Rifling

[Carmady]

I was looking at guns for sale and ran across a couple of rifling pics. The guns were from different eras.

The H&R .22 (nickel in pic) was probably made between 1910 and 1941. It has a 2" barrel and a lot more twist than the later one, which is a...

Charter Arms Undercover .38, 2" barrel, made around the '70s in Stratford. The rifling on this gun is pretty straight and appears to be a deeper.

I've never given much thought to rifling on handguns. I figured the people who made the things knew what they were doing.

I guess different types (lead vs plated) and sizes of bullets might do better with different rifling, but I'm just rambling.

Any comments or insights on the variations of revolver rifling?

[Bob Wright]

I did a study on rifling pitches many, many years ago. The length of the bullet sort of determines the pitch of the rifling, longer bullets require a faster pitch to stablize the bullet in flight, shorter bullets less so.

While really only of interest in long range shooting, there is an optimum pitch for each caliber. If the spin is too slow, the bullet will tumble in flight. If the spin is too fast the bullet is overstablized and does not follow the arc of the trajectory; that is, the bullet will maintain the angle of departure at the time of exiting the muzzle thourghout its flight.

Such deep study gave me a headache and I realized it was really meaningfull to artillery and very long range rifle shooting. So for handgunnery, don't sweat it.

Bob Wright

[Carmady]

Thanks, Bob.

Here's an interesting pic.

[Tom Matiska]

Not everything that is supposed to happen to a bullet happens in the first two inches of a barrel, and happens even less as the the barrel fouls. Not a bad idea for a snubbie that fires lead to have a little overkill on the twist.