doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion Classic & Custom Single Barreled Sporting Rifles @ doublegunshop.com Westley Richards Falling Block -FIELD'S Pat action

Hello Harry Eales,

Be that your opinion, is OK. But in most cases people just believe what they have read, and their opinions are not based on personal shooting experience or controlled testing. There is much "folk-lore" in the shooting game, and just because something is repeated over-and-over-and-over, doesn't make it so.

I'm an R&D Engineer and my experiences are based on testing and actual "shooting" of over a hundred antique arms, and I will continue to shoot smokeless powder and jacketed bullets, with little concern.

My "experience" is based on 50 years of actual shooting, and thus my "opinions" are backed up by this.

I have documented shooting over 9000 rounds loaded with smokeless powder through my Antique Stevens Schuetzen rifle, and these is no appreciable wear to either the throat or the rifling.

Similarly I have shot hundreds of "full house loads" with jacketed bullets and smokeless powder through my 1883 45-70 cal. Bullard lever action for years, and it still shoots minute of angle with its crisp rifling.

I could go on and on, but I won't bore the readers with a list of all the different antique guns that I shoot. The list list is extensive, and the shooting is documented in my many journals.

In reality, I have yet to have someone tell me "first hand" that they have conducted any barrel wear tests, and found that after "X" number of smokless powder shots, or after firing "X" number jacketed bullets, that the rifling was measured to show that it has worn "X" thousands of an inch. It just ain't so.

And in reference to steel jackets bullets being fired, I know they weren't around in the black powder era, but they were plentiful in the 1920's through the 1970's, and perhaps it was "then" - during that time, that they were used which destroyed the riflng. Even today, many, many, military bullets are found to look like ordinary jacketed bullets, until testing with a magnet reveals them to have copper plated steel jsckets.

I think your position is just fine with me, but there are good examples to look at.

A jacketed bullet bench rest shooter will set the barrel back or rebarrel when the shot count is in the low thousands. Top cast bullet bench rest shooters may go well north of a hundred thousand shots and be confident in the performance. Those jacketed bench rest barrels generally look really good, and are properly cared for, but have measurable wear and will fall off in the performance that it originally had.

Hello craigd,

Thanks for the reply.

That may be true for professional benchrest shooters that fire thousands of rounds at "very high velocity" and win or loose matches based on .001 inch differences in increased group size, but even run of the mill competition Match rifles with barrels from Shillen, Krueger, Obermeyer, etc. will go about 6,000 to 8,000 rounds before showing any signs of accuracy change.

The last time I had an issue with my Obermeyer Match rifle's accuracy dropping off after 4,000 rounds, Boots told me to, concentrate on scrubbing it repeatedly with JB until the paches came out clean. When I asked about JB being an abrasive, he commented that; "..water is an abrasive if given enough time - just look at the Grnad Canyon." After scrubbing the barrel every day for a month, the rifle started shooting 1/4" groups again.

But for the most part, here I'm discussing recreational shooting and hunting use of antique arms, which even over 30 years doesn't come close to affecting measurable barrel wear. At least not for me; I can't speak for others.

Just for comparison for those who are unfamiliar with these beautiful little rifles here are a couple of shots of one I formerly owned.

Hello Larry21556,

Thanks for the reply.

A very nice example, in very nice condition. What caliber was it?

I was never able to find out its original chambering. when I got it it had been converted from a rim fire to .22 Single Shot. A very slick little rifle.

Hello Larry21556,

Thanks for the reply.

Very interesting. So it was a factory rimfire originally?

That is my guess from the firing pin bushing that was installed in the block. I don't have a photo of it but it did not look original to the block.

With regards to shot out barrels, no one has mentioned the Hygroscopic salt crystals that were once used in primers.
I was in the British Army during the fifties and the 303 still needed the barrels washed out with water with the ammunition we were using.
I think a lot of people at that time thought that as they were using modern ammunition they didn't have to wash out the bore.

Hello Nero,

Thanks for the reply.

Yes, a very good point.