Is anyone building Pope style barrels?  Either duplicating his rifling or muzzleloading a grease groove bullet with a false muzzle.  If not, I wonder why not?
Thickside

Ron Snover DID offer a modified Pope style rifling- don't know if he still does.  He is presently located in Greenville, TN.

Thickside I can't answer for the groves but did ask Paul Shuttleworth if he ever built false muzzle barrels.

He said no it's fairly complicated to do and would increase the cost of a barrel signifigantly.  And his opinion was once smokeless powder and breech seating were developed the false muzzle muzzloading methods were not used much anymore. He saw no advantange to the system.

I can't quote exactly were I read it but did see that the barrels were started as one piece. Drilled for the index pins, false part cut off. Then the false muzzle was honed to a choke bore. Next the index pins were inserted and the sight blocker was installed.  Right much extra work compared to fitting up a normal barrel.

Boats

Pope barrels were wonderful for their time. However, we have any number of barrel makers that make a fine product at production prices. I know it is near sacrilegeous, but I venture to say that the modern barrel is superior to anything that Pope turned out. Further, I would like to mention that Rowland's group has been beaten by our very own Schuetzenmeister, Jim Borton, off sandbags (Rowland was using a machine rest), in front of witnesses (Rowland had no witnesses) in one day (Rowland took two days shooting his group). Further, most of Rowland's groups were shot in a mine where conditons played little part. Jim Borton shot his group outdoors.

Pope's system was designed to combat the fouling problems that Black Powder presented. Smokless powder and breechseating do not present those problems, so the "need" for a false muzzle is pretty much gone. However, if "Traditional" black powder gets real popular, we might see a resurgence in the false muzzle.

None of the above is intended to malighn either Pope or Rowland. Their records of achievement (FOR THEIR TIME) will outlast all of us.

Dale53

Quote:


Muzzleloading a fully groove diameter bullet will be tougher than you think - fall muzzle or not.   

Bobby Hoyt has been making Pope-rifled barrels for while.  I have one with a false muzzle that I need to get around to building a rifle around one of these days.   

Brent

The reason for Pope's left-hand twist was for the rifle to torque into a off-hand shooters body instead of away from the body.  MAYBE---leadball

To quote Ray M. Smith's book The Story of Pope' Barrels,
"The eight shallow grooves, approximately 0.004 inch deep, nicely rounded on the bottoms, together with eight narrow lands, provided practically a sixteen-point support to the bullet, and with the shallow grooves and narrow lands, there was the minimum displacement of bullet metal..."
He also used a gain twist rifling and a tapered bore all to improve accuracy and ease in loading which would prevent distortion of the bullet while loading.

Thickside

With some very fine scotch and some persistence the reknowned RKS has been convinced to Pope rifle a barrel.