Parker Hale Musketoon Quality?

[Britsmoothy]

Uhmmm....
Ok........
Sure.......
About that.........


View attachment 17272


My 2 band PH
View attachment 17273

You missed out generally that I added in brackets.
Either you got lucky which is possible of course or yours has had the work done.

 

[dave951]

Nope, the 2 band is bone stock.

What it DOES take is load development. You can't just toss in any minie and 60g and expect accuracy. Also- avoid CCI caps like the plague.

Size the bullet to the bore, find the best charge weight, the right lube and they'll shoot just fine.

 

[dave951]

All at 100? Off-hand or supported?

Either way, I have a way to go yet.

Both 100yds off a bench. I wish I could shoot that good offhand.

 

[dave951]

You missed out generally that I added in brackets.
Either you got lucky which is possible of course or yours has had the work done.

Full disclosure here as well. I shoot North South Skirmish Association competition. I am a competition shooter. I won't accept so so accuracy if I can help it. Both guns have had extensive load development done to determine what works best. A fortunate intersection between the two guns, they both like the same load, go figure. I tried a number of minies in both guns and they all shot decently but the load you see in the pix is the load I've settled on for competition-
RCBS Hogdon sized .575
42g Old Eynsford 3f
RWS caps
Beeswax/Lard 60/40

 

[Stantheman86]

With a lot of firearms , including muzzleloaders, fit and finish vary wildly depending on when they were made and what worker did the fitting.

Some of a certain model may be fitted haphazardly and some very well, you just don't know until you shoot them.

Both of my Parker-Hale Musketoons shoot ragged holes at 50 yards with .570 round balls and shoot very well with .575 Minies at 100, but shoot like garbage with the 100% correctly made Pritchett cartridges from Paper Cartridges. Com. Which is the exact opposite result that I wanted, but it is what it is. The last thing I intended to use in these was round balls. They do "ok" with the Pritchetts but this was the ammunition I wanted them to do well with, but they didn't cooperate.

I was told not to waste my time with hollow base .451 bullets in my P-H Volunteer rifle but they do very well. I'm glad I didn't listen.

A lot of "experts" will try to tell you Armi Sport is a small step above an Indian musket , but the CS Richmond I have from them drives tacks and is very reliable , it's crazy how much fun you can have and what you can learn by just closing the laptop and getting out to shoot these things.

 

[bisleyjohn]

Just for interest

The blunt end of mine, almost clean!

 

[Britsmoothy]

Full disclosure here as well. I shoot North South Skirmish Association competition. I am a competition shooter. I won't accept so so accuracy if I can help it. Both guns have had extensive load development done to determine what works best. A fortunate intersection between the two guns, they both like the same load, go figure. I tried a number of minies in both guns and they all shot decently but the load you see in the pix is the load I've settled on for competition-
RCBS Hogdon sized .575
42g Old Eynsford 3f
RWS caps
Beeswax/Lard 60/40

I am sincerely happy for you.
I too have enjoyed many a well made rifle that shoots great from the box.
I also have enjoyed getting many a lemon to shoot too.
All the best.

 

[Britsmoothy]

Just for interest

View attachment 17286

The blunt end of mine, almost clean!

That looks rough John. I hope I am mistaken. Looks like a lapping is in order.
Maybe kept fouled with a good beeswax lube would be better??

Just being honest about it, what I see. It is of course a totally wrong opinion possibly.

 

[bisleyjohn]

That looks rough John. I hope I am mistaken. Looks like a lapping is in order.
Maybe kept fouled with a good beeswax lube would be better??

Just being honest about it, what I see. It is of course a totally wrong opinion possibly.

I’m not sure that the rough looking sides of the barrel are a reflection of the very rough plug face. Certainly, a patch travels very smoothly throughout the length. The cheap borescope (£8.00) doesn't give the best picture.

 

[paulragan]

The complete set of gauges and jigs and pattern parts of the original Pattern 53 rifled muskets, property of the Ministry of Defence Pattern Room, were loaned to Parker-Hale in the 70's to enable them to make what amounted to a continuation series of British military long arms. It took a LOT of cajoling and letter-writing to get them back when P-H, as a gun production business, went tits-up in the 90's. I've mentioned it before on numerous occasions that I was actually right there in the Pattern room offices when they were returned, and helped the curator, Herbie Woodend, to check the contents of the chest.

The progressive rifling refers to the depth, not the degree of twist. The rifling is deeper cut at the breech end than it is at the muzzle, where it is very shallow.

@OP - I'm interested to learn the serial number of your musketoon for David Minshall's records on the production history. Genuine P-H production, ALL made TOTALLY in Birmingham, England, ran to ca. 9000. After selling off the gun production business to Eurarms, there were sufficient ready-proofed barrels [ALL Birmingham-proofed and stamped accordingly] to bring the production up to ca.14,000, although most of them will have had Italian-sourced wood. After that, there is nothing of P-H in the content of any of Euroarms production. IMO a certain element of production-creep may have snuck in between 9000 and 14000, but nothing too serious in terms of fit - after that...............

I have one , i can send you the number privatly if your intetested

 

[TFoley]

Please, ANYBODY who wants to share their P-H serial number with the gentleman compiling the register, do so here or in 'conversations'. Mr Minshall is a frequent poster, BTW.

TIA

 

[BillinOregon]

Terry, I confess to never having given the difference between "progressive depth" and "gain twist" rifling much thought until you 'splained it here. Two different critters entirely. It goes hard to find, at age 70, that I have "been so long mistook."

 

[Piquant]

Please, ANYBODY who wants to share their P-H serial number with the gentleman compiling the register, do so here or in 'conversations'. Mr Minshall is a frequent poster, BTW.

TIA

Here's mine, it was purchased in1977 from Dixie Gun Works. #4176

 

[paulragan]

Please, ANYBODY who wants to share their P-H serial number with the gentleman compiling the register, do so here or in 'conversations'. Mr Minshall is a frequent poster, BTW.

TIA

 

[paulragan]

#3487