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The Maestro At Work |
In all of North America, there are only two shops that are still making gain twist rifle barrels. This is the story of one of those shops, under the sole proprietorship of Ron Smith - barrel maker.
From early times, variations had been made in the twist rate of rifling, from increasing twist to decreasing twist depending on the whim of the maker, all in the interest of making a more accurate rifle. In the biography of William Ellis Metford, published in London in the Spring of 1900 (a few months after his death) there is a long paragraph on his experimentation with a gain twist design with an increasing twist based on scientific principles. William Metford patented his gain twist. He found, however, after extensive testing, that his gain twist was no more accurate than a regular twist.
However, he did discover that a gain twist barrel would ‘infallibly’ shear the paper from the bullet every time. Obviously target shooters shooting paper patch bullets then had the same problem that we have today. Gain twist rifle barrels have now fallen by the wayside, because, as mentioned, they have been shown to be no more accurate than regular twist barrels. Try telling that to Pope!
With the advent of rifling and elongated bullets, a barrier was still needed to separate the lead from the steel bore and paper was used successfully. And so, paper patched bullets and gain twist went hand in hand. Many nations’ militaries were eventually equipped with rifles that used black powder and paper patched bullets.
Fast forward to the present. On a farm in southern Alberta, amidst farm buildings, farm machinery, and a large 30 by 40-foot shop, now too small, there resides a man by the name of Ron Smith, largely known only to Schuetzen shooters.
In the shop is a Pratt and Whitney deep-hole drilling machine, with one side devoted to deep-hole drilling and the other side devoted to barrel reaming, a Sunbeam “eggbeater” lathe set up for profiling barrels (more on this later), a rifling machine, other lathes, sanding belt, many grinders, dial indicators, assorted machinery of other kinds, and stuff. Loads of stuff filling the benches and shelves. He says you can’t have too many grinders or dial indicators. Shades of Pope!
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Shop Full Of Stuff |
Ron Smith is a farmer in southern Alberta, now retired about ten years. He grew up on the farm where he now lives and his mother grew up on the same farm. The farm has been in the family for over 100 years. His son Gerald now tends the farm. They grow wheat, rapeseed, oats or barley. He began learning machining skills when his dad bought a lathe and Ron cut his teeth on that. He learned by doing. His interest in shooting came from his father when his father gave him a .22 LR when he was ten years old. He once shot muzzleloaders competitively but doesn’t anymore. Ron’s shooting interest now is strictly with the Schuetzen rifle. He began shooting cast bullets because people said you couldn’t make them shoot. He set out to prove otherwise.
Ron originally used barrels from other makers but he didn’t really like them and decided that he could make a better barrel. He has been making barrels now for over 40 years.
Ron primarily makes barrels for Schuetzen shooters and many barrels for long-range, high-power shooters. His production is approximately 200 barrels a year, and can make as many as three a day when everything is working right. Most of the barrels he makes now are gain twist as he thinks there is a slightaccuracy advantage.
I bought a .45 caliber, gain-twist, stainless-steel barrel from Ron about two years ago. When it arrived, I invited my buddy over with his Hawkeye Borescope and we looked at this brand new barrel. We were astounded! It looked like it had been lapped. We both knew this just was very unlikely, given the very great difficulty in lapping a gain-twist barrel. It was the smoothest barrel I’ve ever seen, outside of a lapped barrel.
Ron uses word of mouth advertising. He doesn’t advertise in any magazine, other than on the ball point pens that he hands out.
Ron bought a Pratt & Whitney deep-hole drilling machine several years ago. The Pratt & Whitney has two spindles for deep-hole drilling two steel blanks at a time. On a Pratt & Whitney, the work is turned and the tool remains stationary. However, Ron uses one side to drill and the other side to ream. When reaming, he turns the reamer as that does a better job than turning the work.
His rifling machine is one he built himself in 1967 after viewing a rifling machine built by a barrel maker in Saskatchewan. He made some modifications of his own and made the machine to drill-ream-and rifle at the time. He now uses the Pratt & Whitney for drilling and reaming. He rifles by hand. He originally used power to operate the rifling machine but if the cutter is not working right, he can’t feel what is happening. If he does it by hand, he can feel what the cutter is doing, so that’s what he does now. There is an oil feed pipe at each end of the barrel; when the cutter emerges, it gets drenched with oil. As the cutter is drawn into the barrel, it pulls in oil. The barrel is thusly always full of oil. When the cutter emerges at the other end, the second oil feed flushes chips off the cutter.
The twist of a barrel is regulated by a drum around which is wound about three times, a small diameter wire cable. One end of the cable is attached to an upright steel angle iron on the left of the drum, which is attached to the frame of the rifling machine. The other end of the lathe, to the right of the drum, travels over a pulley with a heavy weight attached to the cable giving it tension. The shaft of the drum is geared through right-angle gearing to the rifling cutter bar, and consequently, the rifling cutter. As the rifling cutter is pulled through the barrel, the drum is rotated by the fixed cable, thus causing the cutter to twist. The twist rate is controlled by the diameter of the drum. The cable is parallel to the frame to cut a standard twist barrel.
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Rifling Machine. Note the Aluminum Drum in the Right Hand Side of the Photo.
Note the Cable Around the Drum. |
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To make a gain twist barrel, the cable left hand anchor point is moved up the angle iron causing the left hand cable to no longer be parallel to the frame. When the drum is near the angle iron anchor point and is moved to the right, thus drawing the cutter through the barrel, there is very little initial twist given to the cutter. As the drum is moved further and further from the left anchor point of the cable, the angle of the cable comes closer and closer to parallel, thus causing the drum to turn more and more thus giving more and more twist.
Now I know a picture is worth a thousand words, so perhaps the accompanying photo will help to convey the idea of what I am trying to explain in words. Note that the cable goes underneath the drum. Were the cable to go over the top of the drum, a left-hand twist would be cut.
A Southbend lathe is used to contour the barrel. The adjustable tail stock center is offset slightly to make the first, and major taper. For the second taper near the breech, he has a variable speed Sunbeam eggbeater running through a gearbox to turn the cross-feed at a constant rate. As the saddle on the lathe automatically advances towards the breech (to which is attached the tool post and the cutting tool), the eggbeater automatically withdraws the cutting tool away from the work, thus making the second straight taper. To cut a rounded taper, Ron advances the speed control on the eggbeater every time the saddle advances a quarter of an inch, thus making a series of very short increasing straight tapers. The short straight tapers are then rounded with the belt sander, giving a rounded second taper. Ron has a unique way of solving machining problems.
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Eggbeater Barrel Profile Lathe. Note The Circular Saw Blade and The Eggbeater
Lying on Its Side |
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Ron Sharpening a Rifling Cutter
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He also makes octagon barrels, but he doesn’t finish the barrel past the machining step. He leaves the draw filing to the customer because it is so time consuming. He doesn’t like to flute because fluting causes a stress point at the bottom of each flute when firing each shot. The only thing he likes about it is the $150 for the job when someone insists that it be done.
Ron uses a hook-type cutter, with a 5-degree positive rake and a 10-degree relief angle. There is also a 10-degree relief angle ground on the side of the cutter so it will not bind in the twist. The deep-hole drill is a commercial item as is the reamer. He sharpens the drill before each drilling of a barrel. Both are tungsten carbide.
There are essentially four methods for rifling a barrel. Ron uses the single point, cut rifling method. He makes his cutters from T15 H.P. and re-tips with carbide when needed. He built his own sharpening machine to sharpen the rifling cutter. He can generally rifle three barrels before sharpening the cutter. He must take light cuts; otherwise the cutter gets plugged with chips. With chrome-moly steel, the chips pile up and tear the steel.
Generally all of his barrels are six lands and grooves, except the Schuetzen barrels, which are eight lands and grooves. He has made seven, and even three lands and grooves barrels. The grooves are twice as wide as the lands.
Why gain twist? He thought there should be some advantages. He saw how he could do it on his machine without going to a whole bunch of trouble. He got the idea he would do it just for a cast bullet gun, but then he started making them for jacketed bullets.
Fortunately they all worked well. Although this article is oriented towards Ron’s gain twist barrels, he does make standard twist barrels as well; however, he makes more gain twist barrels now than standard twist. Is there any accuracy advantage? He thinks maybe there is. With the gain twist, the pitch change keeps the bullet under control all the time.
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Mother Nature Stress Relieved Barrel Steel |
There is one other important point in regards to gain twist rifling. The cutter is X inches wide. As it starts into the chamber end of the barrel, it cuts a groove so wide. As the rifling pitch increases, it cuts a narrower groove, so you end up with a narrower groove and a wider land at the muzzle, which gives a perfect gas seal. It is not much, but it is still there.
He partners with three other barrel makers in western Canada to buy a load of steel, four to five tons at a time. This gives him a two to three-year supply. Ron likes to use steel that is left out in the weather because the hot and cold temperatures cure the steel and uses it when it is three or more years old. After being out in the weather, the steel is pretty much dead; he can tell by the way it cuts. Mother Nature stress relieved. He uses low sulfur 416 stainless and 4150 chrome-moly steel.
Jack Odor, a long time Schuetzen shooter (and a very good shot, I might add), has over half a dozen of Ron Smith’s barrels, all but one of which is a gain twist barrel.
When asked why such a preponderance of gain twist barrels, he replied, “In short, I use them because they work. Come to think of it, I have never heard of one that didn’t.”
And by the way, if you ever go visit, Ron likes Oban Scotch.
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