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  • Ark

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    Feb 18, 2017
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    5VSSHgEwuUwC4k71sZOM1rdDfrKFGJCMGsbehxFZpV0.jpg

    Heard there were some redcoats in these parts.
     

    Beowulf

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    Mar 21, 2012
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    I picked up one of those made-in-India replica flintlock pistols this week. The bore is laughably non-concentric and the front sight is easily 1/8" off center. I may file it off entirely.

    Broke two drill bits drilling the 1/16" touchhole, and got very lucky on having just enough of a nub remaining to grab both and pull them out. It also had to be drilled a little off center to the pan to clear the breach plug (which was not threaded and could not be removed for drilling).

    Should be passable for dicking around with, but I definitely would not go the India route for a long gun.
    Uh oh. Which place did yours buy yours from?

    I'm a bit nervous because I have a Indian made .75 caliber matchlock musket coming in the next day or two from Military Heritage. The gun is supposed to be complete, but I'll have to drill the touchhole.

    I also have another Indian made pistol, a French 1763 .69 caliber, from Loyalist Arms. That thing is a hand cannon. It's definitely not as nicely finished as my Pedersoli Harpers Ferry, but it seems solid enough and it sparks well. Loyalist supposedly goes through all the guns and assembles them in Canada, including drilling the touch hole themselves, so maybe that's ab it higher grade than the do it yourself jobs from Military Heritage.

    I have to wait until the current ice age ends to get back out to the range and see how it shoots.

    I'm going to have quite the black powder back log when we get some warmer weather:

    1864 Burnside Carbine with 25 brass cartridges and 25 plastic

    MLE 1866 Chassepot with a new cartridge design I worked up

    MLE 1763 flintlock pistol .69

    17th Century Matchlock musket .75

    1855 Remington percussion/maynard conversion of an 1816 Springfield flintlock (.69) - if the gun ends up being in solid enough condition to shoot (with lighter loads). It looked good in the Gunbroker pictures, but we all know how that can go.

    ACtC-3eat6QksjH6Wx_kLz5UatbWih3ZpcRCrKPHaq_jwUFaUY8Twsog5itXAg0a9quuKqGvsFWSOj0IfqTSFn-r5xFJrD3cIRnoPtztlJxMTFdLX3pLkK4JKePK-h5v4frJTZ8zl7SrU9lDZ686QfAg7hKryQ=w1775-h880-no
     
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    Ark

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    My pistol came from Military Heritage. Still haven't shot it yet due to the weather.

    I'm sure it'll be...fine. Sparks like hell with a 1" flint.
     

    Ark

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    Wow Ark nice set up. Gives me an idea of what all I need to get. Good looking set up there.

    I didn't catch the caliber of the rifle and pistol. Are they both the same?
    Rifle is .50 and pistol is .64, though actually seems to take .600 balls with patch.
     

    Beowulf

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    Whelp, the Matchlock showed up today. I'm a bit underwhelmed. The barrel is thinner than I would think (thinner than my M1763 pistol, but thicker than some old shotguns I have). The front site post is a bit off from that I can tell and I think it went through the entire barrel, as I can feel a rough spot underneath it.

    I think I'm done with these guys after this. I'm still going to try drilling it out, but I think it will be reserved for very light loads. I don't know that I would trust it with full military loads. Maybe I'll rig up a proofing charge and a fused and touch it off from a distance the first time.

    ACtC-3f3_ZDShkN_ttWriQI1uuPCDjpIbs4aUF3LyfHgluxqu8L9W_kpTP0w1i7Go0IkZJOERHccF8oMegMNcWc6GspjNlKTmGnUzSXM0unQcLNWK-SlrrM6zOepLnHNaWHmgLs8g7hTsK91CvsEk7Cgqyon-w=w1920-h801-no
     

    Beowulf

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    I took some measurements:

    Breech: 1.11" diameter

    Muzzle: .8835" diameter

    Barrel thickness at breech: 0.18"

    Barrel thickness at breech: 0.06675"

    This is what they claim the barrel is made out of: "tempered seamless carbon steel (type:BS970 no.080M40)"

    I talked to an 07/02 I know and he said it sounded thick enough at the breech to take a full charge, so I feel a bit better.

    I think I still need to try to set up a proofing charge, just to be on the safe side.
     
    Last edited:

    Ark

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    Bummer about the initial QC.

    It's still probably fine to shoot, black powder smoothbores are about as low pressure as it gets, and any modern steel is better than what would have passed for acceptable on the original guns.

    Make sure you run a dowel down the barrel and mark it to confirm where the breach plug is when you go to drill it. If the breech plug is threaded, pull it. Some of the plugs have a chamfer cut into them so the hole doesn't actually have to be drilled forward of the breech, but I haven't read a good way to tell ahead of time without pulling the plug and just looking at it yourself.
     

    Beowulf

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    Mar 21, 2012
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    Bummer about the initial QC.

    It's still probably fine to shoot, black powder smoothbores are about as low pressure as it gets, and any modern steel is better than what would have passed for acceptable on the original guns.

    Make sure you run a dowel down the barrel and mark it to confirm where the breach plug is when you go to drill it. If the breech plug is threaded, pull it. Some of the plugs have a chamfer cut into them so the hole doesn't actually have to be drilled forward of the breech, but I haven't read a good way to tell ahead of time without pulling the plug and just looking at it yourself.

    I think you are probably right about that. I'm feeling a bit better after talking to the 07/02.

    I got my 1816/1855 Springfield conversion today. The exterior is a bit worn and the markings are almost gone, but the gun seems solid and the lock is perfectly functional shape (though the Maynard reservoir is missing it's latch, not that it really matters since the only Maynard tape you can find is an antique). I just fired a cap and it went bang. I'll clean the barrel out and if nothing else comes to light, I'll probably shoot it on my next range trip, along with the pistol and this matchlock, if I can get it drilled in time.

    Springfield on top and the Burnside below the prints, with my replica Remington Zouave rifle in between.

    ACtC-3emphK9lL5YWMv-IBdXwhOEnZnZ3KvBA8HZLuTmTUVxWdnkQVQQUdnPE5Eh3Q6CaHiBtB9vFj6RRF21H3HBpwxYXk2qwpA13BDG37AufmQv8rzK2pLfZ9ijrCoqE45svAGwOS337dhbqNG3Xi80zmaXWw=w1123-h880-no
     

    Ark

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    When you do fire it I'd love to know the velocity of them monsters out of that pistol. How much does a ball weigh at 60-64 caliber?
    Ugh, I went out and shot it today, shoulda brought the chronograph.

    I shot at 30 grains and then eyeballed a couple of charges up to about 40. The .610 balls definitely don't fit with a patch. I had to run a patch down on top of the powder charge, drop the ball down the barrel, then ram a cleaning patch on top of that to retain it. If I got some .600 balls, they could be seated with a patch.

    Ignition of the pan was spotty, but every time the priming charge ignited, the gun successfully fired. So that means my off-center touchhole works just fine. Recoil is soft, slow, and almost nonexistent. It favors several inches left.

    Cleanup is a cinch. Plug the touchhole, fill bore with hot water a few times, swab and balistol the bore, spot clean the pan and lock assembly.

    Gotta say, I expected worse. Not bad for a crappy $350 made in India meme gun.
     

    Winamac

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    Sep 11, 2011
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    Does anyone know what a one pound factory plastic can of Goex FFFG black powder is going for at this time? Appreciate any input. Thanks.
     

    Beowulf

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    Mar 21, 2012
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    Got out this weekend and got to run 3 of my new (to me) BP guns through some of their paces.

    First, I was able to do a proof load of the Military Heritage matchlock. I'm still not super thrilled with the barrel and the fact that the end isn't properly crowned is annoying. But, it took my 140% proofing load of FFg and a patched round ball like a champ. Gun came through with flying colors on the fuse firing.

    I still don't have the matchcord yet (it's taking forever to ship here), so I did a second round with a normal charge using a paper fuse. Here's a lesson... don't do that. At least don't do that standing to the side of the gun with an overly full priming pan. I got the gun to fire and I got a nice little face-full of burning powder grains in the bargain.



    Next, I got to try out my 1864 Burnside. Between my father-in-law and myself, we shot probably a good 30 rounds through it. It's a fun little gun and judging by holes in the target and wood that it punched through, that round packs a pretty decent punch. It's not very accurate though, so clearly I have some work to do on finding a load that it likes (and I have heard that overall, these guns aren't the most accurate to begin with). But, it's an easy handling little carbine, quick to the shoulder, with low recoil. A pretty fun gun to shoot.

    Finally, we broke out my Loyalist Arms MLE 1763 flintlock pistol. That gun sparks well and fired the pan and powder charge every single time (about 10 rounds for the session). It has not sights and a somewhat heavy trigger, so I'm still working on accuracy with my flintlock pistols. I started with a 35gr charge, as that what was recommended, with a patched .662 round ball. Recoil was super negligible, but I noticed something weird. I was firing it at a 10 yard steel torso target. I missed the target with my first round (like I said, I'm still struggling a bit with flintlock smoothbore accuracy) and the round must have hit the railroad tie backstop. Everything was wet, so the wood was pretty damp. The ball actually hit the wall and bounced back, coming to rest on the ground to the left of me.

    That surprised the hell out of me, because I've never had anything like that happen. We had some other ones bounce back as well. I thought maybe at first the powder charge was too low, so the balls were going exceedingly slow. So I upped the charge to 50 grains (this is a .69 caliber pistol after all) and still had it bounce.

    We found a few of the balls, one that for sure bounced off the wood. One that hit the AR-500 steel and deflected down and one we weren't sure. The last one appears to have cracked completely in half, which is something else I've never seen. The first two recovered do show deformation, so they definitely hit with some decent force.

    ACtC-3fZUfJ-pcgc3juOg8hDJKbL5_KwTFvW9AUtRISwf1zmjqEOJLngDtdrXgXwhua7WEYFtZ9gyiaYebDAtCfWvTjDfw385iDeiG-qC2d1Bt7l3XAsyKW0uzlApLJES7lwU19-7MXeHTnMk4UnpNQG4feZog=w1545-h880-no


    For comparison, here is a new ball out of the pouch:

    ACtC-3dUj5XKgTQdbfvDcCMXepxVLCj78Z-Y0gBkaIhY1cI-vUHzmizOurRTTTYljyRxkL5ntQs2UfZWIyldqZDisjEnOKDhduUK4BkdpqXKTzK92e9UtBb3Txi103_ZQsu7dzVBq6Z9gF-uvwA1KiJMqLecGw=w660-h880-no


    And here is the weight of the one that broke in half

    ACtC-3eFzesx0ek9Vu3M2MTCTupiHY7MqCZgRBSRNAc7azQ_phsFuVtcSPCdAIH54Ob1_QmNd9JkafWyPwNfkSHJKV2uXtKfIuFxYVNJc6sW-5K4K3-9AHj3iU78r26AMQhVYKlin4swhUwW71eODGazCANv6w=w660-h880-no


    I mean, I have heard stories of cannon balls bouncing off fresh timber wooden hulls (like the USS Constitution), but I guess I hadn't heard of musket balls doing the same. Anyone else experienced this before?

    Other than this weird behavior, the pistol worked great, whether with 35 grains or 50 grains of FFg. Consistent ignition, not excessive fouling and fairly easy loading. It's a big heavy bastard and a bit awkward, especially compared to my .58 Pedersoli 1807 Harpers Ferry, but I like it.
     
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