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The Origins of the American Sporting Rifle
The Kentucky/Pennsylvania long rifle is father of the modern sporting rifle, as well as a symbol of the American gun shooting tradition. Known simply as the Kentucky rifle to most shooters, she was born safe in Pennsylvania but conceived in Europe. Mark this – for a time, the Kentucky rifle was gauged as the finest firearm in the world. And it is labeled the first truly American rifle. The exact chronology of firearm invention has been lost to antiquity, with bits and pieces of knowledge floating on a vast sea of ignorance. Many of these gun bits and pieces have been retrieved and put in storage by firearms historians who have fitted the chunks together to reveal at least a fair overall picture.
There are almost as many theories as experts, but most agree that the first truly accurate “rifles” were created in that section of Europe occupied by Germany and her neighbors. The smoothbore was all right for up-close shooting. But when inventors applied those “squirrely-gigs” to the bore, the rifle was born. Rifling, grooves cut into the metal interior of the gun barrel, with safe raised lands resulting, may not have been designed to give spin to the projectile.
There is strong evidence that the first evidence that the first rifling was straight-cut, that is paralleled the barrel. Some feel that this application helped to reduce friction in the bore, even made cleanup of black-powder fouling easier. Gunpowder was for a very long time no more than a mechanical mixture of saltpeter, charcoal, and sulfur and as much as 50 to 60 percent of this mixture failed to change from solid to gas at combustion. The remaining solids, mostly salts of one kind or another, clung to the bore as fouling. I doubt that straight cut rifling did much to aid the cleanup of the bore, but proof is lacking.
Somebody, no one knows who for sure, got the idea of spiraling the rifling in the bore to impart a spin to the projectile. The spin would keep the bullet rotating on its axis instead of tumbling along, thereby giving it much greater precision to the target. The rifle was on its way to long range accuracy with the advent of bullet spin and stabilization.
The German, Dutch, and Austrian rifle makers who inhabited Pennsylvania handcrafted a magnificent long rifle for American rifleman. The best of the Kentuckys and the majority were not only rifles, but were very carefully fitted with lands and grooves to create fine accuracy. These rifles were so accurate that they are on par with gun scope sights today for safe target grouping.
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There are almost as many theories as experts, but most agree that the first truly accurate “rifles” were created in that section of Europe occupied by Germany and her neighbors. The smoothbore was all right for up-close shooting. But when inventors applied those “squirrely-gigs” to the bore, the rifle was born. Rifling, grooves cut into the metal interior of the gun barrel, with safe raised lands resulting, may not have been designed to give spin to the projectile.
There is strong evidence that the first evidence that the first rifling was straight-cut, that is paralleled the barrel. Some feel that this application helped to reduce friction in the bore, even made cleanup of black-powder fouling easier. Gunpowder was for a very long time no more than a mechanical mixture of saltpeter, charcoal, and sulfur and as much as 50 to 60 percent of this mixture failed to change from solid to gas at combustion. The remaining solids, mostly salts of one kind or another, clung to the bore as fouling. I doubt that straight cut rifling did much to aid the cleanup of the bore, but proof is lacking.
Somebody, no one knows who for sure, got the idea of spiraling the rifling in the bore to impart a spin to the projectile. The spin would keep the bullet rotating on its axis instead of tumbling along, thereby giving it much greater precision to the target. The rifle was on its way to long range accuracy with the advent of bullet spin and stabilization.
The German, Dutch, and Austrian rifle makers who inhabited Pennsylvania handcrafted a magnificent long rifle for American rifleman. The best of the Kentuckys and the majority were not only rifles, but were very carefully fitted with lands and grooves to create fine accuracy. These rifles were so accurate that they are on par with gun scope sights today for safe target grouping.
Gun Cabinet, Gun Cabinets, Gun Safes, Gun Safe, Vault Storage, Home Safes, Stackon Gun Safes, Stack-On Gun Cabinets,Stack On Safes,Gun Cabinet Stack-On, Gun Vaults, Gun Vault, Gun Safety
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