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Parker-Hale Whitworth - 1st shot and lookie-round...

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At the risk of boring you all f*rtless with my Whitworth tales, I'm taking a chance that some of you here might be interested to see -

a. the first shot of serial #420 in my possession, and a quick look-around of an early production Whitworth military match rifle made by Parker-Hale in their heyday. No doubt Mr Minshall of the MLAGB can put a date to this piece? He already has the 4XX serial number in his records, although, oddly he had it down as a Henry-rifled Volunteer.



b. I also made a short video immediately prior to shooting it -



Now I'm at home, and just starting the clean-up, I'll wait until later to take some stills for you, so you can see, and maybe compare, the differences between a real Parker-Hale-made rifle, and those that came later to the party. Obviously, starting loads were low, in order to get used to the extremely fine trigger - around three pounds and very clean - and general feel of the piece. Accuracy with the 535gr round-nosed bullet [Lyman? I really don't remember [see the pics]] was unamazing, but not too shabby for a first time out. All shots were low and left, which tells me that I can happily raise the load by a considerable amount to get them up and over. The bullet holes, shooting round bullets from a hexagonal bore, were cheeringly showing signs of six-sidedness, even with this pussy-cat load.

More to come, soon.
 
Last edited:
View attachment 82757
At the risk of boring you all f*rtless with my Whitworth tales, I'm taking a chance that some of you here might be interested to see -

a. the first shot of serial #420 in my possession, and a quick look-around of an early production Whitworth military match rifle made by Parker-Hale in their heyday. No doubt Mr Minshall of the MLAGB can put a date to this piece? He already has the 4XX serial number in his records, although, oddly he had it down as a Henry-rifled Volunteer.



b. I also made a short video immediately prior to shooting it -



Now I'm at home, and just starting the clean-up, I'll wait until later to take some stills for you, so you can see, and maybe compare, the differences between a real Parker-Hale-made rifle, and those that came later to the party. Obviously, starting loads were low, in order to get used to the extremely fine trigger - around three pounds and very clean - and general feel of the piece. Accuracy with the 535gr round-nosed bullet [Lyman? I really don't remember [see the pics]] was unamazing, but not too shabby for a first time out. All shots were low and left, which tells me that I can happily raise the load by a considerable amount to get them up and over. The bullet holes, shooting round bullets from a hexagonal bore, were cheeringly showing signs of six-sidedness, even with this pussy-cat load.

More to come, soon.

Huh, the rifling does look like the Henry style rifling and not the hexagonal Whitworth rifling.
 
My tame cabinet maker does. I take it there are none then? Never mind.
Actually there are no plans. I've never used plans in any of my projects. Most were done from sketches or pictures. In woodworking, there are two distinct types, those who have to have detailed plans and those who can build on the fly from pix. I'm solidly in the latter group. We can see in our mind how the project goes together and what the finished piece will look like.
 
I bought my PH Whitworth #191 a couple of years ago and I’m still trying to figure out what it really likes to eat. I love it but it’s been the most challenging firearm I’ve ever used.
I’m very new to long range muzzleloader shooting so I expect someone like you will make much better and faster progress than I have.

Don’t waste your money on a hexagonal bullet mould, they are absolutely not necessary.

It‘s hard to develop a load for, it’s difficult to clean,( even with hexagonal jags), fouling clogs the patent breech fire channel very easily causing frequent misfires, and it kicks like two mules!
 
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