BP donut hole

[Peddler Parsons]

I heard that if you taper the inside end of your rifle barrel it will cause a donut ring to form leaving the center clear to see the targets.
If this is true how is it cut out to do so 

[Jefro]

Never heard of such a thing Just how in the wide world of sports do you taper the inside of a rifle barrel?? I know, get it red hot and beat it with a big hammer  Part of the fun of shooting BP is dealing with smoke Good Luck


Jefro Relax-Enjoy

[Sir Charles deMouton-Black]

 

[Lucky Irish Tom]

That's a new one on me! 

[Sir Charles deMouton-Black]

A couple of Centuries ago, some rifles may have been reamed & polished during the finishing process to a lesser diameter near the muzzle.  But not to tune smoke rings, but to attmept to control the projectile a bit more at the muzzle.  (At least, that is how I understand it??) I'll have the check Pollard's or The Story of the Gun.

The resulting choke was very minor, in the order of a 'thou or three.  There may be some foundation to this tale, but somewhere there was a gust of "wind" that threw the shot off a mite.

[Noz]

     Ok you old timers.     Wasn't there something floating around a few years back about altering the crown of the barrel to get this elusive open center smoke ring? I don't think that worked either.

[Buffler Razz]

I coned the muzzle of my 58 cal flintlock rifle, there is a coning tool that uses fine grit emory paper. It is to allow for thumb starting a patched roundball. Can't say I see any smoke ring as a result. It also did not alter the accuracy of the gun at all as far as grouping size.

[Dick Dastardly]

Smoke rings come and go.  Mostly, we're just blowin' smoke. . .

DD-MDA

[wildman1]

I get smoke rings with my Walkers, none with any of my flinters or percussion long guns. Might be the shorter barrels.  WM

[Lucky R. K.]

. . . .  Mostly, we're just blowin' smoke. . .

DD-MDA

I think Dick got it right.

Lucky 

[hellgate]

I am no ballistician nor a meteorologist but the smoke rings I see at shoots seem to only happen when there is an ever so slight wind in the shooter's face.

[Abilene]

I often see smoke rings from other shooters but almost never see my own.  One time in a match I fired a round and a great smoke ring went out and just kept going and going.  I stopped shooting to admire it.  The RO said something about "keep shooting" and I responded "but look at that great smoke ring!"  

To Peddler, I've heard tell of a "BP Crown" that supposedly causes smoke rings but seems that only a few people think it works, and I would tend to doubt that it would help to see the target through the "donut hole" but...ya never know!

[Mason Stillwell]

I had the barrels of my ROA's done . Not to make a smoke ring but to allow the smoke to spread out quicker and not come out as one huge cloud. Just Sayin.

Mason

[Steel Horse Bailey]

I've heard of the mod, too ... back some years.  Don't know if it really works as I never saw anyone shoot who had it done. 

In the same vein DD put it, sometimes ya jus' git lucky!

[litl rooster]

by time you see a smoke ring, the bullet has hit (or in my case missed) the target.  Smoke rings are for the spectator not the shooter.

[Grapeshot]

We used to get smoke rings occasionaly when we fired our six pounders at Reenactment events in New England. 

[Paladin UK]

Be amazed and behold...

The Very Wonderous....The Holy Black

Paladin (Whut lurvs the mysteries of the HB  ) UK

[Driftwood Johnson]

Howdy

The idea is to cut an exaggerated crown at the muzzle. Supposedly it will help smoke rings form. I concur that this is absolutely useless for the shooter. The smoke ring is never so perfectly formed that there is a clear, unobstructed view of the targets in the center. Mostly, it just pleases the spectators.

[Peddler Parsons]

Thanks to all the responded
Peddler

[Dick Dastardly]

Smoke rings, when they happen, are just one more reason we shoot the Holy Black.  They do occur frequently enough to be entertaining but they are hardly the goal of BP shooters.

Of more concern is the doughnut holes in our scattergun patterns.  They ARE something we can do something about, and should.  Anyone care to post on why some scatterguns will shoot "doughnut" hole patterns?

DD-MDA