My Great Grandfather's Rifle

I inherited this rifle almost 30 years ago and it has be sitting in my gun cabinet mostly forgotten. I think it would be really great if I could restore it to shooting condition and harvest a deer with it.
Is it possible?

Is what possible?....restoring the gun or you harvesting a deer with it? HA. Sorry couldn't
resist. Have a qualified gunsmith check it out,
I think it's a great idea. Make sure you go back and hunt where great granddad hunted and wear an
old red plaid woolrich (and a blaze orange vest). I still have my granddads.

First, congrats on having that family heirloom. Shootable or not it is great you have it.
Can't tell much about the rifling, hopefully it still has some.
First, do derust the barrel inside. Evaporust and steel wool should clean it up.
Do have it checked by a competent muzzle loading gunsmith. Failing that, just examine yourself very closely. Pull the nipple and replace.
Load very lightly, shoot and examine for any leaks at the breech and lug/sight dovetails.
If safe, start shooting, work up a hunting load and go hunting. The report back here on results.

Also, judging from one of the other recent threads on here - make sure it's unloaded first!

the bore looks toast

I took the rifle to a fellow who has built and restored a number of black powder rifles over the years. He put a bore light in it and declared that it "should" shoot after some good cleaning. He gave me the directions to get the rust and worst pitting out, and expects me to have it on the range after Christmas so we can shoot it.
Might be tough as I have everything I need for my .50 but nothing for this rifle. I just measured it and it has a six sided bore with .450 across the flats and .460 in the corners. (including rust)

Yes, The first thing I did 3 decades ago when I got it, was verify there was nothing down the bore. :thumbsup:

If the bore is toast it looks like you have plenty of barrel to have it freshened out to a .50 cal. thats what the oldtimers did when the bore went bad on them.

Kentuckywindage said:

the bore looks toast

Click to expand...

Looks it but cleaned it might still shoot to a minute of deer. Sometimes rough bores can/will surprise you. I have a small collection of old single-shot .22s. One of them has a bore so rough you wouldn't use it for a garden stake but it drops critters at amazing distances with consistency.

I like the perchbelly stock!

Fantastic, hope it shoots well once you get it cleaned up.

Good luck with it. :thumbsup:

You can have the barrel relined if needed.

I have a nice 32 cal mule ear rifle by the same maker. It is one of my favorite shooters.

Beautiful rifle. I love the side hammers.

John and James Miller were quite innovative gun makers and are said to be the first people to ever have a US patent on a revolving rifle.