Minimum barrel length?

The pressure of the burning gunpowder can disrupt the shape of the base of the bullet once the barrel short enough.
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No doubt. And this would certainly screw with your accuracy. Likewise a bad muzzle crown will affect accuracy.

And, of course, ultra short barrels get the least velocity.

But its a trade off. These things are given up to get the perceived advantage of the shortest gun possible.

The gambler who needed only minute of man at across the card table range didn't care if the gun couldn't hit a horse at 20paces.

I have found no US laws on handgun minimum barrel lengths. Only that a handgun must be rifled. Smoothbore handguns are "sawed off shotguns", and federally restricted.
 
Guess I had a 1911 USGI shot gun in mid 1980's. Barrel was shot out at 30' would not hit a house door. I had new barrel installed and larger fixed sights
I still have the GI sights . Keep in mind no one, Really wanted these GI 1911's back then. I still have and shoots real well. With my ageing eyes the larger fix sights are a blessing.
 
If you remove the barrel from a revolver and shoot it- Would that not constitute an illegal smooth bore handgun? I am under the impression that the Judge is rifled for that reason.
 
The Judge is (and all other .45 Colt/.410 handguns are) rifled for that reason. #1, the rifling is for the .45 Colt rounds, and #2, even if it were .410 only, it would have to be rifled to meet Federal requirements, otherwise its an NFA restricted firearm.

If you cut a revolver barrel off flush with the frame, you still have a tiny length of rifled barrel. Legal requirement met. If you unscrew & remove the barrel, you don't have rifling, so legal requirement not met.

If you rifled the chamber throats, the legal requirement would be met, as far as I can see.

Your lawyer might try to argue that the frame threads are "spiral grooves", and therefore the gun is "rifled", but I don't think this would pass muster in court, and I'm definitely not volunteering to be the test case!
 
Stumbled across this and was reminded of this thread. It's of unknown origin.
 

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Interesting thought: the law says the barrel of a handgun must be rifled.
If there IS no barrel, how could rifling be utilized?
TMK, there is no law requiring a barrel at all.
 
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