Parker Hale 3 band rate of twist

[GPM]

I just picked up a NIB P/H 3 band, serial range is 5500. In the box along with the pamphlet was a sheet of paper about the size of an index card that stated the rate of twist on the 3 band as well as the Naval rifle and Musketoon was 1:48. I knew the Naval rifle had 1:48 but always assumed the 53 would have the original 1:72 rate. It also recommended the Lyman PH mould. Does anyone have experience with shooting the 53 with this rate of twist? The musket also came with a brass mould for a minnie with short wooden handles and no markings on the box or mould to identify what it is. Sound familiar to anyone? Any way to tell when this musket was made? I'm assuming it would be one of the later ones?

[Jim_Burgess_2078V]

U.S. rifle-muskets had a 1:72 twist rate but I believe original P1853 Enfields had 1:78 rifling. Sorry I cannot verify the twist rate in the Parker Hale 3-band rifle-muskets but would be surprised to learn it is the same as found in the 2-band rifles and musketoons (1:48). The Parker Hale 3-banders have 3 lands and grooves while the 2-banders have 5 lands and grooves so they may also differ in twist rate.
Jim Burgess, 15th Conn. Vol. Inf.

[GPM]

Jim, I hope it is wrong. There has to be a reason the U.S. and England went with a slower rate in the musket length barrels.

[GPM]

Digging around on the web I found the article below. It states that some P/H 53's were indeed made with 1:48 twist and were intended for the Amercan skirmish market. They call it a "variant" model.
Not a scientific method by any means , but using a bore light to compare with a 55 and 63 Springfield the rate of twist indeed looks faster.
http://www.researchpress.co.uk/parkerhale/rifles.htm
The main purpose of this post is to find out if others have experienced problems getting these to shoot well (53 with 1:48 barrel).

[Mike w/ 34th]

GPM,

I have an early Parker-Hale P-53. I was never a fan of the longer barrel, but it's a beautiful rifle and shoots well for punching paper.

Regarding bullets, mine does not like the Lyman 575-213 PH mould. Never could get it to shoot. Instead, I got an RCBS Parker-Hale mould, and sized to .576, it shoots fairly tight offhand groups. It's slow to load, though, and prone to fouling. It depends on what you want the rifle-musket for.

Cheers,

Michael

[GPM]

Michael, Thanks for the info on the mould, I thought I might try buying some bullets before springing for the mould, see how they do. You wouldn't happen to know the rate of twist on your P/H?

[Mike w/ 34th]

I've never looked. I'll have to pull it out of the closet and check.

[Steve Sharpe 0236]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pattern_1853_Enfield

The 39" barrel had three grooves, with a 1:78 rifling (http://www.n-ssa.org/wiki/Rifling) twist, and was fastened to the stock with three metal bands, so that the rifle was often called a "three band" model.

This was for originals and I believe that the repo's matched this early in production (in the 70's) but I am not 100% sure they do now. I do know I have an 1858 2 band Naval Enfield (Euroarms) and it has 5 lands and grove rifling with a heavy barrel. During the Civil War these guns were used as sharpshooter rifles. The Confederates liked them because of the heavy short barrel with more rifling that could reach out and touch a target at distance. I have a book somewhere at the house that talks about this I will hunt it down and post it tomorrow.

[GPM]

Steve, according to the receipt in the box for the original owner, this musket was shipped in January of 1980. No doubt the majority of P/H 53's are 1/78. Click on the link I provided which is out of the UK and it states some 53's made by P/H indeed had 1/48 barrels. I have also found other references to this on the net. How many were made and in what serial range seems to be unknown, I suspect there are some in the hands of skirmishers now who are not aware of it.