Saw a restorable caplock rifle today

My good friend at my LGS which is about a mile away had a customer come in with a cap rifle. Since my friend doesn't know about BP, and since he'd done me a favor, I went down there to help him out.

It had about a 1" barrel with I think a .32 caliber, could be a .36....half stock with some excellent curly maple wood. Back lock on it. He said it was a family heirloom. Couldn't see the bore and couldn't make out the name of the lock, which I assume was a commercial lock, rather than a custom. The finish was a worn blue (I think) and in pretty good shape, saveable rather than needing a refinish. And yes, there was a vent hole below the drum which led to corrosion. (BHB was at least accurate on that.) There was speculation on the hole as to whether it was a fault, but it was apparent that it was drilled rather than a fault.

He wanted advice, and my advice was to clean the barrel with a SS chore-boy and Kroil and wax the stock, which was in pretty good shape. Had a cheek piece, but not a fancy one. It had a small crack in the top of the wrist, but one easily fixed by drilling a rod into it. Me, if the bore was good, I'd shoot it, but he at least wanted to hang it on the wall. It needs a thorough cleaning...not a classic rifle, but a better than average squirrel rifle that weighed about 10 or 11 pounds. Brass TG and butt plate, german silver forend. I advised him to not polish the brass. Broken ramrod. I would be proud to own it, but I wouldn't "restore" it because it doesn't need to be restored...just cleaned up. The metal was good except around the drum...I'd remove the barrel and drum and file it down, I guess, to remove the corrosion, unless there's a better way. Any suggestions other than that?

DO NOT touch it with a file! Corrosion, and I assume pitting, around the drum is from corossive percussion caps and is quite normal on a gun from the last century. It won't hurt anything unless it's excessively deep (rarely is) and is part of the patina. Removing it will be very obvious and will lower the gun's value. I have never used a Chore-Boy but have always used 0000 steel wool with a liberal application of WD-40 followed by something to remove the steel wool and WD followed by oiling.

Listen to Hawkeye2. "Restoration" will lower its value, especially if a file is taken to metal and the finish is removed and replaced. Waxing the stock is good and so is taking a Chore-Boy copper pad or 0000 steel wool to clean it up.

With the description of heavy barrel and small caliber, you are not describing a squirrel rifle. The OP did not say where the LGS is as what part of the country would help. Most likely, this is a target gun for bench or over the log shooting. Its much too heavy for off hand shooting.

Sounds like quite a find.

PICTURES!!!!!!!

Griz44Mag said:

PICTURES!!!!!!!

Click to expand...

I have one similar to the one you describe. Mine belonged to my grandpa and I inherited it. On the bottom barrel flat, it says, "Remington Cast Steel". It's .375" land to land. You can use a little light that goes inside of a fishing lure to drop into the bore and inspect it. Sorry but lost the package the light comes in but they cost just under $4.00. I'm sure someone on here can tell you where to get one or just Google it up. My rifle was made in Monroe, Wisconsin by George Spangler. Shoots great. Now, I'm going to have to drag it out and go shoot it again!

An acquaintance recently came into possession of a Southern Mountain Rifle style .36 cal (if memory is correct) with a large heavy barrel (1 1/16” I believe, again memory). Anyhow, no markings as to maker, etc and no serial number. It appeared old. Took the bbl off and sent it to Bobby Hoyt for bore to .54 cal. Bobby called him and reported he had sent away his cuttings for analysis and discovered the material came from a small iron mine in Pennsylvania in 1730’s.
Anyhow, I was told that with the softer barrels of the day it was not uncommon to build with heavy barrels to allow for future “dressing”.
Just passing along what I was told.
Walk

LGS is in Watkinsville, GA. The owner sounded local, didn't go into detail. Didn't have a camera. I thought a over-the-log rifle, but thought they would be a bigger bore. It was a nice, plain rifle, the sights weren't chunk-gun sights.

The LGS owner is a very good gunsmith, just not for BP guns. Which is why he called me, even with my limited knowledge.

I know it's been said before but tell the gunsmith the first thing to do is to check it to see if it is still loaded. Many old muzzleloaders are.