Original P53 British rifle with straight rifling

[dave_person]

Hi,
A fellow brought an original British rifle to my shop today that had at least 10 or more narrow grooves of straight rifling. The lock is marked with the crown and "VR" on the tail and L.A & Co. below the pan. I assume that indicates it was by London Amory. It is a P53 with no changes in barrel length and original stock. It was found in the attic of a house in Vermont about 50 years ago, still loaded. I measured the bore as best I could but it is hard because of all the grooves. It is about 0.577 maybe a tiny bit bigger but it does not seem to have been bored out much if at all. There is no remnant of the original twist rifling I could see, assuming it had that. Have any of you run across something similar with straight grooves. Straight groove rifling was popular in England during the 18th century because you could buy birdshot that fit the narrow grooves, pack the barrel with that shot, and it produced tighter patterns for longer ranges. It really worked but I thought the fashion died out before the 19th century. I would appreciate any information or ideas some of you knowledgeable folks have about this gun. I don't have any photos but rest assured from the outside it looks like a perfectly normal P53 rifled musket and in very good condition.

dave

 

[rickystl]

Hi Dave

That's a new one for me. Never seen, heard, or read about one. Granted, not really in my area of knowledge, but very unusual. Possibly a military "experimental" piece ?

Rick

 

[Loyalist Dave]

Hi,
A fellow brought an original British rifle to my shop today that had at least 10 or more narrow grooves of straight rifling. The lock is marked with the crown and "VR" on the tail and L.A & Co. below the pan. I assume that indicates it was by London Amory. It is a P53 with no changes in barrel length and original stock. It was found in the attic of a house in Vermont about 50 years ago, still loaded. I measured the bore as best I could but it is hard because of all the grooves. It is about 0.577 maybe a tiny bit bigger but it does not seem to have been bored out much if at all.

dave

I wonder if it was not an 1859 Enfield that was straight rifled at a later date. Following the 1857 Sepoy mutiny, the muskets issued to the Sepoys were reamed out to smoothbore. Well they were too thin and there were bulging problems and barrel bending problems. So a thicker walled smoothbore barrel was made to replace those previously reamed out, and (iirc) also placed in some newer made pieces meant for export to India for Sepoy use. Some people today refer to these thicker barreled 1853 Enfield muskets as the "1859 model".

How it ended up in Vermont is a good guess, BUT...,

I wonder since the mod to a thick smoothbore barrel was done in 1859..., I wonder if The Crown, or some other vendor, didn't quickly "rifle" some of the 1859 Enfield pieces still on hand in England, for sale and export to the CSA? The CSA not wanting smoothbores, they had plenty of those, but perhaps not checking well the "rifled" pieces that were imported during the ACW ???

LD

 

[dave_person]

Hi and thanks Rick and Dave. The owner took the gun to a Civil War arms knowledgeable gunsmith some years ago who told him he thought it was an arm bought by the south. I do not know what details led him to that conclusion. The barrel and bands are all polished bright with no bluing left.

dave

 

[Stantheman86]

It sounds like it's probably a commercial P53 made by one of the many gunmakers in Birmingham, with the straight rifling you describe that either got thrown into a shipment of arms purchased by the US or CS...........or was bored smooth and straight rifled later.

What was it loaded with? If it was birdshot , that's a huge clue.