Indian Spanish Musket

[tarawa1943]

Today I started working on the Indian Spanish Musket that I got from my friend. I tried to get it to spark last week trying many of the flints that I got from. IMA years ago. Though it looked heat treated…..no spark. I ordered some true spark from Track of the Woods and it came in today. My set of torches were out of gas, so I had to use MAPP gas. The frizzen had lots of horizontal grooves, so I had to polish them off. I went through the process using the included instructions. After every thing was completed and cooled down I tried a few flints. It sparks! Some flints spark better than others. Next was drilling the touch hole, but the fact that the space under the frizzen was really shallow and narrow. I took the lock apart and used a 1/2” ball end mill to enlarge the tray. I marked and drilled the touch hole. Great day in the shop.
In the old pictures you see the Spanish resting their muskets on a support. This musket is a little (really more than a little) front heavy.

 

[Youngblood]

Grooved like this? If so, thats there on purpose.

 

[2 shots]

the spanish made their frizzens grooved like that.. look at some pics of their early muskets.

 

[tarawa1943]

View attachment 302211
Grooved like this? If so, thats there on purpose.

The Indians got it wrong. The grooves were horizontal and more like grind marks.

 

[Youngblood]

Ohhh. Hmm i dont know.

I had one just like it off gunbroker a couple years ago but after i cleaned it up i sold it without shooting. It had smooth frizzen and sparked good. It had real brass on it too, which is more than i can say for the Pedersoli spanish one i owned for a day or two.

 

[tarawa1943]

The instructions for the “Tru Spark” said to polish out any imperfections on the face of the frizzen. There is a lot of brass on this gun. The Indian guns are not “plug and play” for sure!