Well I jumped out of the frying pan and into the fire. I just picked up a kit...well, sort of.
My first thought was that it looked like a DGW Tennessee Mountain rifle except for the trigger guard. All the other furniture is brass.
The lock was rusty and the main spring broken. It's a Dixie Gun Works lock...not sure exactly which one as there is no number on it that I can find. Not sure of the age of the rifle either.
The finish was cheap and cheesy with LOTS of sanding marks and gauges and regular run of the mill hardware screws were used to secure the lock without a proper side plate.
The muzzle cap is on crooked and looks like it was epoxied on with cloth mixed in with it, so that is going to be fun to replace.Figure I grind that off and try to get down to the original wood and rebuild it from there.
The patchbox is warped and difficult to remove.I figure I can probably clean that up and build a proper cover for it.
Overall it's pretty rough, but I think salvageable, but for only $125.00 it's certainly cheaper than getting any kit out there and heck the stock is worth that much even in the shape that it's in. The barrel was pretty dirty but is cleaning up nicely with no pitting that I can see at this time. When the original builder carved out the space for the lock and trigger...he got a little carried away and took out way too much wood. I'm planning on filling the cavern that he created with Brownell's Acraglas Epoxy and then re-inlet the lock and trigger...unless someone has some better ideas.:bow:
I've sandblasted the lock which was looking pretty bad and will now proceed to polish and refinish it. Any suggestions would be appreciated. The touch hole was just drilled into the side of the barrel...should I drill and tap that out and install a removable touch hole? BTW the barrel is 42" long, I believe it's 50 caliber (where do I measure to determine that. From Groove to Groove or Land to Land?) and it appears a straight barrel and not swamped. I'll need to add the missing thimbles and replace and square up the muzzle cap. I was considering either rebuilding the sliding wooden patchbox cover or perhaps trying to cover up that part with a brass inlay patchbox. What would be the proper size of a ramrod for a rifle like this? Could the single trigger be replaced with a double or set trigger? Is it worth the effort?
I'll try to post pictures as I go about trying to reclaim this rusty wall hanger to a shooting smokepole. I have both Dixie Gun Works and Track of the Wolf catalogs. Any others I should look at.
Also...cause I'm new at this, what would be a very basic "get started" kit for this rifle? What would be a basic load to begin with and what would probably be too much? I have a friend that shoots black powder and he suggested I start with FFF black powder for both the main charge and the flash pan. Sorry if I sound ignorant....but I am. Thanks for any suggestions and advice.
Doc
The lock was rusty and the main spring broken. It's a Dixie Gun Works lock...not sure exactly which one as there is no number on it that I can find. Not sure of the age of the rifle either.
The muzzle cap is on crooked and looks like it was epoxied on with cloth mixed in with it, so that is going to be fun to replace.Figure I grind that off and try to get down to the original wood and rebuild it from there.
The patchbox is warped and difficult to remove.I figure I can probably clean that up and build a proper cover for it.
Overall it's pretty rough, but I think salvageable, but for only $125.00 it's certainly cheaper than getting any kit out there and heck the stock is worth that much even in the shape that it's in. The barrel was pretty dirty but is cleaning up nicely with no pitting that I can see at this time. When the original builder carved out the space for the lock and trigger...he got a little carried away and took out way too much wood. I'm planning on filling the cavern that he created with Brownell's Acraglas Epoxy and then re-inlet the lock and trigger...unless someone has some better ideas.:bow:
I've sandblasted the lock which was looking pretty bad and will now proceed to polish and refinish it. Any suggestions would be appreciated. The touch hole was just drilled into the side of the barrel...should I drill and tap that out and install a removable touch hole? BTW the barrel is 42" long, I believe it's 50 caliber (where do I measure to determine that. From Groove to Groove or Land to Land?) and it appears a straight barrel and not swamped. I'll need to add the missing thimbles and replace and square up the muzzle cap. I was considering either rebuilding the sliding wooden patchbox cover or perhaps trying to cover up that part with a brass inlay patchbox. What would be the proper size of a ramrod for a rifle like this? Could the single trigger be replaced with a double or set trigger? Is it worth the effort?
I'll try to post pictures as I go about trying to reclaim this rusty wall hanger to a shooting smokepole. I have both Dixie Gun Works and Track of the Wolf catalogs. Any others I should look at.
Also...cause I'm new at this, what would be a very basic "get started" kit for this rifle? What would be a basic load to begin with and what would probably be too much? I have a friend that shoots black powder and he suggested I start with FFF black powder for both the main charge and the flash pan. Sorry if I sound ignorant....but I am. Thanks for any suggestions and advice.
Doc