Rifling Twist Question

[Bowhunter41]

Hey all

Just a quick question and maybe a dumb question but I feel the question NOT asked is the dumb one.

Rifling twist: how come the twist is always done to ensure the bullet spins clockwise?

Thanks

Travis

 

[dgeesaman]

They go the opposite way south of the equator.

(Kidding of course. I have no idea about the real reason, other than it’s helpful for them to all the the same)

 

[Bc'z]

Looking at your screen name.
What would happen to your points if you shot arrows with a left hand helical?
They would come unscrewed. Not saying this would happen to a barrel, but you never know.

 

[DngBat7]

There are left hand twist barrels, but majority are right. So I am curious myself

 

[jwink]

righty tighty, lefty loosey

 

[farmerjohn]

Or maybe chamber both ends of the barrel? One end BRA and the other a dasher, you could settle the argument of which is best, in your own mind at least. Or, wait a minute! If you turned the barrel around wouldn't that be a left hand twist?

 

[Bc'z]

Or maybe chamber both ends of the barrel? One end BRA and the other a dasher, you could settle the argument of which is best, in your own mind at least. Or, wait a minute! If you turned the barrel around wouldn't that be a left hand twist?

What direction would it be going if it were upside down and backward?
Couldn't help it.

 

[Tommie]

Seems like I recall checking a British SMLE bore and found it was rifled counter-clockwise.

 

[LCazador]

Or maybe chamber both ends of the barrel? One end BRA and the other a dasher, you could settle the argument of which is best, in your own mind at least. Or, wait a minute! If you turned the barrel around wouldn't that be a left hand twist?

Norman E. Johnson did just that turned the barrel around and chambered the muzzle end. Of course you need a barrel with enough meat on both ends. Does not change twist to left like you think. By the way Norms rifle shot quite well. Norm is the designer of the SM2 and SM3 cartridges.

 

[msinc]

I think it is just a matter of preference for how the maker chooses to do it. Thinking about the unscrewing a barrel thing.....assuming it could, right hand twist would do just that. That is to say, looking down the barrel from the breech, if the twist of the rifling is clockwise that is exactly the same way the barrel would unscrew from the receiver.

Edit: I think I might be backwards here...Thinking about it some more, it seems like it would actually tighten the barrel. However, because the barrel has so much more mass than a bullet it is not going to move it anyways. If it could a gun like the BHP or 1911 would have wear on the side of the barrel link/hood.

Doesn't S&W use left hand twist???? I know one of the popular gun makers do. Just now looking at my Browning Hi-Power it has left hand twist, but, it also has a Bar-Sto barrel.

Looking at your screen name.
What would happen to your points if you shot arrows with a left hand helical?
They would come unscrewed. Not saying this would happen to a barrel, but you never know.

Actually, it's a common misconception that you need certain twist {left wing/right wing} of feathers to shoot a bow. They used to say if you shoot a bow right handed you want right wing feathers to spin the arrow clockwise. This was further believed to "pull" the arrow closer to the riser or "back to center" since many traditional bows are not "centershot"....But this was later disproved with high speed photography. The late Dan Quillian did a pretty good article about this prior to his passing. Arrows that are spined correctly for a given weight bow will not touch the riser, but rather bend around it. I shoot right handed and have tried left, right, straight and heavy twist and I still cant hit a GD thing!!!

 

[farmerjohn]

I know knight suppressor's are threaded left hand to tighten up the can from the torque of the bullet hooking up with the lands....
Farmer

 

[dave@aDave]

Seems that I remember that Colt twisted (some?) of their barrels to the left.

 

[xswanted]

So I have no idea if this a legit answer but a fella I know that is way more tactical than I am built a left hand twist barrel.

His explanation was that coriolis effect is less bother some with a left hand twist because you’re not fighting spin drift and coriolis effect all at the same time.

I thought coriolis effect was also dependent upon which direction you’re shooting too o I think the theory isn’t totally accurate but I don’t know that much about it.

 

[PDS]

https://www.americanhunter.org/.../why-is-rifling-twist-direction-usually-right-handed..
Google found this one for me.

 

[Rustytigwire]

. Or, wait a minute! If you turned the barrel around wouldn't that be a left hand twist?[/QUOTE]

Thats why bolts fall out when put in underneath stuff. Self un tightening.

 

[dickn52]

Seems like I recall checking a British SMLE bore and found it was rifled counter-clockwise.

Yeah, and they lost the war too.

 

[Laurie]

Looking at your screen name.
What would happen to your points if you shot arrows with a left hand helical?
They would come unscrewed. Not saying this would happen to a barrel, but you never know.

That was the original reason it is presumed - Newton's Third Law of Motion and all that - but in practice barrels tightened to normal torque levels would never unscrew thanks to a left turning rifling pitch because the induced torque motion is very low in relative terms.

As with all of these historical quirks, unless somebody in Victorian times sat down and wrote a 'standard' as is insisted on these days, it's rare to really know now how or why such conventions were adopted. Our engineering ancestors weren't into documenting everything or in many cases anything at all - they just built things and modified them until they worked or worked better.

 

[jonkeil243]

Take a look at a colt 1911 they twist to the left. They also tend to torque to the right to some extent. That can play to your advantage in speed steel shooting.
I did see a rifle shooter recently who was switching barrels before a match. I asked him why. His reply was he has right twist barrels and left twist barrels and he like to swap according to predominate wind directions and that would reduce his wind adjustments.

 

[Delfuego]

Left twist barrels shoot great and don't unscrew. I have owned a bunch of them. Lots of bad, speculative, information on the internet. They shoot. Most barrel makers cut right twist barrels because their machines only cut in one direction, clockwise. Nothing more.