Gain twist barrels

Harder to make, said to ease the chamber pressure at the the start of travel, and supposedly able to make up for minor inconsistencies in the rate of twist.
More expensive.

Harry Pope was fond of them, and cut rifled a lot of his barrels with them, including muzzle loaders.

Ron Smith is supposed to be able to make some very good barrels in a gain-twist.
No first hand knowledge, but some of the scheutzen folk really like his barrels.

Can't tell you much more. It's just stuff I have picked up wanderin around.

Cheers
Trev
 
Ron did a gain twist in both my 338-06 and 38-55.
You will get a little more speed but not enough to really make a difference. Ron is very resonably priced not to mention entertaining to talk with once you get him going.

Say "hi" for me!
 
I have had a few of Ron's gain twist barrels, a 340 Wby, 240 Gibbs, and a 338-06 AI. There are slight velocity advantages to be gained, but certainly no more then the variance between a "fast" and a "slow" barrel would be. Mine are all very, very accurate (the 340 cuts clover leafs with 250 gr Speers and the Gibbs is a .5" shooter). I believe that the lesser starting pressures are helpful, although I can't speak to the distortion of the bullet as the twist changes. All I can say is mine work very well, and Ron makes a great barrel. - dan
 
There are many Smith gain twist barrels up here, I have three of them myself.

They are very easy to clean, but I think that may be as much the quality of the barrel smith as anything.
The pressures are supposed to be a bit lower initially for the longer bullets, yes.
All in all, his stright rate barels are very bit as accurate as his gains...
Cat
 
As the previous posts stated - they work with modern cartridges... but I think the big advantage was many years ago with black powder and soft lead projectiles. The gain twist allowed the soft projectile to accelerate to higher velocities with better accuracy than fixed twist barrels could.

The vast majority of the most accurate barrels used in competition today are predominantly fixed twist barrels. (modern cartridges)
 
A friend gave them a good go in 7mm for F class. Did not work well for him at all. Good thing he was expert at graphing as he really needed to centre his groups very well!
 
So Smith barrels can be had in a staight twist as well? I read he made gain twist barrels, but hadn't read if he made straight twists also. I'll have to contact him.
Thanks
 
Smith's gain twist barrels are very good. A friend of mine has a 22" 7-08 barrel on a Ruger M77 that puts 140gr TSX into .5" at about 2900fps. I've seen more of his barrels perform similarly.
 
1340 said:
So Smith barrels can be had in a staight twist as well? I read he made gain twist barrels, but hadn't read if he made straight twists also. I'll have to contact him.
Thanks
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Yup, he will make either kind of twist as well as what twist rate you want to match your bullet. Get an idea of what weight you want to shoot.

With my 338 I planned to shoot the 275gr speer for whatever reason. During the time of getting the barrel made they discontinued the bullet.:( The fast twist rate I requested would shoot the 250gr plus very well but the lighter projectiles (225gr and down) grouped not as well.

Take some loaded dummy rounds with you to give him so he can figure the leade/ throat length too. He will be most grateful for the help.
 
The Italian 6.5 Carcano was gain twist as well, they designed it that way so that it would take a long time to get out of the barrel in case the shooter changed his mind and wanted to surrender or change sides.
 
I've had maybe 20-25 smith barrels, all have been great shooters, he makes an excellent barrel.I have not seen a big difference with the gain twist over his standard barrels though.
 
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