Re: Barrel making using draw-over-mandrel?

BP wrote in message news:100bdn8$lio4$2@dont-email.me...
Does anybody make rifled gun barrels by drawing over a mandrel?
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Button rifling is a mandrel drawing process that presses in the grooves.
I'm not really into gunsmithing but I've studied it from the angle of its importance in the Industrial Revolution, see
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/72046
Around the time of the US Civil War military barrels were rolled out from short thick blanks over a mandrel, then drilled to size, rifled and straightened by expert hands. For military muskets and then rifles the demand for accuracy wasn't as great as the need for quantity, after the first volley troops couldn't aim through the smoke.
It's still done and makes very good barrels.
https://www.bearcreekarsenal.com/blog/cold-hammer-forged-barrels-guide.html
"A cold hammer forged barrel starts life, so to speak, as a short and fat blank with a polished hole running through the center. A hardened mandrel of proper width (caliber) and rifling pattern—again reversed/inverted—is placed into the smooth bore. The pair go into a forging machine that compresses the steel against the mandrel, hammering it into final shape."
Relatively few of the many technical improvements that have been tried succeeded, hindered by black powder fouling and the low and variable quality of wrought iron and steel before the 1880's.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferguson_rifle
When smokeless powder and modern steel became available in the late 1880's firearms very soon assumed forms that have survived until today, such as the Mauser bolt action and Winchester and Marlin lever actions of the 1890's. Military tactics and uniform colors changed to match.
https://www.americanhunter.org/content/head-to-head-6-5-creedmoor-vs-6-5x55-swedish/
"I feel the 6.5x55 Swedish suffers from the same fate as the 7x57 and 8x57 Mauser, in that much of the factory ammunition isn’t loaded to its full potential. When it is loaded properly—as in the Hornady Superformance line—it is fully the equal of the much more modern 6.5 Creedmoor."
Skirmishers with accurate rifles used modern tactics of cover and concealment but they were too vulnerable to cavalry for that to be standard practice, in the open a dense wall of bayonets or pikes was the only relatively sure defense against a charge. Waterloo is a good example of infantry vs cavalry, and then only after both sides were running out of alternatives.
https://warfarehistorynetwork.com/article/charge-after-charge/
In WW1 it became painfully obvious that horse cavalry was obsolete, just as armored cars and then tanks became available. Germany depended heavily on horses during WW2, only the US was fully motorized, with men who already could drive and maintain vehicles.
https://www.flamesofwar.com/hobby.aspx?art_id=2486
"The United States had 1:5 ratio of cars to people, while the ratio in Germany was 1:89..."
For an Army license to drive in Germany I needed to pass only a regulations and sign reading test, they assumed everyone could drive. There were around 120 signs to learn, fortunately I knew the words.
The rock drill rod I'm making a part from is a thick walled tube with the hole visibly off center. My next step is cutting the M24 x 1.5 internal thread, after practicing on aluminum.