Looking for info for a very good quality barrel for this caliber ,what twist is best for all around 350 up grain bullets ?

If you are wanting the best barrel for a BPCR caliber like yours there is only one man to go to in my opinion. Ernie Stallman of Badger Barrels in WI.

Wow! I was curious about the twist rate of the original .50-110 and have been reading a reprint of the Ideal Handbook No 15 today. It says (p 62) that Winchester made the 50-100-450 with a 1-in-54" twist and the faster 50-110 Express with a 1-in-60" twist. I ordered a 50 cal barrel for a .50 Alaskan a few years back and went with a 1-in-18" twist. My friend has just had two 50-100-450's built with Badger barrels. IIRC the other day he said that Badger was going to offer the original octagon tapers of the Win '86 .50-110 barrels. His second 50-100-450 is on a Pedersoli Hi Wall BPCR rifle.
Here is a picture of the first rifle converted from a Win M71 by our local gunsmith:
Win M71 50-100-450 conversion

Mr. Concho:

I would suggest you look at Green Mountain barrels. They offer a .50 caliber barrels in several octagon contours. Don't be put off by the relatively low price. These are first class barrels.

http://www.gmriflebarrel.com/

Glenn

I would ring dave clay he uses 1 in 22"twist and thats what I put on mine.

Twist rates depend on the length of your bullet. 350 gr bullets in a 50 caliber seems terrible short and a very slow twist would be appropriate. Most bpcr bullets made today, in .50 cal, are much much heavier. Probably much heavier than you would want (600-750). The require twists in the 22-26" range. I have never heard of an 18 twist .50 until now. I wonder what bullet it was optimized for?

Anyway, start with your bullet length and work backwards. The well known greenhill formula with modifications for bpcr applications is easy enough to use. From that you can calculate the twist you want.
Brent

Thank all of you for your excellent advice , I found that Green MT bbl's are 1:24 twist , I have the green Hill formula , I contacted GRN.Mt for the I.D of the 50-110 they don't have it in their description , I'm going to shoot Jacketed flat or hollow points from a single shot action falling block I'm making using 4350 CM Larger than the 1885 Winchester High Walls Great looking rifle Pfeifer, Thanks What's the lenght of that barrel ? looks like it's over 24"

The underground telegraph sez Badger makes fine barrels for BP cannons, and I'm with Brent on the twists. Thing about the Winchester round is that it was designed with light bullets and higher velocities in mind, for whatever reason. Their guns for that cartridge will not stabilize more conventional weight bullet in that caliber...or so I've read. It may look like a Sharps cartridge, don't mean it smells like one.

Actually, my friend Jeff(Pfeifer) is both right, and not-right. Engineers hate the word wrong. I do have two 50 Caliber Badger barrels, and the big one, 1.3"x35"L octagon is in the brown-ing box; not to be confused with a Browning box, which is where you keep your Browning! It is going on a HiWall Pedersoli, and is a 50-110/100/95, depends on the bullet weight. Any twist around 24" will stabilize 650gr RN bullets @1200+fps.
The 71/86 clone you see is mine, and the barrel is 30" long, with full magazine. It goes back to being 12 or 13 and getting to actually shoot one like that in takedown configuration. A 300gr Barnes will clear 2000fps safely, in a HiWallor '86 26" barrel. This one took a 2100lb Bison down on his haunches with a 465gr rnfp lead slug, sat like a dog. I put the slug a bit low, and it took a second one thru the lungs to finish up.
My bad, the sights were left and low 2" at 150 or so yards; and it was soooooooooo cold my breath was steaming and freezing on my mustache.

The other barrel is a #4 (I think) taper, 1.140" to 1.060" in 35 1/2". It is going on an oddball Remington bolt action. Receiver is rollmarked Model of 1934 on the right side, basically a 30 or 30S. It's going to be a 500/416 Rigby.
take care,


Rich Kayser

Idaho Sharpshooter what is the lowest weight bullet you shot in your 1:24 twist 50-110 barrel with good accuracy ?

Idaho S better check your bolt face The 50 is .665 that don't leave much for extractor to pull fired brass out of barrel

I just calucated with Green hill Formula .510 with 1:24 twist should have 1.625 Long Bullet. Which should be about 650 Grain . wow who stands behind you so you don't fall on your ass when shooting the monster ?

PC what weight bullets do you use with a 1;22 TWIST FOR GOOD ACCURACY ?

Rich,
Glad to see you checked in I was wondering about that barrel after I wrote this. I stand corrected on it's origins.

Concho,
My 1-in-18" twist barrel is for a .50 Alaskan. I chose that twist after talking to an old barrel maker - that was his recommendation. Other big 50 cal express rifles have even faster twists. I talked with McGowen and he used 1-in-12" twist barrels for .50 AK IIRC - don't quote me on that as it was about 5 years ago now when we talked.
Jeff P

Concho I could not get the 400 gr woodleigh's I had filed back to shoot well but the 500 gr woodleighs go 1.75" for 3 shots at 100 yards with a 2.5x scout scope...............I still have some more work to do there I think.

I ordered a Green MT/BBL 1:24 twist 12/19/05 I look at the charts from Lyman reloading the originals had 1:48 Twist-50-70-422/498 Gr BLT. The 50-90 1:36 Twist same Gr Bullets Now comes the confusing Part 50-140 1:48 Twist 422 Gr BLT , I also notice a possible mistake ? The 50-110 from Starline is 2.400 The old 50-90 is listed in Lymans reloading manual 46th edition as being 2.500 ??? confusing at best I was hopeing for a bullet weight around 400 for the cannon so the 1:24 may prove to be compatable after all , I finally found a shop to do the EDM work for my new designed High Wall action , have to take it there to get a quote for the Job , went to 2 other shops and they won't do the work because it's a Firearm action ! I'll run into the same problem when I need to get it heat treated .

I just received the Starline Brass today 50-110 , The brass is smaller than the Lyman book shows it to be ! rim is .600 shoulder is .544 /2,400 long , book shows .665 /.565 Please advise anyone with a 50-110 , That only leaves .028 for extraction , originals .050 ! Please measure and confirm these measurements , Thank