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From: "Jim Wilkins" <muratlanne@gmail.com>
Newsgroups: rec.crafts.metalworking
Subject: Re: Barrel making using draw-over-mandrel?
Date: Sun, 18 May 2025 09:53:40 -0400
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BP wrote in message news:100bdn8$lio4$2@dont-email.me...

Does anybody make rifled gun barrels by drawing over a mandrel?
----------------------------
Button rifling is a mandrel drawing process that presses in the grooves.

I'm not really into gunsmithing but I've studied it from the angle of its 
importance in the Industrial Revolution, see
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/72046

Around the time of the US Civil War military barrels were rolled out from 
short thick blanks over a mandrel, then drilled to size, rifled and 
straightened by expert hands. For military muskets and then rifles the 
demand for accuracy wasn't as great as the need for quantity, after the 
first volley troops couldn't aim through the smoke.

It's still done and makes very good barrels.
https://www.bearcreekarsenal.com/blog/cold-hammer-forged-barrels-guide.html
"A cold hammer forged barrel starts life, so to speak, as a short and fat 
blank with a polished hole running through the center. A hardened mandrel of 
proper width (caliber) and rifling pattern—again reversed/inverted—is placed 
into the smooth bore. The pair go into a forging machine that compresses the 
steel against the mandrel, hammering it into final shape."

Relatively few of the many technical improvements that have been tried 
succeeded, hindered by black powder fouling and the low and variable quality 
of wrought iron and steel before the 1880's.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferguson_rifle

When smokeless powder and modern steel became available in the late 1880's 
firearms very soon assumed forms that have survived until today, such as the 
Mauser bolt action and Winchester and Marlin lever actions of the 1890's. 
Military tactics and uniform colors changed to match.

https://www.americanhunter.org/content/head-to-head-6-5-creedmoor-vs-6-5x55-swedish/
"I feel the 6.5x55 Swedish suffers from the same fate as the 7x57 and 8x57 
Mauser, in that much of the factory ammunition isn’t loaded to its full 
potential. When it is loaded properly—as in the Hornady Superformance 
line—it is fully the equal of the much more modern 6.5 Creedmoor."

Skirmishers with accurate rifles used modern tactics of cover and 
concealment but they were too vulnerable to cavalry for that to be standard 
practice, in the open a dense wall of bayonets or pikes was the only 
relatively sure defense against a charge. Waterloo is a good example of 
infantry vs cavalry, and then only after both sides were running out of 
alternatives.
https://warfarehistorynetwork.com/article/charge-after-charge/

In WW1 it became painfully obvious that horse cavalry was obsolete, just as 
armored cars and then tanks became available. Germany depended heavily on 
horses during WW2, only the US was fully motorized, with men who already 
could drive and maintain vehicles.
https://www.flamesofwar.com/hobby.aspx?art_id=2486
"The United States had 1:5 ratio of cars to people, while the ratio in 
Germany was 1:89..."

For an Army license to drive in Germany I needed to pass only a regulations 
and sign reading test, they assumed everyone could drive. There were around 
120 signs to learn, fortunately I knew the words.

The rock drill rod I'm making a part from is a thick walled tube with the 
hole visibly off center. My next step is cutting the M24 x 1.5 internal 
thread, after practicing on aluminum.