Pat in Virginia
04-17-2012, 06:23 PM
Not sure this is the place to put this, but here goes:
I've talked to Bobby Hoyt about the possibility of making a barrel with Kerr rifling: ratchet style, starting straight finishing last half of barrel at 20:1, gain twist for most of 1st half of barrel (after the short straight portion).
Bobby can do it using a parabolic curve to connect the straight to the 20:1 sections of the barrel. He guestimates that the charge would be $340 for the barrel and something like that for the tooling, a one time charge.
If I can get dimensions for the length of the straight portion and the exact type of ratchet rifling used from my English or whoever friends, would anyone else be interested? If you have dimensional information or the exact profile of the rifling please let me know.
The Kerr rifles, as I understand it, were used in large part by the CSA army of western Tennessee. Also the Orphan Brigade used them. Of course, they were issued to the CSA equivalent of snipers along with English PP bullets when available. I had relatives dressed in grey or whatever they could find at Shiloh, etc. So the Kerr is of special interest to me. I have a LACo Kerr stock and lock, but alas not he barrel.
Let me know if you have serious interest in a reproduction of a Kerr barrel and this endeavor by putting a post here. I'll make sure Bobby sees whatever posts there are.
Pat in Virginia
I've talked to Bobby Hoyt about the possibility of making a barrel with Kerr rifling: ratchet style, starting straight finishing last half of barrel at 20:1, gain twist for most of 1st half of barrel (after the short straight portion).
Bobby can do it using a parabolic curve to connect the straight to the 20:1 sections of the barrel. He guestimates that the charge would be $340 for the barrel and something like that for the tooling, a one time charge.
If I can get dimensions for the length of the straight portion and the exact type of ratchet rifling used from my English or whoever friends, would anyone else be interested? If you have dimensional information or the exact profile of the rifling please let me know.
The Kerr rifles, as I understand it, were used in large part by the CSA army of western Tennessee. Also the Orphan Brigade used them. Of course, they were issued to the CSA equivalent of snipers along with English PP bullets when available. I had relatives dressed in grey or whatever they could find at Shiloh, etc. So the Kerr is of special interest to me. I have a LACo Kerr stock and lock, but alas not he barrel.
Let me know if you have serious interest in a reproduction of a Kerr barrel and this endeavor by putting a post here. I'll make sure Bobby sees whatever posts there are.
Pat in Virginia