Shilen ratchet rifling

Matlock

New member
Looking at ordering a barrel from Shilen in a caliber where ratchet rifling is offered. Anyone have any first-hand experience with this or feedback they could share?
 
Being the gun expert that I am I sure am familiar with the Ratchet rifling. At least with how it came to be anyway.

Way back in Victorian England days, there was a man (Robert) that was having a hard time eking out a living with the wages that his miserly boss was paying him. Even though he worked as an accountant he was quite handy with tools and made extra money at times making useful things. It was not a lot but it all helped. He desperately wanted to come up with something big so that he could better take care of his family. His youngest (Timothy) had a life-threatening illness and there were no charity hospitals back then. One cold winter Robert heard about the problems the British were having with the accuracy of their rifles and he thought that if he could come up with a way to greatly improve the accuracy of these guns, and then sell his idea to the British government, then he would be financially sound for the rest of his days. It seems that it was not the ammunition that the troops were using as for the first few rounds the guns shot fine. But after extended firing, like in the heat of a battle, very quickly the rifles would start to shoot worse, then horribly. And everyone knows that unless you can hit the enemy you cannot put him out of action. This was quite an issue.

Bob discovered that the powder that was used in the ammo loaded back then was hydroscopic when burnt and would attract moisture. Very badly so. And after several firings without cleaning all the barrels would be damp internally and the bullets would begin to skip over the rifling not getting a good spin on them and thus causing them to fly erratically. Not being any sort of chemist Robert had no way to change to formula of the powder being burned but if he thought, what if he could channel away the moisture so that it did not build up in the first place? It took a bit of talking, but after he managed to get ahold of a few rifles from the local magistrate for testing he discovered that if he drilled itty bitty holes along the barrel it would give ample room for the moisture to ooze out and not build up allowing the guns to keep shooting accurately for extended periods of time. When he presented his rifles for testing, they were so impressed with his ingenious idea that they developed it for all their battle weapons. And on Christmas day, not only did Queen Victoria make Robert a rich man, she named the new rifling after him and even named the drain holes after his ill son Timothy.

And now you know the real story of Bob Ratchet and Tiny Tim.

And if this story is not true, well, then it ought to be.
 
You had me on the edge of my seat. I just knew the Queen would make him a Knight and they lived happy ever after.
Dang, then you crushed me...
 
I have three Shilen barrels with ratchet rifling one chambered in 6br one in 223 and a 22rf benchrest rifle all shoot very well and are some of the easiest barrels to clean up I would not hesitate to get another, their very popular with the benchrest crowd.
 
Originally Posted By: Varminterror[beeep] is happening here?

It started off with Matlock and me having some fun with you all.
 
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