Multi-radial Rifling

[GregLaROCHE]

Has there been any new experience or thoughts on this type of rifling for long guns? Seems like it’s nothing really new, but Sabatti seems to trying hard to sell it. How about shooting cast?

[17nut]

So it's nothing more than a Metford or Rasmussen rifling used in black powder rifles in the late 1880's?
Or in other words a polygon rifling of yesterday.

I'll buy it when the benchrest shooters start setting records with it.
Until then, meh!

[GregLaROCHE]

They don’t seem to be popular. Today was the first time I’ve heard of it.

[Texas by God]

H&K SL rifles had polygonal rifling and didn't impress accuracy wise.

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[john.k]

Millenials gotta have new,aint new, wont buy......I m old,and I dont like silly names for rifling,three lug bolts,spiral grooved bolts,big diameter bolts with 3 lugs and spiral grooves,and particularly dont like string wound barrels.......did I mention I dont like plastic at all.......but metal skeleton stocks .....them I hate.

[TNsailorman]

We have to have new and exotic names for everything old these days. Sign of the times and the state of advertising of the modern world. The next generation will change names and attitudes also. Newness sells now and the perception of it did in the old days too.

[truckjohn]

Remember that we stand on the shoulders of giants.

When Metford rifling came out - it was better than anything else tested....
BUT..
It entered the field in the 1860's when rifling was sort of in it's infancy.

Look at the old "rifled" bore patterns.... Squares, octagons, weird heart shapes, etc.... Custom rifle makers supplied bullet molds individually custom fit for the barrels. Military rifles used thick patches to make up for big gaps between the barrels and bullets... The stuff we think of now as "Ballard rifling" back then was extremely deep and it seriously deformed the bullets. It was nothing special to see rifling on a 58 caliber run more than 1/16" deep per side.... Now rifling runs 0.006" to 0.012" deep per side....

Then you have the issue of Military rifles battlefield usage means that you don't have time to carefully treat or clean the bore between shots or maybe not even between engagements.... You fought till the fight was over and then you marched off to the next place.

Rifling has come a LONG LONG way since even the 1940's. Look at most modern rifles vs old rifles and you will be struck by how much smaller and shallower the rifling lands are now. They are akin to Marlin's "Microgroove" rifling just with fewer lands...

Then - in modern guns - deeper rifling and weird polygon rifling is typically found in military arms. They aren't more accurate - they sustain higher rates of fire before the rifling is worn away.... For example - the US military tested Marlin's microgroove rifling in the 1960's and found that barrel life was shorter in combat/high volume of fire situations. That's simply not a problem in a lever action or a 22lr.....

As such - it's hard for me to get excited about going back and rehashing that stuff.

[Willbird]

One aspect of polygon rifling may be the method of rifling being used in the first place by some mfg, IE hammer forging. Some rifling patterns may work better depending on the method being used. Are we cold hammer forging ?? Are we button rifling ?? Are we cut rifling with Pratt and Whitney rifling machine ?? Are we broaching rifling ??

Harry Pope is reported to have "rifled" a 22lr barrel with a piece of sandpaper mounted onto his rifling head, it was accurate until his "milli grooves" (spin on little tiny micro grooves) filled up with lead.

Back before we had any rifled 12 gauge barrels readily avail I always wanted to try and lap rifling into an existing 12 gauge barrel using a cast iron lap rotated like a rifling head as it was pulled through the barrel, my bet is that it would work.

Some of the rifling system like the Pope did not involve swaging a bullet into the rifling from a ctg through a leade/throat, the bullets were being muzzle loaded using a false muzzle. So some rifling patterns might make great rifling but lousy Leade and throat...IE they may burn out faster. I seem to recall the "ratchet" rifling suffered from issues of faster throat erosion ??

Bill