Brown Bess repo please help

[Loyalist Dave]

DO NOT put the lock in evaporust without taking it apart. Keep the springs out of the evaporust. It will cause them to shatter. Trust me, just had this happen a couple weeks ago. Guy on the fb brown bess group sent me a link to a report that will explain it. Really, keep the springs out of the evaporust.

Fb group:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/393297801790463/?ref=share
Here is the exterior link to that article: Evaporust and springs breaking.

Really? I've done a lot of parts in the stuff, springs too and no worries yet. I shall be forewarned in the future. THANKS

LD

 

[Coinneach]

Those Japanese Besses were considered Good value in their day, if was for sale here in Aussie land for $400 it wouldnt last long.

 

[oreclan]

would you call $200 cheap enough????

I paid $150 for a second hand kit of a Miroku Bess in 1974!

 

[2 shots]

hope you got it

 

[thomas]

Buy it now!
Thomas

 

[bptactical]

It may have some worth to take a stab at

 

[Rawhide67]

Not sure where he went, but he got it. I'm such a good friend, I offered to help clean it up.

 

[Ray-Vigo]

Unless the Miroku Bess is a total write-off, $200 is a good deal.

I bought a Miroku Brown Bess a couple of years ago. The comments about the trigger guard and stock are correct. The stock is deceptively flat and straight - much more so than I expected. I would not call it a "comfortable" stock the way a good-fitting fowler or rifle can be comfortable.

When you buy a used gun, you buy the previous owner's maintenance habits with it. I believe the one I got was a reenactor's gun because when I received the gun, the previous own had left a blank charge in the bore. The seller had not checked and was surprised when I told him the gun shipped and arrived with a charged bore. Part of the bore close to the breech was rough. I believe the charge had been left in there for a long time and the bore was not always cleaned after shooting. It had one area of concern down by the breech but the rest of the bore was OK - certainly not pristine but not a drain pipe either.

What I ended up doing to solve the issue - and it's not something you'd necessarily think of when you think of bore cleaning - is to plug the touch hole and fill the bore to the top with Evaporust. The process needs to be done in a relatively warm environment because Evaporust slows to a crawl in the cold. Mine took an afternoon of Evaporust, scrub, back to Evaporust, scrub again, etc. until it came out clean. I also sent one of those cell phone endoscopes down the bore to inspect the pitted area.

 

[Bibs]

I had one years ago wish I had kept it lots of fun. Look how it compares to my daughters cutdown Hawken

 

[FlinterNick]

My first Bess was a Navy Arms 1976 Miroku bess. As mentioned by Dave Person the Miroku bess for under $600 is a great deal in any shape or condition with the lock and barrel being most of the value for the dollar. The barrels are very good, I shot mine often and the bore always maintained a nice clean finish. I sold it for $1200 a few years. It was an odd production run, the caliber was just around .72 with a very thin barrel, Dixie Gun Works said it was originally in .69 and likely reamed to .72 sometime in the 1970’s.

The pattern is very similar to the Pedersoli Grice Bess, not as nice looking because of the poorer quality stock wood and bent trigger guard but both handle almost the same. My biggest peeve with the Miroku bess is the stock, too straight and just junk wood, it makes for a great restocking project. Dave Keck has a Brown Bess pattern stock that will work on the Miroku bess. You’ll just need a bigger butt plate and trigger guard.

They