Theoben's experimental smooth twist barrel

[fenring]

Theoben, for those that are unaware, (which of course won't be many on here....) is a UK company the entered the airgun scene in the mid 80's with their revolutionary Sirocco gas ram airgun. Now they are working on this smooth twist barrel idea. I gather that the barrel is smoothbore until up near the muzzle, as which point it has the new "smooth twist" swaged into the end - you can see that the grooves are actually on the outside, and I gather this is enough to displace metal within the barrel and impart a spin to the pellet, without the marking etc that we associate with normal lands and grooves. Apparently it aids power (less friction I suppose) and accuracy (less pellet deformation I guess.)









I wonder if it might have firearms applications?

[native hunter]

Sounds like bullshit to me.
A pellet that has been stabilised from the start must fly better.
no one has complained about what has been workin for so long.!!
I will stick to what i know.
Buy more R1 I say.
Regards
damien

[fenring]

Yes, maybe - but who'd have thought some bloke staring at a motorbike fork would lead to the revolutionary gas ram system, either?

[native hunter]

I see "Grasshopper.".!!

[RayG]

That is a pretty clever quick and simple way of putting a choke and rifling into a barrel.
It will be interesting to see if they get the required performance results.
later ,
Ray

[stillair1]

I hope to be testing one in .177 from BT when the dies are sorted.
Ben is separate from Theoben btw and has been for a couple of years now.

Regards Neil

[RayG]

Hi Neil,
By all means keep us in the loop on this one mate.
We always like to keep up to date on all things Airgun.
cheers Ray.

[kjd]

There is always room for improvement and technology in shooting infact we are really using 100 year old technology (even though our stuff is machined better then the old days as its more precise but thats an advancement in manufacturing rather than firearms/air arms).

If we dont experiment then we will never advance. Remington's Electronic firing system and the carbon fibre barrels are prime examples of this sort of R&D it may not take off but one day it will lay the seeds for improving our rifles.

True if it ain't broke don't fix it but on the other hand we as an intelligent species should look at something and think "how can we make this work better?"

[fenring]

Well, consider FWB and Anschutz airguns and their controversial choked barrels back in the 80's - detractors claimed they robbed power and contributed nothing, and some advocated lopping the choke off when the carbine craze hit. As if two makers of renowned world class target guns would put a choke in a barrel for nothing....

Now, many airgun barrels are choked and those really in the know simply say "Told you so."

Airguns have traditionally used similar rifling designs as firearms, even though many sport finer rifling and more grooves - airguns of course operate differently and the ammo's not even similar.

I'll be interested to see how this all goes.

[stillair1]

Hi Neil,
By all means keep us in the loop on this one mate.
We always like to keep up to date on all things Airgun.
cheers Ray.

Will do Ray, the test done so far at 12ftlb look good, see AGW. I hope they transfer to fac levels. As Ben has said lots of work to do. Personnally I'm hoping the new barrel will alleviate lead fouling which occurs in the 1000fps region.

Neil

[RayG]

Yes that should be quite an attention getter Neil. A similar thought on the possible amount of barrel leading in general passed through my tiny mind also.
When the experiments get to the high end FAC muzzle velocities it should get very interesting.
Cheers Ray.