Navy Arms Brown Bess Manual

[Mickc01]

Hey guys, I was killing some time today and ended up looking for a manual for my Navy Arms Charleville musket. I didn't find one but I did find a manual for their Brown Bess. I read through it with a bit of surprise and amazement and wanted to post a few excerpts (highlighting by me) here for you'all to comment on on. The full manual can be found here: http://www.navyarms.com/files/brownbess.pdf

Here's the first excerpt, under "Loading and Firing":

(ii) Put the lock on half cock and close the pan cover. Blowinq down the barrel at this stage will help you to ascertain that touch hole is free. If you cannot blow down the barrel there are two possibilities : (a) the touch hole may be blocked, in which case clean it with a pin or piece of wire, or (b) the weapon may be loaded. If the latter, find out immediately why this should be the case and resolve never ever to let it happen again.

My comments: First I do tend to use the blow down the barrel technique to be sure the touch hole is open the embers are out but, AFTER closing the pan? What the heck? Second, never EVER blow down the barrel unless you are 100% sure it's unloaded (like right after a shot). I absolutely could not believe the last part of the excerpt about the gun being loaded!

Here's another surprising excerpt under "Cleaning":

Wherever possible remove the barrel from the stock by removing the tang screw and knocking out the retaining pins with the aid of a flat nosed punch or small nail with the point ground off. Wherever possible, remove the breech plug as follows:
Clamp the barrel firmly in a vice protecting it from the jaws either by two pieces of wood, sheet lead etc. With a shifting spanner grasp the tenon of the breech plug (this runs across the diameter of it) and a sharp tap with a hammer should be sufficient to loosen all but the most stubborn plugs. If this is done regularly and a little oil put on the threads befor returning the breech plug it will prevent that commonest of all muzzle loading problems, the rusted in breech plug which is almost impossible to remove.

My comments: In my many years of collecting and shooting muzzleloaders, I have always tried not to remove the barrels unless I have had a really good reason to. Also, remove the breech plug regularly? Does this strike anyone else as a little strange?

So what do you'all think?....Mick C

 

[Rifleman1776]

:shocked2: Not only strange but scary. Some horrible advice there. Don't do any of it. :shake:
Actually, I belive my ca. 1970's Navy Arms/Ped. Brown Bess has the breech plug tack welded in. Haven't looked at it in decades, I could be wrong. But, I do remember it was magnetized. Don't ask my why. :idunno: Yep, it would hold that steel rod very firmly.

 

[Grumpa]

A good example of people writing about something of which they have little or no knowledge.

Pray for the poor souls who buy a firearm, and have nothing to guide them in its use but a "manual" like that. :shocked2: :shake:

I am surprised that Navy Arms would put something like that out for public consumption.

 

[Artificer]

So what do you'all think?....Mick C

Mick,

I purchased a "Navy Arms Brown Bess Carbine" NIB and direct from them in the mid 1970's. I am not sure if I even read the manual with it as I was already shooting flintlocks in local matches and at the Spring and Fall Nationals at Friendship, IN.

Having worked at “The Navy Arms Booth” (which was actually owned by one of their Distributors as NA did not have their own booth until the mid/late 80’s) at the Spring and Fall National Championships of the North South Skirmish Association from the Spring of 1974 to the Fall of 1975, the Fall of 1980 through the Spring of 1988, the Spring of 1994 through the Fall of 2005; we occasionally came upon some “strange stuff” like this and especially in the early years.

SOME of the early manuals were actually written by the Italians and then translated into English and some of those translations were not very good, to say the least. SOME of those manuals were written by folks who had a lot of experience with Percussion guns, but little to no experience with Flintlocks in the early years. NA started out with percussion revolvers and “Zouave” reproductions for years and NSSA shooting and when they first began stocking/selling Flintlocks, they sort of “learned as they went along.” This is not intended as an excuse, but something of an explanation.

I have no explanation why they did not list the first thing to do was/is pushing/snapping the Frizzen forward or making sure it was forward. This ensures the flint can not hit the frizzen and send sparks into the pan that might have powder in it. The next thing is use the steel rammer to check to see if the barrel is loaded by putting it in the barrel and see how far down it goes. Reenactors have gotten into the rule to “spring the rammer” in the barrel so as to hear the metal contact of the rammer to the breech. If it doesn’t ring, then the barrel is loaded OR there is fouling in the barrel. Once one has safely determined there is no load in the barrel, THEN one might blow into the barrel to see if the touch hole is clear. (However, there folks who say one should never do this for safety reasons, even after making sure the barrel is not loaded, just to ensure you don’t get into the habit and unconsciously stick you lips over a loaded barrel when you lose concentration or get interrupted.)

I shot my Brown Bess Carbine a lot in live fire before I ever started doing reenacting with it. So I was in the SAFE Habit of NOT loading the priming pan before I loaded the barrel. When I first began using paper cartridges for blank firing, I actually forgot to prime the pan a few times before putting the powder (only) into the barrel. That’s a LOT better than coming from a re-enactor background and priming the pan before loading the barrel with a live round, though.

I am not sure where NA came up with the idea of pulling the barrel and breech tang every time or even most times after shooting the musket. A lot of people don’t have even the short starting pin punches to get the pins out and many of them mess up the stock around the pins when they try it. Many others don’t have a good vise to hold the barrel and that round breech with only one flat side can be a BEAR to keep from slipping in a vise when trying to take the breech plug out. I had removed a fair number of rusted in original Civil War and Reproduction Musket Tangs when I tried this the first time on my Brown Bess and I did not have an easy time of doing it on my Brown Bess. Also and even though my breech plug was not rusted in when I finally pulled the breech plug maybe 8 years after I was shooting and firing my Bess a lot, I found the breech plug had been installed with a LOT more tension than was really necessary and that made it even harder to remove the breech plug. I don’t think I pulled the breech plug for another 15 years when I was going through the gun well to ensure it was in good shape and everything was in proper order, before I sold it.

Gus

 

[Loyalist Dave]

I had to remove a breech plug from a Pedersoli bess to remove an obstruction...I needed a barrel vice and a proper wrench...which was rather straight forward but a bench vice and a Craftsman wrench would not be the tools to use, and home removal would certainly be a problem.

LD

 

[Mickc01]

I'm glad I'm not the only one who was perhaps scratching their head on this one. Gus, I think you may be right on when you suggested that English may not have been the the manual's first language. I'm thinking that would explain a lot, but not the poor advise where the barrel and breech plug are concerned....Mick