Bull Barrel Plainsrifle

[Galloway]

I was in a local museum today and i saw a .54 cal half stock plainsrifle with a veryl heavy barrel. I checked and saw it was not a conversion but was probably a 14-16 pound gun. I was wondering if heavy barrel plainsrifles were common or a rare thing during their day. I can understand such a barrel on a cartridge buffalo gun but never thought them on standard muzzle loaders. Thanks

[ol coot]

  Galloway,
  The  haft stock plainsrifle [Hawken] was in the 12-14 lb area, some heavier.
  My Itacha 50 cal weight is 13 lbs. Being as how most MM traveled with horses
weight wern't no big deal for there rifle.

 Coot

[Galloway]

Oh this thing was huge much thicker than a typical hawken. Thanks though

[Caleb Hobbs]

Did the museum give a date or any other kind of description? I know over-the-log matches were popular back in the 1930s (still are in some areas), and had some heavy barrels. As did slug guns. Knew a guy shot a slug gun that weighted 50-plus pounds. Not much recoil there. Back east, these kind of matches have always been popular. Could it have been something like that?

[Ranch 13]

Yes the heavy barreled guns were quite common. They used extra "meat" around the bore to insure being able to shoot heavy powder charges .
A good many of the "hawkens" rifles of today have a barrel about half the size of the originals.

[wildman1]

My Hawkin has a 7/8" octagon barrel.  It is a 53 cal. WM

[Tascosa Joe]

The 2 original Hawkins I have personnaly touched had 1 1/4 barrels.

[Ranch 13]

There's a handful of plains rifles of various manufacture in the Buffalo Bill History Center, that have barrels at least an inch and a quarter and possibly larger..
The 54 fullstock flint hawken reproduction rifle I owned had a 1 1/4 inch barrel, the thing weighed 14 lbs but was a pleasure to shoot and hunt with.

[Galloway]

I hadnt thought of them handling more powder thats intresting. Thanks guys

[Caleb Hobbs]

I suspect the weight was more for stability. The old timers I talked to in Indiana, many of whom were shooting muzzle loaders back in the 1930s when the NMLRA was established, always told me that too much powder would just blow out the muzzle. Not to mention blown patches.

[Ranch 13]

Page 183 in Ned Roberts Muzzleloading Caplock rifle has a good bit about the Hawken rifles using up to 250 grs of powder.

[JimBob]

Did you happen to notice if by any chance the barrel was turned round for a short length at the muzzle or was it octagon full length?

[Galloway]

I believe the full length was octogonal.

[Jake MacReedy]

Ranch13, what kind of loads did you use in your heavy-barrel Hawken?  I have Hanson's book on the Hawken, but it doesn't go into the loads used very much.  I'm actually thinking of building a heavy-barrel one like the originals, and use it for hunting at home in Texas.

Thanks in advance for the info!

Regards,
Jake

[Ranch 13]

535 pillowtic patched ball with 55 grs of goex 2f for most things. Hunting and longrange target work 110 grs powder.

[Jake MacReedy]

Thanks for the info!  I appreciate it!

[Paladin UK]

Fer WM....

53cal!!
That ball must be  `bout an ounce!!     Gotta be like lettin loose a 12g slug!!

Paladin (Whats now whinkin of adding to his collection  ) UK

[Ranch 13]

 535 rb weighs about 220grs.

[Sir Charles deMouton-Black]

Miscellaneous Question #14

http://www.frfrogspad.com/miscelln.htm

AND!!!!  A roundball ballistic calculator;  Scroll down to "where to get it" to download. What you see is only a demo and won't work.

http://www.ctmuzzleloaders.com/ctml_experiments/rbballistics/rbballistics.html

It is amazing how smart Mister Google is

[wildman1]

Fer WM....

53cal!!
That ball must be  `bout an ounce!!     Gotta be like lettin loose a 12g slug!!

Paladin (Whats now whinkin of adding to his collection  ) UK

520 round ball weighs 213 grains. WM