?

A chamber that wasnt loaded with enough powder followed by a correct charge maybe?

I dont remember ever having an issue other then its never been accurate.

I guess my dad could of had a problem with it before i started shooting it but he never mentioned anything about it.

If i look at it really close with a jewlers magnify glass will i be able to see stress marks?
 
My guess would be a ball was left in the barrel and another shot fired causing the ringed barrel.
 
I would say that StrawHat is spot on with the reason for the Bulge.If the Colt is not an original Antique I would attempt to obtain a replacement Barrel,failing that a cut down Percussion Revolver is pretty neat and does not lose accuracy.
 
At some point a ball was loaded without powder or much too little powder and the ball never left the barrel. Basically the C&B version of a "squib" round. The next charged ball was fired, the two balls met and swaged outwards with incredible pressure stretching the barrel metal and the resulting double slug left from the front of the gun.

It's far enough along and I gather you've shot it frequently enough that I would not consider it as a danger. But I'm not surprised that you're finding that it is less than accurate.

If it's a reproduction gun I'd say that the barrel could be cut down to make it a short version or else simply write it off. Cabelas sells Pietta C&B guns for cheap enough that it's simply not worth trying to buy a new barrel for this gun and have to fit it correctly.
 
What are the odds that mine is in the same spot as others?

Is this a common thing that happens?

These are all images ive saved from the "THR Colt thread"

I dont know when it happened, cant recal any light fires that could of caused a squib and im not sure how much ive shot it since.


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When guys get talking it's not all that unlikely that a dry ball can occur. A "dry ball" being a ball being when the ball is put into place without any powder. Or if a gated powder flask is used and the operator's timing is bad the flask can be turned upright while the gate is still mostly open and a lot of the charge will spill back in. If not noticed this can result in a light charge of only a few grains of power.

If those other pictures ARE bulges then it would appear that it's human nature to mess up this way. Sad to say I found the same sort of bulge in my beloved S&W Model 19 a while back. I still can't say that I recall ever having a squib. But apparently I did and did not realize what it was and pulled the trigger again. So I'm dealing with options to fix this as well since the accuracy is also well down. As in it went from a 1.5 inch grouping gun at 15 yards to about a 3 inch group.

As far as your own gun goes I would suggest starting with putting up a HUGE sheet of paper and see just exactly how well/badly it does group. It may be that it's not that bad but simply that the sights are so far off that the center of the group is down off the edge of the target sheet.

I'll bet you've got the owners of the guns in those two picture scrambling to check their bore conditions now.... :D
 
It could just be the lighting in their images, not all of the images in that post are good enough to see this kind of detail.

At first i thought it was just how they taper the barrel because its so uniform but i wasnt sure. When i was cleaning it then i noticed it seems bulged right at that spot.

What is the ball doing as it hits this spot? is it maybe skipping the lands and grooves? stopping its rotation then restarting the rotation?
 
Ill give it one more try then its gone.

One thing about the colt was i could never get it on the paper with it the way my dad had it. I dont know how he shot any of these guns he never adjusted any of them.

The Remingtons with those 2" front posts always shot low, and the colt with its little brass nub alway shot high.

I guess i watch to much tv, i thought most gun fights back then were at "10 paces at high noon?" :p These dont seem setup for 10 paces.

I decided to give this thing one more try before i traded it off.

First i used some tape and made a little masking tape kinda mold and mixed up some JB weld. Put a dab on the front sight to build it up (little trick from Phil) worked on the Remington should work on this one.

I just guessed on the hight but i figured it might be close to the Remington.

Its easy to file the dried JB weld so i shaped it a little then took off to the range.

Started close to see where it was at, pretty close so i moved it from 7 yards (first 6 shots) out to 15 second and third set. All 18 shots hit the paper. Best ive done with it so far.

Phil had some 2F T7 he gave me he wasnt going to use, little over 1/2 pound i think so i used that with a level scoop in a 45ACP shell. I figure that to be close to 26-30 grains no wads just the powder, ball and bore butter.

Not bad for me with this gun i was suprised.

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I built up the JB weld on the right side of the front sight so i think thats why its shooting a little left. All of the JB weld thickness is on the right side of it.
 

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Well it looks like you have sorted it out and the bulge has little effect on the accuracy.It could be that your mods to the sight has done the trick.It is unlikely that the Bulge was uniform all the way around the barrel and would have kicked the Muzzle over slightly.
Regards.
 
Thats one reason i thought it was part of the build of the gun because its a uniform ring right around the inside. Its not just in one spot its uniform all the way around.

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When the second ball is coming down the barrel, the pressure is built up uniformly and creates the ring.
 
Agree that the barrel is bulged. I have a S&W M-15 barrel that has an identical bulge.
 
If it's not an original I would say get a replacement barrel and have that one cut off to eliminate the bulged area. Then you could have a short barrel for ease of use and the normal length for historical accuracy.
 
Howdy

Guys, the OP says it is a Colt 44 Navy. No way it is an original.

If it was my gun I would just keep shooting it and not worry about it. We are talking Black Powder pressures, right? No way that barrel is going to blow with a bulge way out by the muzzle. The cylinder will let go first, the walls of the cylinder are thinner, and the pressure is greater in the cylinder than when the ball reaches the muzzle. Bulges are fairly common. I have a S&W M&P that was made about 1908. Sometime in the last 100 years somebody got a bullet stuck and there is a barely visible bulge down near the forcing cone. I was shooting it for months before I even noticed the bulge. And I'm talking light Smokeless 38 Sp loads, not Black Powder.

Just shoot it and don't worry about it. If it really concerns you there is no need to replace the barrel, the bore can be drilled out from the muzzle end to beyond the bulge, so you have a smooth bore for the last inch or so. If you bore it large enough in diameter, there will be no contact with the ball and no loss in accuracy. A friend of mine did that with a SAA clone a few years ago that had a bulge near the muzzle.

Frankly though, I would just shoot it and not worry about it. Just be sure you are using enough powder so that every ball leaves the barrel.
 
Well I would happily give him $75 for this thing if he thinks it dangerous!

My only experience with a barrel ring was in an MP40, which last seen had hundreds and hundred of rounds past discovering the ring and was still doing fine.......

Still if it were mine I might try my hand at shortening the barrel, either to half an inch before the bulge starts and then shortening the load lever and re installing the catch and new front sight or ditching the load lever and making the gun something Porter Rockwell might have had in his pocket standing next to President Young and looking over the crowd.

-kBob
 
From the looks of those groups I'd say that you've fixed it just fine.... :D

I ran into the exact same issue of shooting high with my own 1860's. In my case I made up new steel front blades that were taller. But metal working is very much a hobby of mine so it wasn't all that big a deal to produce new blades instead of adding to the old brass "stub".
 
BowerR64 said:
What would cause it to do this?

To large of a load?

A chamber that wasnt loaded with enough powder followed by a correct charge maybe?

I dont remember ever having an issue other then its never been accurate.

I guess my dad could of had a problem with it before i started shooting it but he never mentioned anything about it.

If i look at it really close with a jewlers magnify glass will i be able to see stress marks?
Click to expand...
Bulged barrels are from a number of potential sources, but too much pressure is the reason at that spot. Short starts are the most probably common reason for this or potentially some other obstruction that found its way into the barrel. I'm sure this will have some accuracy implication... and possibly worse.
 
I've been shooting a 44-40 1866 with a bulge just short of the front sight. Can't tell any difference on paper or steel.
Happened about 3/4 years ago. No sweat!
 
I have an 1860 with a slight "wrinkle" just forward of the wedge. It can be seen inside but almost undetectable on the out side, it patterns just as good as my other one of the pair.
 
44 Dave said:
I have an 1860 with a slight "wrinkle" just forward of the wedge. It can be seen inside but almost undetectable on the out side, it patterns just as good as my other one of the pair.
Click to expand...
How did it happen to yours? or do you know?
 
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