length of a barrel is undesirable because it cannot reliably stabilize the projectile as it travels down the bore.

An extremely long projectile, such as a flechette, requires impractically high twist rates to stabilize; it is often stabilized aerodynamically instead. An aerodynamically stabilized projectile can be fired from a smoothbore barrel without a reduction in accuracy.

History

Muskets are smoothbore,

1.Previous
3.Next