Smoothbore and Rifle Barrel Life

[TheAzn]

Rifling a barrel increases accuracy, which is why rifles replaced smoothbore muskets.

But I'm not interested in accuracy; I am just curious about barrel life.

Generally speaking, rifles have far greater friction even with grease. I'm just curious if the comparatively insignificant friction of the smoothbores would cause it to last longer without wear.

Please assume equal amount of shooting and cleaning care.

 

[Modernhoglegs]

Wish I had the time and money...

I wish that I had the time and money to wear out a gun barrel.

The old muzzleloaders would take years of more or less daily use to wear the lands out of a rifle to a point where a gun smith would rebore and re-rifle the gun.

The smoothbore would just gradually open out to a different caliber/gauge.

Friction with the ramrod would tend to wear on the muzzle crown and rifling much faster which is why folks started using ramrod guides and false muzzles.

If you are wondering about an accuracy problem, I would go with a thicker patch or a bullet .005 larger.

For example, I have an old Traditions .50 cal Woodsman.
The instruction manual says to use a .490 roundball, but it actually needs a .495 ball to get the tightest groups.

 

[Loyalist Dave]

Basically, it's more from rust due to atmosphere and improper cleaning that messes with a BP barrel rather than use by the average shooter, either then or now.

LD

 

[Will5A1]

My casual and unscientific observation of line shooters at Friendship - the bench/chunkgun shooters change their barrels every year or two, maybe even more often, those shooting smoothbore matches don't. I thinks it is reasonable to assume both types take reasonable care of their barrels, and both types use rod guides or false muzzles to lessen rod muzzle wear.

 

[4v50 Gary]

Modern steel barrels have a longer life than the iron barrels that many old flintlocks had. It was not unknown for a gun to be taken to a gunsmith and have its rifling refreshed or be rebored and re-rifled. Certainly a modern steel barrel can be worn out but most of us don't shoot them enough to do that.

 

[EljaySL]

If you don't care about accuracy how would it even be possible to wear out a barrel...

 

[CANNONMAN]

How about both?

I worked for a design engineer who would terminate the rifled barrel at a determined "peak pressure point" and replace the terminated section with smooth bore. The idea being that post peak pressure the lands and grooves would only serve to retard the bullets performance. The smooth bore - supposedly - would allow the bullet to continue to build speed. The idea worked as long as everything was kept at a constant. In-other-words, as the barrel would heat up, or anything else changed, the smooth bore would react differently. As in not as impressive when the testing began. However, barrel wear became fundamentally non-existent. It became impossible to determine how to correct the diameter dynamics needs of the smoothbore.