bluerussetboy wrote:Typically your slower projectiles have a slower(not steeper or faster) twist rate. A simple comparison of muzzleloader velocities to your 5.56x45mm velocity and a comparison of twist rates will show that.
Then why would the greenhill formula have a term that lengthens the twist the fast the projectile goes?
3.5 * sqrt(Velocity) * Diameter<sup>2</sup>/ Length * SQRT(Density/10.9) = inches per turn.
As you can see, the faster the projectile, the longer the rifling is.
As for the low density, that is pretty much the only part of your argument that I can't dispute with hard data.
And it's an important one. Where lead has a density of 11.3 g/cubic cm, a paintball is only around a ninth of that density.
All else aside, feeding that into the greenhill formula makes the rifling three times tighter (as it is related to the square root of the density).
Actually .50 cal and .54 cal show close enough accuracy in a 1:66 twist to call it ideal, .58 tends to fly a little. I actually have several chamberings with the 1:66 twist.
Ideal rifling is a bit of a tricky one. Theoretically, ideal is the slowest possible rate at which an acceptable stability is reached.
Steeper than that will slow the projectile, add a whole load of other problems, and more than that, when the projectile slows from drag, the slower spin will help maintain stability.
So you can't really use the word ideal, but I see the point.
I of course, am not an expert on your average muzzleloader, having only ever fired .22 LR, Nato 5.56mm and 12 gauge - and that's three more varieties than most Brits.
For those reasons, I shall take your word on the performance of the rifling in the muzzle loaders. That doesn't however mean that the results have to translate to paintballs.
I only compare dump trucks to dump trucks. Doesn't matter if it's a Hino, a Mac, or a Peterbuilt.

But if the thing in question is a kid's toy dump truck...
High velocity, high density is a completely different world to low velocity, low density.