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Question about button rifling

bigfoot
Several years ago I bought a Taurus model 62 rifle, but for various reasons I never fired it until today. While doing my usual cleaning before shooting a new gun, I noticed that I could see absolutely no signs of rifling at the barrel crown. Out of curiosity, I felt around the inside of the barrel with a soft plastic toothpick to see if I could feel the transition between lands and grooves--nothing. It looked and felt like a smooth bore gun. I know that Taurus advertised this rifle as being button rifled (supposedly for accuracy). When I look down the bore with a light, I can clearly see the rifling, but it must be quite shallow--at least at the muzzle end of the barrel. My question is this: Is it unusual not to be able to see or feel any signs of rifling on a button rifled barrel? To my recollection, I have never seen this--even in my air guns. Thanks for any help in solving the confusion in my poor old bigfoot mind.
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Comments

10 comments

Date Votes
  • cpermd
    Should be very apparent rifling.

    CP
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  • XXCross
    It sounds like someone forgot to cut off the lead-in for the carbide "button" that is pulled through the blank to swage the rifling into the bore. The rifling should extend all the way to the muzzle or you won't get anything resembling good accuracy. I'd cut the barrel back to a point that eliminated the smooth section completely.
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  • givette
    "Several years ago I bought a Taurus model 62 rifle, but for various reasons I never fired it until today"

    How did it group?
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  • bigfoot
    "How did it group?"

    I don't really know. Just shot to test functionality. Probably need to shoot from a bench and see how it does.
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  • bigfoot
    You know, now that I examine this thing more closely with a strong bore light, I think that it does have some VERY shallow rifling all the way up to the barrel crown. On the other hand, my RWS air rifle has significantly deeper lands/grooves than this thing. This can't be considered satisfactory can it?
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  • MIKE WISKEY
    ". This can't be considered satisfactory can it?"..........marlin has been doing it (succesfully) for 60 some odd years (micro-grove rifleing)
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  • bigfoot
    marlin has been doing it (succesfully) for 60 some odd years (micro-grove rifleing)"

    Yes, I was aware of the micro-groove thing, but my understanding was that they made up for the very shallow grooves by having many more grooves than usual to grab the bullet and spin it. Isn't that correct?
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  • bigfoot
    "How did it group?"

    I did a little shooting with it today. Grouping was 15 shots (one magazine load) in 2" at 25 yds. Certainly nothing to write home about, but maybe a little better than I expected for this little gallery gun. Also need to mention that this was from a very shakey bench (ironing board) using crude buckhorn sights and my 60 year old eyes. Also should mention that the powder made a very clear hexagon shape around the barrel crown, suggesting that there is some kind of rifling there. Also forgot to mention that the barrel is SS, which also may make it harder to see the rifling.
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  • rsnyder55
    If the bullet was not spinning, they would probably be keyholing. Were all the holes in the target round 22 cal holes or did any look elongated or oval like a bullet went in sideways?
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  • bigfoot
    They were all quite round, so I suppose there is sufficient rifling to spin the bullet. I guess my only concern now is the question of barrel life with the shallow rifling. Thanks for the information/interest rsnyder.
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