Dixie Gun Works Tennessee Mountain Rifle acquired

[French Colonial]

I should have taken pictures!

I owned one of these years ago and had the chance to pick up a rusty wreck for a little bit of nothing. Obviously it had been stowed in someplace a little damp.

The barrel pins were rusted in place and luckily the one closest to the lock finally came out, I had to cut the middle pin out with a Dremel as it absolutely would not move. The barrel lugs were not slotted, just a pin size hole in them, but they will be.

The rusty rear tang screw also broke off in the stock and will need to be drilled out and a wood filler plug put in.

The barrel showed no rifling at all but after around 60-70 patches and a good brushing it appears the rifling is not bad, I did not remember the grooves being that shallow but they are there and after Kroil, WD-40 and alcohol all run up and down the barrel I am still getting some kind of pinkish beige stuff out on the patches. I have no clue what it is but it sure is stubborn.

The outside of the barrel will need the surface rust cleaned off and the percussion drum will need replaced, it has been reworked by bubba along with a very bad job of putting a patch box on it.

But, it gives me something to do and I will have a percussion rifle to shoot later this spring, (if I can hold the barrel heavy thing up!) sure glad I bought all those percussion caps 30 years ago!

 

[French Colonial]

So can anyone guess what is on these patches, they are about the same color as Happich semi chrome polish and as mentioned above very stubborn to remove, they are little more pinkish than what shows in the picture.

 

[rafterob]

Well, have fun with that project! Keep us up to date on the progress.

 

[Muley Gil]

Looks like you still have rust in the bore.

I have cleaned up a number of guns using a brush on a long rod, powered by a portable drill.

 

[M. De Land]

So can anyone guess what is on these patches, they are about the same color as Happich semi chrome polish and as mentioned above very stubborn to remove, they are little more pinkish than what shows in the picture.

View attachment 292279

I'd give the gun a good barrel lapping with poured lead slugs and starting with 220 grit lapping compound work up through 320 and finish with 400. It's good to stop at 400 as it will leave a bit of texture for good powder burn response and shine like a new penny to the eye.
I'd remove the breech plug for lapping with lead slugs.

 

[French Colonial]

Thanks guys, I managed to get a bore light down and your right, it looks like some very light rust pits, in all my years of cleaning rust I just have never seen it that pink before.

Anyway, I have a project that will keep me busy for a little while. Thanks!

 

[oldwood]

If you put WD40 in the bore , it gives a redish/brown residue.

 

[French Colonial]

If you put WD40 in the bore , it gives a redish/brown residue.

That may be it, day to day cleaning I use water, sometimes with a drop of Dawn in it. I do not usually use WD-40 for cleaning so it and the rust may be the pinkish color.

I definitely have more work to do but that is OK, I bought it just to play around with

This will be the only shootable percussion rifle in the stable.

 

[Reno]

After a thorough and complete scientific analysis of the photo. I’d say it’s rust. Scrub. Scrub and scrub. Oil. Scrub. Oil scrub. Scrub oil.
Just keep scrubbing and oiling might let bit soak a while and then scrub more

 

[French Colonial]

So I gave the barrel a good scrubbing with a green Scotch-Brite pad and no more pink stuff, it looks like the minor pitting is in about 8 inches closest to the muzzle, the rest of the bore looks good. I will get pictures when I get a chance.

 

[French Colonial]

Well good news to report, I have only fired five shots through the TMR but so far I am tickled. There was a shooting match going on at the club so I tried to stay out of the way and shot at our 100 yard gong and smacked it in the center all five times off hand (I can actually SEE the gong after cataract surgery!!!!)

I shot a .490 ball, Jo-Anns #40 drill spit patches and I used a short starter that I don't like to do but it worked.
I will try and work up a load without a starter after it warms up more (my old hands really hurt in cold weather) and will use a bench rest.

Anyway, I am encouraged that the rusty wreck may have been worth saving and now I have a percussion rifle and something else to keep me busy!

 

[WALT53]

Well good news to report, I have only fired five shots through the TMR but so far I am tickled. There was a shooting match going on at the club so I tried to stay out of the way and shot at our 100 yard gong and smacked it in the center all five times off hand (I can actually SEE the gong after cataract surgery!!!!)

I shot a .490 ball, Jo-Anns #40 drill spit patches and I used a short starter that I don't like to do but it worked.
I will try and work up a load without a starter after it warms up more (my old hands really hurt in cold weather) and will use a bench rest.

Anyway, I am encouraged that the rusty wreck may have been worth saving and now I have a percussion rifle and something else to keep me busy!

What your looking at is probably what someone used for rust prevention that didn’t work for the intended job .Give it a good cleaning and go shoot it .

 

[laagamer]

I found something very similar in a Traditions Deerhunter I recently purchased new off the shelf. Turns out rust prevention coating inside the barrel can come out looking like rust.

Took forever to get out with wet/dry patches.

 

[duca]

Still no pictures???

 

[French Colonial]

Ok, some pictures

Here is a picture of the buggered up drum and its replacement, I had to bend the hammer a little bit and that shows up better in the tang picture.

Here is a picture of the tang, I had to replace both screws, one broke off in the wood and I had to drill it out and put a wood plug in and the other was to thin from rust to trust it.

This picture shows how I had to bend the hammer

It is the correct style of patch box but very poorly done inletting is terrible and he must have been drunk when he put the screws in, it does however function well.

Shot of the bore, you can see what looks like frosting at the bottom of the bore in the picture which is small imperfections from rust, it occurs the length of the barrel in spots.

And an overall shot of the gun, still needs some TLC but I am pretty happy as it has cleaned up better than I thought it would.

 

[hanshi]

Looks as if you have a real winner there. If worse comes to worse the bore can be "refreshed" by such "barrel magicians" as Bobby Hoyt. But it all looks looks good from here.

 

[Piquant]

Good save! I happy to see guns being refurbished. Get her shooting again.