Smooth Twist Barrels?

It seems that the airgun community is finding some success with a proprietary smooth twist barrel made by FX Airguns.  The interior of the barrels are mostly smooth except for a small portion at the muzzle end.  Has anyone heard of this being used on firearms?

Glock, H&K and others are using a polygonal barrel. Barrel is smooth inside but twisted. They don't work real well for lead bullets.

Len

LenV wrote:Glock, H&K and others are using a polygonal barrel. Barrel is smooth inside but twisted. They don't work real well for lead bullets.

Len

I don't know anything about Glock or H&K barrels.  Are they smooth and without rifling for the most part and only have rifling toward the muzzle end?  Airgun pellets are also made out of lead.

The problem would be bullet deformation near the muzzle.  Now a very long lead might be an interesting concept but hard to make concentric.

I was not aware that single hole accuracy needed improvement.

Improvements in barrel design do take place.  The question remains, has the FX "smooth twist" been applied to powder burning pistols?

Schuemann has a gain twist barrel. The rifling starts out parallel to the bore and starts to turn part way down type barrel. Same principle.

Back in 1840's, yes 1840's. They found that lapping a choke into the bore improved accuracy of slug rifles. Yes slug rifles in 1840's. So riflesmith would lap a choke into his barrel after rifling it. BUT they had full rifling. Barrels were typically octagon so 8 lands and grooves of various configurations. Sp I'm not surprised to hear an air gun is using old technology:)
Jon
By the way, those old rifles shot damn good!

Gain twist was designed to gently engrave rifling into bullet for less deformation. I think with a rifle it had more promise than a short pistol barrel. They have never been proven to shoot better than standard rifling.
Jon

Here's a link to a video that describes the FX "Smooth Twist" barrel.  It should clarify some of the misconceptions above.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xPF6dWAqfhY