I think some of your info is myth about oct barrels. I think the switch to round had more to do with economics than accuracy. Round barrels are easier to manufacture, less work and machining. I have had duds in both round and oct but as a rule the octs can be just as accurate as anything out there. Most octagons start as rounds anyway. Just my $02. Jerry

All of that makes complete sense and I had suspected as much.  Last rifle I had made up with an octagon barrel cost a couple of hundred bucks more just in the milling, filing and timing processes.  When I watched the smith doing that, I can understand why he charged more and it is easy to see how a manufacturer could offer a product at a lower price if he didn't put all that time and labor into making the barrel octagon.

I keep hearing various people say that a round barrel shoots better.  In my limited experience, I don't see that as being an accurate statement. But when guys have been shooting various barrel shapes a lot longer than me and have a lot more experience doing that sort of thing, I tend to listen in an effort to learn.  Until about seven years ago, all I had ever shot had been factory round barrels.  Though I'd been shooting various rifles for 50 years, I had no experience with octagon barrels which I like a lot simply because they are traditional.  

As I get older, I value traditional things a lot more.  

Thanks fellas for the information.  I've got more questions for you boys because much of this kind of shooting, especially with black powder is sorta new to me.

Well Martini, I'm gonna become an outlaw by exceeding the speed limit when I  turn over 65 day after tomorrow on Thursday, and I've noticed lately that a lot of things just don't "look" right to me.  Round barrels for instance on single shot rifles and the new cars and trucks for another.  Where are the good looking cars built by Ford and Chevrolet in 1955, 56, 57, 58, and 59?  All we have now are these little boxes that look alike.

When I see a high wall with a round barrel on it, it jiss doan look right no kinda whicha way, no it doan.  An anybody that would put a round barrel onna Sharps rifalgun oughta be took out and whupped gud.

Course, my wife says I have "tunnel vision", whatever that means.  I think she's just being a smart aleck.  She also says I'm becoming an old fart.  I reckon that's better than becoming an old fuddy duddy.  A fuddy duddy would put a round barrel on a Sharps and play golf.

Gert - that's not a round barrel. That's a RIGBY barrel. Big difference.

I'm two weeks from receiving a '77 (my first) so that picture just gets me all wound up!  Mine will be half octagon because.  Because there is probably no rifle barrel quite so difficult as a Rigby.  At least, so say the gunmakers who have made one.   

I have always thought that octagon barrels are a hold over from the days when barrels were hammered over mandrels and then filed smooth.  On can imagine that octagons might have been just as easy, if not easier, to hammer than round barrels would have been.

Brent

The ability to recognize a no win argument when you see one is needed here.

I get a kick out of these arguements and just love to watch, most everyone that gets into this one, all have the peices of the puzzle, but just won't put them together?

About 50 years ago when I was first hearing the old guys talk about gunsmithing, they said, IIRC, that old barrels (flintlock era) were made octagon because they could be made that way by hand by draw filing, while a smoothly turned round barrel would have required more machinining which was not economical if available at all.  The custom barrels of the Golden Age of Single Shots tended to be round, so I think the charm of old fashioned was trumped by practical performance.  JMHO, and you know how bad amphibian memories are! 

Froggie

Quote:


No Brent, your gear and everyone else's is to limited to make any type of effective test. There is just to much going against the type of gear we all love, in the single shot game, to prove one way or the other.

The actions are not made to be true in-line to the bore, scopes are mounted on the barrel. It's a long list of problems that on analyzes, would prevent objective reasoning followed with effective conclusions.

The next problem comes from the fact, that no matter how many barrels you or anyone else are willing to buy, it would never be enough
to satisfy the people with opposing views. 

Then there would be doubts about the bullets used, did they shoot in a tunnel, etc.

It is an endless argument, sort of," want to watch me chase my tail" ?