Charleville shooting

[weirdjack]

I took my cut-down Navy Arms 1763 Charleville down to the club last Saturday. It has not been fired since probably 1984 or so. In my youth, I cut the barrel down by about 13" after whacking a tree while trying to bag a grouse. Moved the front barrel band/endcap down to the middle position so it still looks good though. Anyway....with the Charleville and my pouch in the Jeep, off I go to the range.
The first few shots were interesting....sorta all over. Then it settled down and seemed to be shooting into one general spot at 25 yards. The bummer is, that spot was about 6" higher than my aim point. But, it was fairly consistant until I ran out of roundballs to shoot. I'll work on it again this weekend. I had added a rear sight to the rear barrel band long ago, but never adjusted things after cutting the barrel down and moving the front sight back 14"...this may be the problem. I filed the rear sight down some this week and will see where that places things Saturday.
Heck of a lot of fun though! I had a couple flash-in-pans, but they were my own fault. That massive lock/flint/frizzen just goes off every time. Relaxing to just load and fire without wondering if the flint is still sharp...it's sort of self knapping
Of course, today I regret ever cutting the barrel down...but it's still a heck of a fun musket.
Oh yeah....and I met He-Bear (one of the members here) at the club that day also! Nice guy!
WJ

 

sounds like a blanket gun now!

 

[weirdjack]

sounds like a blanket gun now!

Naaaw, it's not quite that short. 30" barrel and about 42" overall. Basically the same size as the Dixie/Pedersoli "Brown Bess trade gun". It does swing at grouse in the brush/woods better now though...not that I have ever hit one! I did get a turkey with it once.
WJ

 

[RiverRat]

Jack, I always liked the looks of the C-ville, the bands on the stock and plenty of metal. The only thing that kept me from owning one is the short lenght of pull. Do they all come that way? My comfortable lenght is the standard 14". What is your gun's lenght of pull? Sounds like you are on the right track to bring your shots down....keep us posted.

 

[Wes/Tex]

If you'd relocated all the barrel bands to the shorter length, you'd have made a "sergeant's model".

 

OOOOOOH! Duh, when I saw cut the barrel DOWN by 13" I thought you meant down TO 13"!!!!

That changes things tremendously!

LOL....what a doofus I am sometimes.

 

[musketman]

I took my cut-down Navy Arms 1763 Charleville down to the club last Saturday. It has not been fired since probably 1984 or so. In my youth, I cut the barrel down by about 13" after whacking a tree while trying to bag a grouse.

Still, a 29 inch barret is a good size for musket rabbit shooting...

Should swing fast for you...

Why 13 inches removed, may I ask?

Did the barrel get dented about 12 inches back from the muzzle when whacking a tree while trying to bag a grouse?

Just wondering a bit... :hmm:

 

[weirdjack]

Why 13 inches removed, may I ask? Did the barrel get dented about 12 inches back from the muzzle when whacking a tree while trying to bag a grouse?

Oops....it was actually 14" cut off...from 44" to it's present length of 30". The length removed was for two reasons:
1. It left a nearly stock relation for the muzzle/ramrod in front of the moved-back front band. I moved the front band back to engage the center band latch (the center band being discarded).
2. I had been reading a little book called "Divers Adventures...the Diary of Hannibal Fitch" (Yes, "divers"...their spelling not mine). In it is a telling of how Rogers Rangers chopped their Bess barrels 14" shorter.
So it the length removed was for no great scientific reason. It did solve the "long barrel swinging in thick woods" issue though. However, I wish 20-some years ago when I did this chopping, I would have bought a second Navy Arms Charleville kit to keep the stock length!!! Still, now that I am older, the shorter tradegun length is easier to point and a bit lighter overall to lug around. I love it though...big-@ss musket locks RULE!! Spark-O-Rama!
WJ

 

[musketman]

Oops....it was actually 14" cut off...from 44" to it's present length of 30".

What did you do with the 14 inches you cut off?

I would have thought about getting it fitted for a breech and making a matching pistol, or something along those lines, if the barrel thickness would allow that...

I know what you mean though, I truely love the big bores...

 

[weirdjack]

What did you do with the 14 inches you cut off?
I would have thought about getting it fitted for a breech and making a matching pistol, or something along those lines

Oh my....asking me what I did with something in the early 1980's? I have a hard time remembering what I did yesterday! ::
Seriously, I tossed it out. The wall was so very thin down on that end, no room for threads nor strength for anything. I built up one of those cheapie Dixie "Tower Pistol" kits back then for my big-bore hand gun. It was listed as .67, but accepts (with a thin paper cartridge patch) the same .660 ball I use in the Charleville. But I actually built it to be a 9" barrel, 16 gauge shotgun. Ka-Boom!
WJ

 

[musketman]

Seriously, I tossed it out. The wall was so very thin down on that end, no room for threads nor strength for anything.

No room for internal threads... :winking: :hmm:

Oh well, such it the ways of youth... :hmm:

 

[Okwaho]

Those old Navy Arms Charlevilles were pretty good[url] guns.In[/url] the mid 80's we got my youngest boy a used one made from a kit several years before and it still sparks well today. He hasn't used it in a spell since he hasn't done 18th century recently.They had a good lock and I reworked one for my 1680's French fusil.It made a nice 3 screw early French lock but you have to know what you're doing and I knew a first rate blacksmith.
Tom Patton

 

[Tumblernotch]

I have a Charleville and it's a hoot to shoot. Some of the small bore shooters see it and ask where's the carriage and crew for it. The only thing I've done to it is mill the tumbler and put a fly in it so it doesn't hang at half cock when I squeeze her off. One of the guys in our club took his and cut off maybe a little more than you did repositioned the bands, he made a special double middle band out of two regular middle bands and made a sling bar for it. Voila! He has a Model 1766 Cavalry carbine. It's a doozy. He did a good job of it. I'd like to have a wrecked one I could do that with. No way me gonna cut the tube on my Paris Gun! Lessen it splits or somethin'.
:thumbsup: