Gain twist.

[Kurt]

Ok, I'm about to order a barrel from Ron Smith. I don't know anybody that makes them on this side of the border and I have been thinking on getting a gain twist. Smith don't make a .44 caliber in the .438-.446 so I will have to go with a .45 cal.
I don't see much on the forums written about the gain twist barrels but I think it should make a pretty good configuration for a PP bullet.
What do you say?

Kurt

[Mike]

Kurt, I have little or no experience with a gain twist but they do interest me. All of my exposure to a gain twist has been with round ball muzzleloaders. And I understand that all of the old Colt percussion revolvers were rifled with a gain twist. Let me ask, will you have your barrel's twist end or "gain" up to the usual twist rate for a .45? Perhaps beginning at a 1-in-36 but ending at a 1-in-18? Does the barrel maker have any limits on his rates of twist and the rate of gain?

[Nuclearcricket]

Kurt, I think you will find the most information on gain twist barrels over on the ASSRA board. You might have to do a bit of digging or asking but I seem them mentioned there fairly often and have not heard any bad things about his barrels.
Sam

[Kurt]

Mike I don't know a thing about the gain twist short of what I have been reading. I have to ask Ron what is the best for the .458. I just mostly see the gain twists in the small calibers, very few in the large bores like I use.
I would think a 1/16 termination might be the way to go???????
I'm drawing up a reamer for the .45-2.6 since I cant get a .44 barrel. I would sooner have this chambered for the .44-100.
Sam
I will do some digging in the ASSRA and Gray Beard also.

[Gunlaker]

Kurt I have two rifles with gain twist barrels. Both are Ron Smith. One is a .38-50 RH on a high wall, it ends in 1:14 twist. I shoot breech seated PP bullets out of it. It's very accurate but I honestly don't know if it's better than a uniform twist.

The other barrel is a .45-70 on a Meacham high wall. It ends in 17.5:1. I have no idea how well it shoots though as I haven't developed a load for it yet.

I know that Dave Patterson really likes them, although he shoots greasers in a .32 RKS, or some such cartridge, with smokeless so it's a different sort of thing. But boy is his rifle accurate. I think he knows how to shoot too :-)

I don't know a lot about the 2 barrels I have, as both were on rifles that I bought used.

I do know that in Perry's book he says that you should avoid gain twist barrels, but then he also says that shooting ability is dependent on eye color :-).

Chris.

[bruce moulds]

kurt,
I have a 400/408 one which is stainless and goes from 26/1 to 13 /1.
I am most happy with it.
I think bartlein can also do gaintwist to order.
if I could not get another, straight twist is good also.
it sure strips paper well.
sometimes you just have to try things. you will love doing snowbank tests with it.
one thing I have found that aids accuracy is that either the front of the bullet or the rear of the bullet takes control of the bullet.
you can see this because the rifling marks in the bullet are wider at one end or the other.
best accuracy seems to be when this happens at one end for all shots, that end being preferably the rear.
if bore riding noses on greasers bump up into the rifling, they seem to take control.
these problems do not seem to happen with bore dia pp bullets.
ron smith is quite a character.
benchrest guys are using less severe gains than 2:1.
keep safe,
bruce.

[craneman]

Kurt,
I seem to remember a couple of years ago in a discussion of barrel makers that there was a gent that made cut rifle barrels here in the US that would do any bore groove combo including gain twist. I am looking thru my archived internet pages trying to retrieve that info. I could of course be mistaken but it sure strikes a chord. If I find anything I will let you know.

Todd

[Kurt]

Bruce.

I talked to Bartlein when I was looking for a barrel for the CPA .44-75 Ballard they are only about 2 hours from me.
They are so swamped for the black guns that they didn't even want to talk about a .44 or .45 caliber.
Ron Smith has a good barrel from what I have read reports on and also some bad rep from one guy that was really smearing him. But I see more good then bad reviews.
I don't even know why I'm thinking about starting a new project. I just picked up a new rifle that I havent even had a chance to find out jet what it is capable of doing because the weather turned on me to soon.
Maybe it's the high of zero deg. F temp and dropping with foul weather on the way, but the gain twist has always been on my mind.
I see that your .40 has a full gain, I been thinking more on a 1/2 gain that might be the way to go, but I don't know anything but what I read on the gain twist and it's hard to sort out from what is posted from guys that shoot one or guys that just repeat what they read or think.

Kurt

[Kurt]

Kurt,
I seem to remember a couple of years ago in a discussion of barrel makers that there was a gent that made cut rifle barrels here in the US that would do any bore groove combo including gain twist. I am looking thru my archived internet pages trying to retrieve that info. I could of course be mistaken but it sure strikes a chord. If I find anything I will let you know.

Todd

Todd.

I would appreciate that.

Kurt

[Gunlaker]

One more thing to think about Kurt. I have a barrel on order from Ron Smith and he told me that he was very back ordered and wouldn't be able to get to it for a long time. A friend recently told me that it took a year and a half to get his barrel. My barrel is going on a schuetzen rifle that Steven Durren kindly offered to build for me. I might see if Steven would rather use a different barrel and save the RKS for another project.

Chris.