another serial # request....with a puzzle....

[Herbert]

The 1850-60s were a time of a great leap foward in rifle desighn with science tarting to be aplyed to desigyhn.the old Enfield 3 band muzell-loading minie rifle with a 1in 78 twist were out dated by the new Enfield 2 band fast twist rifles with a 1 in 48 twist rate by the start of the civel war and were a big leap foward in acuracy so much so that the twist rate was copied by many makers,a couple of years into the civel war the major arms makers haf discoverd that science could be aplyed to the flight of a bullet not just trial and error and rifle acuracy improved very quickly on the avrage though mistakes were made(some thought the fast twist in the Witworth rife was what made it extreamly acurat and not a combination of twist bullet lenth and velocity that was the real reason)and made barrels with a 1in 22 twist and used a short bullet(NM Evans)this is a very hard rifle to make  shoot well,there are other examples booth good and bad but on the hole the US civel war was a turning point in how rifles were desighned

[Blair]

Herbert,

The information in my earlier posting is based on the US Board of Ordnance recommendations for standardizing rifled arms at the National Armories and Contractors of arms for the US.
The English made P-1853 series (First Pattern through to the Forth Pattern) of Rifle Musket uses a 39 inch barrel. A RoT of 1 -78 equals out to a full one half turn rate for that length. (the American RoT for Rifle Musket is a little faster)
The P-1858 Short Naval Rifle does use a 1 - 48 RoT in a 33 inch barrel. Few of these arms saw service in America during the CW.
The P-1860 Short Infantry Rifle uses the same barrel and RoT. These do see service in some numbers during the ACW.
The 1 - 48 RoT was considered pretty fast for a barrel 33 inches long. It was, however, very accurate for the elongated hollow base Pritchet style bullet.
Late in the production of percussion firearms the British develop a "mid size" Rifle Musket with a 36 inch barrel that also used the 1 - 48 RoT, also considered very accurate.
(For those that don't know, "P" stands for Pattern in England, much like "M" stands for Model here in the US).
My best,
  Blair

[Snakeeater]

My apologies to the forum

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[Blair]

Snakeeter,

No.
My intent in reply with the Enfield information was to "keep it informative, yet simple. The Enfield stuff actually has nothing to do with SSS.
However, if you wish to start a thread on the complexities of British and/or other European RoT and rifling techniques, by all means, help yourself.
I will be more than pleased to delete my earlier postings to avoid any potential controversy.
I apologies to the forum.
My best,
  Blair

[Herbert]

The research I have done regarding the Rate of Twist (RoT) in most rifled firearms indicates an "approximate" one half turn for any given barrel length.
Such as;
A muzzle loading Rifle Musket with a 40 inch barrel length will have a 1 - 72 RoT. (not exactly one half turn, which is why I use the term "approximate")
A muzzle loading Rifle with a 33 inch barrel will have a 1 - 66 RoT.
A breech loading Rifle (such as Shapes and Spencer) with 30 inch barrel will have a 1 - 60 to a 1 - 56 RoT.
A Carbine, according to the Military standards of the time, is a shoulder arm with a 26 inch barrel or less, will have a 1 - 48 RoT.
 Now, some Carbines will have barrels as short as 22 to 20 inches may have a RoT as fast as 1 - 40 to 1 - 38.
My original, SS# 30211, Burnside made 1865 Spencer Carbine barrel RoT does not quite make a one half turn in it's 20 inch length. This indicates (to me ) that the RoT is approximately 1 - 38.
I hope this is helpful information.
My best,
  Blair

This a very good example of the rapid change in the making of rifle barrels from the 1850s to the mid 1860s,I belive it started in a big way with the 1858 Enfield being conciderd the benchmark for a acurate military rifle ,the rifleing was quickly copied by Sharps,Spencer and others in no time the serious study of of rifleing and bullet flight was being caried out world wide,by 1864 Sprinfield in trying to find a better cartridge for the Spencer carbine  had found that .460 -300gr bullet and a 1 in 24 twist rate gave the best acuracy of cartridges tested, they also came up with the 56-50 with the faster twist.I belive these tests were done useing trial and error method(the only positive method in my opinion) but the modern methord of useing maths totaly agrees with this result

[Snakeeater]

Found another Spencer Carbine with the same serialization "32281" as the above M1867/New Model but a Model 1860 Carbine. So much for the idea that Spencer serialization was consecutive from model to model. This carbine was already sold so better photos are not available. But perhaps the carbine's new owner may already be among us?

http://www.gunsamerica.com/973461134/Spencer_Carbine.htm

http://www.gunsamerica.com/UserImages/150489/973461134/wm_4569476.jpg