My New Winter Project

[PreserveFreedom]

Since I built my flintlock kit so fast, I had to find something new to work on this upcoming winter. I lucked out today and picked up a nice used barrel on eBay. It's .50 cal, rifled, lower mounting hardware present, breech plug intact, drilled for a scope, and currently set up for percussion caps.

I figure the first thing I will do is put loctite on the scope mounting screws, tighten them down, and file the heads off even with the top of the barrel. Then I will look for a set of iron sights to put on it. When that's done I am going to unscrew the drum and find a vent liner to fit in the hole. Then I will begin building my first matchlock around this.

Since this won't be a kit project it will hopefully take me all winter to make. I am planning on even making the lock from scratch. If anyone has any design ideas, please feel free to stick them on this thread or send me a PM.

By the way, I paid $45.89 shipped. Did I do okay?

 

[bioprof]

What's the length of the barrel?

 

[PreserveFreedom]

What's the length of the barrel?

They listed the length as 26 inches. I know early matchlocks were almost twice that long, but they were also a larger caliber. I am just making do with what I can afford for now.

I didn't think to check before you asked me the length, but this will be the shortest muzzleloading rifle barrel that I own.

 

[hoochiepapa]

Go for it, and keep us posted.

 

[bioprof]

Twenty-six inches would be short for a longrifle, but you could turn it into a lightweight carbine muzzleloader.

 

[PreserveFreedom]

Yeah that's pretty much my plan. It will be a matchlock carbine. With modern powder I do not think the shorter barrel will negatively affect performance at all. In fact, if I put everything together right, it will make me able to use less FFFg than I would FFg and save a bit of cash when I am out shooting.

 

[Leatherbark]

Have you ever had a CVA percussion drum out? If not then when you take it out it will be a long threaded one that fits all the way over to the other side of the barrel all the way through the breechplug. When the nipple is lined up with the hammer the flash hole in the side of the drum back in the barrel is lined up with the barrel.

If you remove the CVA Drum it will leave a large void that will be difficult to clean out the gunk.

My advice is to leave the drum in and saw off the appendage that the nipple is screwed into and file flush and then drill and tap the original drum (where its screwed into the barrel) and tap for your touch hole liner.

Bob

 

[PreserveFreedom]

My advice is to leave the drum in and saw off the appendage that the nipple is screwed into and file flush and then drill and tap the original drum (where its screwed into the barrel) and tap for your touch hole liner.

I actually thought about this last night. I did a little research and was told that these drums have 10mm threads and the vents are not common to find. I was wondering if doing as you mentioned would work. If so I could pretty much pick any size I wanted for my vent liner and make it fit.

 

[PreserveFreedom]

I did a little searching around and it looks like this is how they interlock the breech plug and drum:

It seems good if your main concern is to keep the breech plug from backing out.

 

[PreserveFreedom]

Well I got the barrel in the mail today. The rust in the bore is worse than I thought it would be. I am still going to make it work though. I spent the afternoon alternating between swabbing with penetrating oil and swabbing with the muzzle in a bucket of soapy water. It is cleaning up slow but sure.

 

[GregC]

I don't want to poo poo on your parade but if you are going to take the time to build a lock from scratch and work on this project all winter, I'd sure spend the money and get a nicer barrel. That barrel looks to be badly neglected and just plain junk. That barrel looks to be a good anchor for my canoe in the duck swamp and thats about it.

 

[MSW]

well, that does look like some pretty serious pitting, but i've seen barrels with similar problems shoot OK- i'd keep going with the cleaning and see how much of it you can get cleaned up. At worst case, you might have it rebored to a smoothie.

good luck with your project!

 

[PreserveFreedom]

I got it cleaned up pretty nicely. I used some WD40 and a copper bore brush connected to a rod that I chucked up in my drill.

On a side note, I got a second barrel in the mail today. It was rusted pretty well too. Right now that one is sitting in my closet, drum hole plugged off, and filled to the muzzle with WD40.

 

[mbokie]

Evapo rust is an amazing product.

Non caustic, non corrosive and bio greenie tree hugging friendly.

Does no harm that I know of.

 

[PreserveFreedom]

Today I cut the drum off, filed it flat, and hand sanded it. I am not the best metal worker so I did bite a little deep with the file. I didn't sand it until smooth because I didn't want to make it too thin around the breech plug. I think it will look okay once I strip and re-blue it.

I also put loctite on the threads of the scope screws, tightened them down, and filed them flat.