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Euroarms 1803

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Joined
Feb 24, 2019
Messages
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Location
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Bought this from a member on ALR. Finally got it today. Wow! What a well built rifle.

Very impressed with every aspect of this gun. Wood to metal fit is outstanding. Nicely oil finished. Nice figure in a strait grained stock. Great looking parts with no obvious flaws.

The previous owner replaced the lock with a US made lock. He browned it to match the barrel.

I am going to rub that brown back to a more aged metal look and strip the fake brown off the barrel. If I don’t like it in the white I may use a little brown on it and rub that back.

Beautifully built gun. Too bad they are out of business.
 
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Pics...Wiped it down with some CLP so it looks a bit shiny. Wood was dry though.

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Last night I stripped the fake brown off the barrel and rubbed out the brown on the lock with steel wool...that got the lock to nicely aged grey metal look.

Used LM Forge browning solution on the barrel and ramrod. Let it sit for four hours then started rubbing it back with oiled steel wool (0000). Got the barrel and ramrod into a grey/brown finish with splotchy areas of slightly darker brown. Not shiny at all and looks nicely aged but still cared for.

Pulled the rear sight off and cold blued it after I was done. I like the buildup of color around the rear sight from leaving on during the strip and brown process.

I will also mention I really appreciate the effort Euroarms made to minimize the barrel address markings. All are in very fine print and really importantly very low on the left side barrel flat. Hardly noticeable at all, and much better than the billboards that other makers turn their barrels into.

Only other mod was slightly bending the ramrod to keep it in place and stop it from rattling.

I really feel like I stole this gun for $650... The pics don’t quite show the muted nature of the barrel finish, but they look good, I think.
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The 1803 is a beautiful rifle......one of the handsomest. if not the most attractive U.S. military pieces. I have never fired one but have always wondered just how good or bad the original Euroarms lock really is.
 
The 1803 is a beautiful rifle......one of the handsomest. if not the most attractive U.S. military pieces. I have never fired one but have always wondered just how good or bad the original Euroarms lock really is.

Can’t answer that...but this one I have that was the original on the gun won’t hold at full cock and I guess you cant get parts.

Surprises me that they have such a reputation for poor locks on these since the rest of the rifle is so well executed. I guess nobody can do everything right...and the lock is really the hard part.
 
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