Maybe an odd barrel length?

[SaxonPig]

Never really thought about it but I guess a 25" barrel is a bit unusual. I have three rifles with 25" tubes. Two came that way and the third I specified on a custom build. Don't ask me why. I'm sure I had a reason at the time but it was 30 years ago and I have long forgotten.

Oh, A BRNO 602, a custom Remington Model 30S, and a Cogswell & Harrison double rifle.

 

[Rifletom]

SP, you have waaay too many rifles! Send your Ruger #1A in 7x57 to me ASAP so you'll have room in your safe. Please hurry. Thanks.

 

[surveyor]

Nope, 26 5/8" is a oddball length, but that is what the blank finished out at.

 

[T. O'Heir]

"...a 25" barrel is a bit unusual..." Not on a Lee-Enfield, but it is on a commercial hunting rifle. Supposedly normal on a 602 as well.
Barrel length on a Pattern 17 was supposed to be 26. Rem 30's are supposed to have 24" barrels. However, when you add 'custom' to the description, that's likely the explanation.
You seen this?
http://www.cogswellandharrison.com/?page_id=215

 

[RC20]

Per how they measure it, a 1917 is 26 inches.

I don't agree with that as its misleading as a long cartridge is longer barrel and what counts is how much barrel there is from the bullet on.

Pistols are honest that way

 

[HiBC]

I believe the standard method of measuring barrel length is from the breech face with the exception of revolvers.
The chamber is typically cut as an integral part of the barrel,with the exception of revolvers.

 

[Salmoneye]

I don't agree with that as its misleading as a long cartridge is longer barrel and what counts is how much barrel there is from the bullet on.

No...

Close the action...

Slide a dowel to the breech face and mark the rod at the muzzle...

Remove dowel and measure to the mark...

Revolvers are measured from the cylinder face to muzzle...

Has nothing to do with the 'bullet'...

 

[Archie]

In fact, there are two barrel lengths...

"Normal" measurement

For handguns, what is called the 'Holstermaker length'; for semi-autos, from breech face to muzzle (with action closed). For revolvers, from front of cylinder to muzzle.

For long guns, from breech face to muzzle, action closed.

The 'other' barrel length is the "Ballistic" length and is crucial to things like muzzle velocity and gunpowder efficiency.

No matter what sort of arm, this is measured from muzzle to base of loaded bullet (not cartridge, projectile). It is the distance in which the expanding gases push on the bullet as it moves down the bore.

Speaking of odd barrel lengths, I have a S&W M10 revolver. The barrel was originally a six inch, then someone stuck a bullet in the bore right under the front sight and - it appears - removed the stuck bullet by firing a second shot.

Bulge under the front sight. I bought the revolver and fixed it. Cut the barrel off just forward of the extractor lug. As best I can make it, it's three and eleven-seventeenths inches.

 

[jmr40]

Most, if not all European made rifles and shotguns have barrel specs in millimeters. When converted to the English measurement system you get some odd barrel lengths.

Remington 870 and 1100/11-87 shotguns have odd lengths, at least modern guns with barrels threaded for choke tubes. While Remington advertises them as 28", 26", 23", 21" etc., all that I've actually measured were +/- about 1/2" from the advertised length. Just a guess, but I'm thinking they manufacture all barrels to one longer length and then cut at the vent rib closest to the advertised length before threading them for choke tubes.

I often see them at gun shows with a description of 27.5" etc. on the tag where someone actually measured the barrel.

And then there are the ones with the barrel length mis-represented simply because the owner didn't understand how to properly measure the barrel.

 

[SaxonPig]

T- Thanks for the link but I lettered the rifle a number of years ago. Sold in 1910 to an Afghani prince it was sold on consignment a few years later to a man who would one day become Ian Fleming's father in law. Fleming wrote the James Bond books.

Closest thing I have to a celebrity gun and it's pretty tenuous.

 

[Scorch]

I also have several 25" barreled rifles. And a 23", a 19", a 21-3/4", and others. People often ask me why my rifles have unusual barrel lengths. Why? Because I can!

 

[FrankenMauser]

I have a 25.
Well... a 24-7/8".

Recipe for a 24-7/8" barrel:
Buy a 26" Shilen blank.
Slug it and find out that the bore tapers toward the "chamber" end.
Flip it around to have the small end for the muzzle, even though it's the "bad" end of the blank.
Tell the gunsmith what to do with it, with specific instructions to keep as much length as possible, but make sure all of the manufacturing nastiness is cut off.

Voila! 24-7/8" barrel.


Like Scorch, I have some other oddities, as well.
19" (x2), 22.5" (x3), 23", 20.5" (x4?); and I think one of my Winchester shotguns had some damage cut off at some point -- I haven't measured it, but it appears to have a 27" barrel. (Which would explain why it's marked as "full" choke, but measures just a hair tighter than cylinder bore.)