Mowrey Ethan Allen barrel swap

I recently came into possession of a Mowrey Ethan Allen rifle in .54cal. This is one of those coming out of Olney, Texas. The rifle is in excellent, unfired condition. I have admired the Ethan Allen design for years ever since I first read an article on the rifle in “Blackpowder Gun Digest” many years ago. At that time I believe they were being distributed by Hopkins & Allen. I want to remove the .54cal. barrel and install either a .36cal. or .40cal. barrel. I don’t like the big bore .54cal. much and honestly a smaller .36 or .40 would be better suited for hunting of small game (that’s about all I hunt nowadays).

I have a question for those of you who may have performed such a task as removing a barrel from one of these. The receiver is brass and I am assuming the plug is integral to the receiver and will be brass as well. Here’s my question; Should I be concerned about any galling of the brass threads, that may occur, when I remove the barrel? If that’s a possibility it would probably be better left alone and just enjoy the rifle as it is. I’ve never pulled a steel barrel off a brass plug. I wouldn’t enjoy ruining it.

Thanks in advance for any recommendations!

I read long ago that the reason Mowrey changed from brass to steel receivers was because with a hard knock, the breechplug could break off of the receiver. Not sure how much stress I would want to put on the plug by unscrewing the barrel. Just my 2 cents.

I’d would just leave it as is. These are becoming very collectible. But it’s your gun.

You might find the breech plug dimensions to be all wrong for the smaller barrels. I'd just leave it as is rebarreling could cost you three or four hundred dollars, and at the same time reduce the value of the rifle by the same amount.

kansas_volunteer said:

You might find the breech plug dimensions to be all wrong for the smaller barrels. I'd just leave it as is rebarreling could cost you three or four hundred dollars, and at the same time reduce the value of the rifle by the same amount.

Click to expand...

Yeah, I may just hold on to it or sell it. I already have two projects going right now with a couple underhammer builds and don’t really need anything else crowding the bench.