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I understand rifled barrels can impart spin onto a bullet to help spin stabilize it in flight. Is it possible to "rifle" a bullet to impart spin on itself when fired through a smoothbore gun to help spin stabilize it?

August H
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  • Do you mean a bullet with fins? rifling causes bullets to spin very fast due to their acceleration down the barrel. The issue for accuracy is when the CoG is off centre. – Solar Mike Sep 29 '22 at 19:45
  • If you really want to understand the topic, then The Bullet's Flight by F.W. Mann is a required read. – Solar Mike Sep 29 '22 at 19:46
  • No I understand how rifling spin stabilizes a round in flight but my question is why can't you rifle the bullet and not the barrel and then fire the rifled bullet through a smoothbore gun to get a similar spin stabilization effect. – August H Sep 29 '22 at 19:48
  • so how will the rifling on the bullet grip a smooth barrel? – Solar Mike Sep 29 '22 at 19:50
  • Because it has grooves and lands in it like normal rifling. – August H Sep 29 '22 at 20:08
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    @AugustH You're missing half the story on how rifling works. Read what a "rotating band" is. – DKNguyen Sep 29 '22 at 20:55
  • If you rifle the bullet, the bore will try to spin it one way and the gas will try to spin it the other way! – Phil Sweet Sep 29 '22 at 22:07
  • A smoith barrel cannot have grooves and lands in it because it is smooth - your own definition. – Solar Mike Sep 30 '22 at 04:30
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    @SolarMike OP means for the bullet itself to have grooves and lands going down a smooth bore barrel but that still won't work since it's obvious why you don't want a barrel to be so soft that the bullet can carve away grooves into the barrel. – DKNguyen Sep 30 '22 at 04:36
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    @DKNguyen so for rifling to work the rifling on the barrel which is hard cuts the grooves in the bullet. So you seem to think like the OP that the now hard bullet will cut grooves in the now soft barrel. How long before it needs replacing? Why do you think rifling was put in the barrel?? – Solar Mike Sep 30 '22 at 05:55
  • @SolarMike You might want to carefully re-read what I actually wrote, and not what you think I wrote. You did not say anything I did not already say. Just because OP is wrong does not mean you cannot misunderstand the OP's intentions and thus provide the wrong explanation for why they are wrong. – DKNguyen Sep 30 '22 at 06:31

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This is how "rifled slugs" get some spin. Slugs shoot through a smooth bore shotgun barrel and need to give themselves some spin for stability.

It is a poor substitute for a rifled barrel.

Tiger Guy
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