"New" barrel is a shooter!

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Sparkitoff1

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I recently sent a .54 cal GM barrel with 1:70 ROT that was 38" long to my Smith. I had it cut to 33", re-crowned with front sight dovetailed and a peep sight installed on the tang. This is a flintlock rifle. Not sure what to shoot, I went with the same old load I used previously. With .530 swaged ball, .018 pillow ticking and 7:1 water/ballistol dry lube, 80 grains Goex FFFg and 1.5 grains Goex FFFFg pan prime, I shot off the bench at 100-yards. Holy wow - this is better than expected.....

ml-target-flintlock.png
 
I recently sent a .54 cal GM barrel with 1:70 ROT that was 38" long to my Smith. I had it cut to 33", re-crowned with front sight dovetailed and a peep sight installed on the tang. This is a flintlock rifle. Not sure what to shoot, I went with the same old load I used previously. With .530 swaged ball, .018 pillow ticking and 7:1 water/ballistol dry lube, 80 grains Goex FFFg and 1.5 grains Goex FFFFg pan prime, I shot off the bench at 100-yards. Holy wow - this is better than expected.....

ml-target-flintlock.png
Now that's open-sight marksmanship. Nice Range Report with a VERY impressive cloverleaf using a flinter nonetheless! :thumbs up:
Why did you shorten the barrel...weight?
 
Not just the weight but the difficulty in finding a case for transportation and the times that I wanted to use a box blind and the rifle didn’t fit
 
Wow, that is a great group! I’d be really pleased with that.
 
I have a couple of short, handy rifles that are so nice in croweded spaces. I can't shoot that well at 15 yards!
 
I have shortened some barrels over the years and they really help when you are hunting out of a box blind. I never noticed a big difference in accuracy, but a guy does lose some sight radius and that can effect shooting somewhat. Evidently you have no problems in this regard. Nice shooting !
 
I did move the rear sight back much further towards me. It helped. I only see 31 FPS less average velocity. I expected much more than that.
 
For me, a 36" barrel is short and that's what my .45 flintlock is. I do have a percussion .45 with a 15/16" X 25" tube that is used only for targets. The 36" flintlock is a hunter! All other flintlocks are 38" which I consider pretty short.
 
This is the barrel on the rifle I used for the Javelina hunt. Those animals are pretty small, barely knee high so I was thankful for the accuracy and knowing the point of impact at ranges out to 100-yards. Based on what I saw outside and inside the animal there is about a 4.5" vital zone. Not much room to spare.
 

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