Antique barrel overhaul. Depth and twist?

Good morning gents.

I have a barrel I'll be sending to Mr. Hoyt for a liner. The bore measures .413, and is at max due to breechplug size.

I'm wanting the bore diameter in the neighborhood of .357-358". This way I can shoot a sized-to-fit pure lead hollow base wadcutter. I'd also like to get some hands on experience with paper patching. 99% of my experience has been with patched round ball. 1% with Minie's.

In your opinion, what would be the best performing: rifling profile, depth, and rate of twist for wadcutter and longer paper patched projectiles? The barrel is 35" long.

I built a 35 caliber inline with a modern cartridge rifle barrel, so it has 6 groove rifling .004" deep on a side. (most modern barrels are similar depth except 375) 1:14 twist. It does exceptionally well, both with grease groove and paper patch bullets. I had always wished I could get something like you are proposing, so I could shoot 35 caliber bullets out of normal moulds. I would think that Mr. Hoyt could give you good guidance on the subject as well.

Talk to hoyt about it. He does this stuff all the time.

Bobby will advise you, when I asked him about bullet shooting for my 40 caliber rifle he suggested 1:14 for up to 420 grain bullets and it’s been brilliant. Beware of fouling with the smaller bores. With loads over 60 grain or so it fouls badly enough that I just clean the breech thoroughly between shots. This is the TC breech and if I build another 40 it will use a different breech. The one Jason at Rice barrels provides is a much improved version and still compatible with the TC rifles.

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Originally Posted by Nobade

I built a 35 caliber inline with a modern cartridge rifle barrel, so it has 6 groove rifling .004" deep on a side. (most modern barrels are similar depth except 375) 1:14 twist. It does exceptionally well, both with grease groove and paper patch bullets. I had always wished I could get something like you are proposing, so I could shoot 35 caliber bullets out of normal moulds. I would think that Mr. Hoyt could give you good guidance on the subject as well.

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I have a barrel like this too, but in 1:12 and I'm afraid to use it, as I'm afraid the bullet won't be able to grip the rifle with a strong twist. Do you believe it will work?? Have you ever seen anything like it? 1:14 is close...it gave me hope.

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Originally Posted by Sandro_ventania

I have a barrel like this too, but in 1:12 and I'm afraid to use it, as I'm afraid the bullet won't be able to grip the rifle with a strong twist. Do you believe it will work?? Have you ever seen anything like it? 1:14 is close...it gave me hope.

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It should work fine. People are using 1:12 38-55 guns for silhouette and long range with good effect. The main thing is going to be having a bullet the right length to work with the fast twist. I suspect you are going to be around 300 grains or a bit more. I am using 250 grain ones in my rifle.