Crowning muzzles to avoid splitting???
Hey, experts! I was on a different forum, and I came across this statement, made in reference to shotgun barrels. Is this true? And would it apply to rifle barrels?
"The fresh end of any new barrel must be properly crowned; given an angle of roll of, to prevent the barrel from eventually splitting. Worse case scenario, and has happened, is someone; who does not know as much as they think, and have a barrel rupture (explode) upon firing." (Name of author left off for courtesy's sake. No corrections or additions have been made to the original text.)
I really can't see an obvious physics-related reason that an uncrowned barrel would really ever "split"---especially in a shotgun---unless it had something to do with allowing the escape of gas around the lip of the muzzle at the instant the projectile was at the very end of the barrel (which would apply to a rifle more than a shotgun, whose muzzle would be far less obstructed by a cloud of pellets making their exit, as opposed to the obstruction of a solid bullet, at any rate.) If true, it makes me wonder if I crowned the muzzle of my Swede properly when I had the machinist cut in at an 11 degree angle from the inside of the muzzle to about halfway out....
"The fresh end of any new barrel must be properly crowned; given an angle of roll of, to prevent the barrel from eventually splitting. Worse case scenario, and has happened, is someone; who does not know as much as they think, and have a barrel rupture (explode) upon firing." (Name of author left off for courtesy's sake. No corrections or additions have been made to the original text.)
I really can't see an obvious physics-related reason that an uncrowned barrel would really ever "split"---especially in a shotgun---unless it had something to do with allowing the escape of gas around the lip of the muzzle at the instant the projectile was at the very end of the barrel (which would apply to a rifle more than a shotgun, whose muzzle would be far less obstructed by a cloud of pellets making their exit, as opposed to the obstruction of a solid bullet, at any rate.) If true, it makes me wonder if I crowned the muzzle of my Swede properly when I had the machinist cut in at an 11 degree angle from the inside of the muzzle to about halfway out....
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absolute insanity. he's so full of crap, his eyes are brown. i can assure you, from all the guns ive worked on, shotgun bbls wont split with uncrowned muzzles. and how in the world can you crown a piece of bbl thats wafer thin by nature anyway!? and what if the bbl is threaded for chokes? duh! crowning was for rifles to ensure the bullets leaving the lands and grooves werent effected by numerous bad things at the instant it took flight as the gases cleared the last portion of the bbl.. in a shotgun you want the gas tight fit all the way to the end to ensure the wad stays in the correct position just before it begins to peel. kick it off to one side and you can get a tumbling wad. sorry. just hearing stupid things like crowning shotgun muzzles makes my hair go up. sounds to me like a smith or a company is trying to sell snake oil to boost profits by selling something the world doesnt need. gizmos cant replace old fashioned skill, no matter how many are out there to challenge me otherwise. ignore it and study other things more valid. hope i helped. regards!
former air operations officer SEAL Delivery Vehicle Team 2. former navy skeet team, navy rifle/pistol team member. co-owner skeetmaster tubes inc.. owner/operator professional shooting instruction.0 -
trstone...
It is definitely not true for rifle barrels either. Winchester did not ever crown an octagon barrel on any Rifle they made, nor did they crown the round barrels on the Rifle variations of any of the following Models; the Henry, 1866, 1873, 1876, 1885, 1886, 1890, 1892, 1894, 1895. Winchester did crown the barrels on most of the Carbine and Musket versions of the same Models. Why... who knows, but it wasn't because a barrel could potentially split without it.
Bert H.
Real Men use a SINGLE-SHOT!0 -
It was from a post on the "Gun Rights" discussion board under the heading "'tactical' shotguns legal?" I was kind of surprised that it was used as an argument against sawing off your own shotgun barrel, because I thought about all the people---who AREN'T gunsmiths---who have successfully sawed off their barrels in the past. How come I've never heard of barrels splitting (or failing catastrophically as the author seemed to say) before? Maybe because it hasn't happened? Or maybe it would only happen with the old Damascus-twist steel barrels? Anyhow, the point is, I wondered if it (the crowning-to-prevent-splitting spiel) was a bunch of crap.... 0 -
quote:Originally posted by Bert H.
trstone...
It is definitely not true for rifle barrels either. Winchester did not ever crown an octagon barrel on any Rifle they made, nor did they crown the round barrels on the Rifle variations of any of the following Models; the Henry, 1866, 1873, 1876, 1885, 1886, 1890, 1892, 1894, 1895. Winchester did crown the barrels on most of the Carbine and Musket versions of the same Models. Why... who knows, but it wasn't because a barrel could potentially split without it.
Bert H.
Real Men use a SINGLE-SHOT!
Winchester plugged their straight cut muzzles previous to blueing the barrels. Thats why an unmolested old Winchester muzzle will be in the "white". 1906s and early model 62s are also straight cut.
Occasionally you will see an older Winchester that is crowned. If you check closely it is often a relined barrel. They crown the barrel to hide the liner. I have read many reports of the crown affecting the accuracy on target rifles, so I was always curious about (straight cut barrels).
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Old? First you forget names; then you forget faces; then you forget to pull your zipper up; then you forget to pull your zipper down.0 -
The only set of circumstances I can fore-see where an uncrowned SHOTGUN barrel might split is if the saw marks are left and the barrel is fired enough times that the flexing of the metal at a deep depression mark could cause the type of fracture seen in high pressure seamless tubing. 0 -
Garbage, but it does show you the quality of experts on that other board.
My heros have always killed cowboys.0 -
I'm thinking along the same lines as Jody Commander. You COULD have a stress problem if straight cut, but man, it would be lots and lots O' high pressure rounds for a lot of years before I could forsee much happening. Maybe, if they don't actually get it cut off straight, as in a poor job leaving a rough corner on the end. I think a champher to take the sharp edge off so you don't cut up a gun case or the cleaning swab, but as other's have said, ..........what a load of crap. 0 -
Rifle barrels are crowned...but I have never heard of it regarding a shotgun. Crowning on a rifle barrel is done for accuracy's sake...not for what you said.
I have never heard of a shotgun barrel splitting...unless you were careless or unfortunate enough to have discharged a 12 ga. round w/a .20 ga. cartridge lodged in the barrel (don't try this at home kids...you may get hurt really bad).
The moral of that story is to be careful if you own both .20 ga. and .12 ga. shotguns.0 -
I've seen lots of shotgun barrels, never a split one. Bulged and ruptured because of mud in the barrel when fired. On some older shotguns, on the "deburring" of the muzzle, a small radius is left. A crowned barrel will have no radius.
Some choke tubes give the appearance of being "crowned" like the Browning Inv and the Rem choke. Crowning ensures the face of the muzzle is perpendicular to the bore. Some feel it gives a more uniform pattern.
Since this is at the exit point of the barrel, to crown or not to crown seems to be the question. Well if you think it will help you, do it. But it wont prevent the barrel from splitting.0 -
theres a big difference btwn deburring or giving a radius, than a crowning. heck....a crowning looks more like a model 61 .22 smoothbore opened up to look bigger than it is. or like a hi standard 22 match bbl. look at a match 'full bull' bbl and youll see what a true crown is. thanks for telling us this whole garbage subject came from the other discussion board! sawed off guns. geesh. just like putting 2000.00 tires on a 100.00 car. spare me!
former air operations officer SEAL Delivery Vehicle Team 2. former navy skeet team, navy rifle/pistol team member. co-owner skeetmaster tubes inc.. owner/operator professional shooting instruction.0
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