SpudFiles

Ok, so I think I understand how a rifled barrel works.

But what I'm pondering today is what if the bullet was rifled and the bore was smooth? Or both the bullet and the bore were rifled?

I'm sure it would take a lot of work to rifle a bullet, but would it go faster, farther, etc?

It would fly almost perfectly straight, improving accuracy. I saw some projectile somewhere that was rifled. Can't remember where though.

They use some rifled slugs in shotguns.The solid slugs have rifling well some of them do and as to there effectiveness I am not sure.For a rifled bullet to work it would need to have alot of friction etc so spins in the barrel and a projectile or that nature would most probably eat your barrel away very quickly.

A rifled barrel has a smooth projectile but the projectile(bullet)is a very tight fit in the barrel so when its forced down the barrel or shot out the rifling Bites into the projectile and causes it to spin.

So to some extent, a rifled bullet spinning in air is the (close to) the same as a smooth bullet because there is no friction from the barrel anymore. Right?

A rifled barrel and bullet makes the most sense to me. The barrel to get it started, the bullet to keep it going.

With a smooth bore and a rifled bullet, it is a lot harder for the bullet to start spinning on its own.

With a rifled bore and a smooth bullet, I just think of the bullet wondering almost on its own.

Tell me if I am wrong, my mind is sooo confused.

rna_duelers wrote:They use some rifled slugs in shotguns.The solid slugs have rifling well some of them do and as to there effectiveness I am not sure.For a rifled bullet to work it would need to have alot of friction etc so spins in the barrel and a projectile or that nature would most probably eat your barrel away very quickly.

A rifled barrel has a smooth projectile but the projectile(bullet)is a very tight fit in the barrel so when its forced down the barrel or shot out the rifling Bites into the projectile and causes it to spin.

That is what I saw, a rifled slug. I was looking through this book on guns and it had a little section on the different types of shotgun ammunition that are used. Maybe an earplug would work good for this, I mean the soft foam kind. They grip the inside of a barrel (a 1/2" copper barrel) firmly and you could cut a groove in them to give them spin.

using rifled projectiles only - so called "air rifling" - is not effective as such. Take the Brenneke shotgun slug as an example:



It has rifling but still relies on a light fibre wad attached to its base to make it nose-heavy and induce stability, and is most accurate when fired from rifled slug barrels.

the moment a smooth projectile enter a rifled barrel and is frced through it, it becomes a rifled projectile.

yes, thats called a shot gun slug.

i found a .50 caliber bullet from WWll and it was rifled. i think it was made that way so that it took the rifling in the barrel better.

its funny because it says .50 caliber on it, but i fits really loose in 1/2'' pipe.

i use rifled "bullets", they work amazing even with a ball valve. i think im getting 800fps and they are incredibly accurate. they are called " Bic ultra round stic grip pens" the grip on them is a spiral. and when i remove the actual ink cartage and replace it with a 2 1/2" 10d nail they have amazing power.heres a picture of one

<img src="http://p.office1000.com/mrp/GSMGPC84BIC.jpg">

i know the picture is a little blurry but if you look hard you can see spiral white lines, these stick out just enough to give the pen rotation when shot out of my bic pen sniper. the gun isn't finished yet and i will post it when its done (been having problems with the small diameter piston valve on it)

Rifled bullets in a smooth bore have no way to grip the walls, so you don't get any apreciable spin with them.

Smooth bullets in a rifled bore become rifled when you shoot 'em.

Pre-rifled bullets in a rifled bore where formerly the norm for cannons (and still might be, for all I know) - indeed, it seems like fully half of the projectile designs of the civil war used pre-rifled ammo.
Probably because alot of them used ferrous casings.

not many cannons used pre-rifled rounds, most were just plain balls with an explosive charge, anything else probably cause their arn't many other ways to design it but most were just balls

and like said it will be better but not perfect, you also would want it even on all side so it wont fly off course

IIRC the 80cm Dora of WW2 had a pre-engraved driving band in order to prevent excess pressure building up in the barrel, and modern recoilless rifles use the same principle for similar reasons.