Rifled barrel?

[wyz2285]

Hi every body, a little question, is a rifled barrel really helps a lot on accurancy? I usually shot bbs, and it's easy to find rifled bb barrels. But I want to build bigger bore full metal sniper rifle, so just want to know if a rifled barrel makes a big difference. On my bb guns it looks no big difference and if it helps how can I rifle a metal barrel? My idea is make some thing simular to this http://www.spudfiles.com/forums/pneumat ... rt,15.html. The pic is the pellet I'm planing on

[jrrdw]

You have to make a tool that fits the ID of your barrel with cutters protruding from it the depth of the rifling you want and pull it through your barrel to cut the grooves.

[saefroch]

In general, it was found that the rifled barrel had noticeably better accuracy as long as the projectile was snug and it's surface was something soft enough to be cut by the rifling.

That'd be why it doesn't make much of a difference on BB guns. The ammo needs to be soft, lead being the hardest material I've heard of working, or experience a massive acceleration and heat like on a conventional firearm or high-mix hybrid.

I know other people do it, but I'd like to congratulate you on digging up an old showcase post as example. That's what we always tell people and it's nice to see somebody do it. Grats!

[Hubb]

Rifling a barrel for a spud gun is more for bragging rights than anything. I've done it on PVC and metal barrels, and I've honestly never seen a difference either way. We just don't use the ideal projectiles to take the best advantage of rifling.

Check the Hubb Library and download the barrel book. I've documented the rifling process (that most of us can do fairly easily) for plastic and metal barrels.

[jackssmirkingrevenge]

Rifling a barrel for a spud gun is more for bragging rights than anything.

Agreed.

What projectiles did you plan on using?

[wyz2285]

i'm going to use a 8mm dia barrel, and i will make some metal pellets with exactly the same dia. So the conclusion is it's not necessary to rifle a barrel? I know my projectile aren't soft, I'm looking for penetration power too

[saefroch]

So the conclusion is it's not necessary to rifle a barrel?

If you're not using something significantly soft, you won't notice any difference, and you'll have lots of scratches inside your nice barrel. Power won't (or shouldn't) suffer noticeably from rifling.

Personally, I'd get two barrels and rifle one, then see if you can find any ammo that'll take to the rifling.

[Hubb]

The rifling is not used for power, it's used for accuracy. If you want both out of a homemade launcher, your best bet would be to put a forward center of gravity (FCOG) on the round, much like a standard slug for a shotgun.

The option for a sabot in a rifled barrel exists, but this is much tedious work and you probably won't notice a performance increase by simply applying the FCOG round to the launcher.

[wyz2285]

I know a rifled barrel won't increase the power I'm looking for both power and accuracy. If the pellet has some rails on it to make it follow the rifle line will that help? But that would reduce the velocity of the pellet so do the power

[Hubb]

Well, I guess, technically, you could put rails on a pellet to make it catch the rifling, but that's getting to a whole new meaning of the word "complicated." Just try the FCOG round. You won't be disappointed.

Oh, and if you are worried about a specific round reducing the velocity of the shot, compensate by turning up the pressure just a tad.

[jackssmirkingrevenge]

Have a look at this test using Remington slugs which are simply lead slugs with a hollow base:



A smoothbore barrel can give you very reasonable accuracy.

[Hubb]

Have a look at this test using Remington slugs which are simply lead slugs with a hollow base:

Funny. I just got done looking over that article just yesterday.

[jackssmirkingrevenge]

Funny. I just got done looking over that article just yesterday.

I usually link to it everytime the "is it worth rifling my barrel" discussion comes up

[wyz2285]

A smoothbore barrel can give you very reasonable accuracy.

thanks for the help now I can move on and make some test shots
Btw Hubb your article is great

[Hubb]

Share with us your thoughts on ammo now. How do you plan on applying this (in other words, if you need help, just ask)?