Why do you think Remington Hepburns with full round barrels are so uncommon ?

I think Bill is right in his statement that round barrels in general were just not as common back then. And by the time round barrels became more common than octagon or half octagon the Hepburn was no more. So it really missed the change to mostly round barrels.

oneatatime wrote on Mar 25^th, 2020 at 11:30am:


That's said to be the reason they became so popular after the Span-Am war and WWI. Many GI's came home from using round barreled guns and wanted the same on their hunting rifles. Of course that's also why single shot rifles went away in favor of bolt actions.

scharfe wrote on Mar 25^th, 2020 at 3:34pm:


To my knowledge the only early Winchester levers with round barrels standard were carbines. Same for Marlin. The standard for both companies were octagon, but round barrels were a "no extra cost" option. So if you special ordered a full round it was the same price on your lever action repeater.

As for Marlin Ballard rifles, the only Hunter models that came std. with round barrels were the earliest Marlin Ballard rifles. The #O, and #1 came as only round barrels. Once the #1 1/2 and later Ballard rifles were introduced they were all standard with octagon barrels.
The Rigby Ballard was unique in many ways. A Rigby with any barrel configuration other than round is extremely rare. But the Rigby barrel's flats make it unusual too.
Pre-Marlin Ballard rifles are often seen with round barrels, but their target market was military sales. Once they began trying to garner civilian sporting sales we saw more octagon barrels. And a fair number of those earlier Ballard rifles were also carbines, so a barrel band worked better with a round barrel.

Great thoughts and insights. Thanks to all of you.

s.s.jeff wrote on Mar 26^th, 2020 at 1:34pm:


Where do you get your information? Not what I see in old catalogs. The round barrels didn't become standard until well after WWI.

In checking my old catalogs I need to make one correction. The round and octagon barrels were not the same price. They actually charged $1 less if you wanted the round barrel over the octagon. 
So one of the only options that didn't raise the price, and actually lowered it!

Mick B, you're talking now, we're talking back then, when there was a long-held tradition that faceted barrels were somehow "better", which was most commonly interpreted as "more accurate".  And as Vall suggests, while ordering a round barrel might have often saved you a bit, it most probably took the experiences of returning WWI soldiers to finally and fully debunk that tradition.

Bill L.

An octagon barrel is more rigid if the round barrel's diameter is the same as an octagon barrel's flats are. If the round barrel's diameter is the same as the peaks on an octagon it is just as rigid, and maybe even more; but weight is much heavier than the octagon.
I'm unsure if octagon barrels were introduced for their looks, or to reduce weight, but retain a rigid barrel? Whatever the reason was, once they were introduced they quickly took over as the barrel of choice by buyers. 
Looking at old catalogs you see the round or octagon barrels listed in a few ways. Some makers listed them side by side with pricing, and some listed them one above the other. But as BP mentioned there's no outright statement that one was "standard" vs. the other. We might assume the one listed first or above was "standard", but we're guessing that's what is meant.
Since we see so few 1800's round barrel rifles, I'd assume the manufacturers made far more octagons. And since they did not make special order guns up in advance, I'd also say this means an octagon was standard, not special order. That may mean the various makers just knew their customer's wants, or it may mean they simply sold the octagon barreled guns as a standard. Doesn't mean a round barrel wasn't standard also, but certainly if it was very few people were asking for them.