Robert T Pritchett rifle.

[TFoley]

Well, we took the plunge this morning and went out - out of the local area that is - for the first time since the first week in June of last year. It was a 75 mile drive to the arms and militaria dealer advertising a very rare Pritchett rifle, named for the man who invented not only the form of rifling he used, but the smooth-sided and paper-patched bullet named after him.

It was even better than I'd hoped - light to handle like a good shotgun and a lovely 'pointer', it would have been a wonderful skirmishing rifle, or, over in Europe, and in a more sporting nature, a prize Battue gun. That 500gr bullet would easily put most boar wheels-up.

The bore, he said, looked 'alright'. To me, it was as near perfect as it was possible to be, given that it was made in 1858, the year that Pritchett, who was by then the Guildmaster of the Worshipful Company of Gunmakers, moved his premises out of St James, and into more roomy real estate nearby. It has a hook breach to aid post-shooting clean-up, and the tightest and 'clickiest' lock I've ever encountered. I'll try and find out some more about it, bearing in mind that its history is lost beyond any hope of recovery now.

I fully intend to add it on to my firearms certificate ASAP, as I have been granted another two .577 and a single .451 rifle. Loads, he suggests, are best between 60 and 70gr of Swiss Fg, and if using a Minié, with the base cavity filled with a plug made from car-body filler. right now, having paid a small fortune for this lovely rifle, I'm too poor to buy a proper Pritchett mould...

Hopefully, I'll be getting to shoot it soon - as soon as I've filled in the bases of a couple of dozen Minié bullets, that is.

 

[TFoley]

YAY!!!! I found, through the good offices of a fellow BP rifle shooter, a gentleman who lives in Doncaster, Yorkshire, who makes a large range of swaged bullets from Dave Corbin's exemplary dies and presses as well as his own. He sent me these ten freebies to see how they go in the Pritchett rifle above. Having just got them, I called him up, and we spent maybe 3/4 hour yacking about the kind of stuff that two old farts of muzzleloading generally talk about - sends his best to David Minshall, of course. [[Mornin', David, he said].

So here they are -

Way too beautiful to shoot, but a man has to do what a man has to do.....maybe tomorrow.

60 - 70gr of Swiss FFg will likely do - after all, I'm not trying to blow the backstop into the next county. I'll be making a little video for youtube - tac's guns - in case there is any interest here.

Malcolm, the bullet maker, is of the opinion that this may be the one and only rifle that Pritchett actually made and put his name to....wow!! The clues are in the straight cut crown -

and the additional dimensions of the last nine inches of barrel with the flat, necessitating the relieving of the diameter for the positioning of the rear sight -

It reads - ' R T PRITCHETT 86 St JAMES St LONDON

I also like the little cartouche P where the barrel joins the tang -

Yes, I know that the ramrod is a replacement, but you can't have everything......

 

[Whitworth]

Sorry I drooled on your new rifle......

 

[Grenadier1758]

Ah, now I see why you are looking for 60 and 70 grain measures.

 

[TFoley]

Figured you might.

 

[TFoley]

Sorry I drooled on your new rifle......

You is forgibbed. Please permit me to do the same to any new acquisition that you might make - This is a *CDZ!!!!

* Can-drool zone.

 

[Notchy Bob]

Great thread!

That rifle is well worth whatever you paid for it. It looks happy, now that it's in appreciative hands, looking forward to getting out of confinement and a trip to the range.

We hope you'll submit a field report!

Notchy Bob

 

[Crow-Feather]

Tis a lovely rifle. I see in you're post that it was said to use " Loads, he suggests, are best between 60 and 70gr of Swiss Fg," and you are using " 60 - 70gr of Swiss FFg will likely do". Was one a typo or are you just upping the pressure?

 

[TFoley]

Tis a lovely rifle. I see in you're post that it was said to use " Loads, he suggests, are best between 60 and 70gr of Swiss Fg," and you are using " 60 - 70gr of Swiss FFg will likely do". Was one a typo or are you just upping the pressure?

A typo, Sir, I'm afraid. These old fingers are n otghg y as nibmel e as thevye usecds t o bwene.

 

[McClura]

Very nice rifle I shoot an old musket with a mini something like those. The guy that sold it to me used Plaster of Paris like you make casts for broken bones. He also used the material called Drywall Spackling that fill nail holes with. You can get a pint for a few dollars at hardware store. You can get a small bag at some building stores or online for a few dollars. It works great. I think it would be less expensive than body filler. Not sure.
Good luck on your shooting with the rifle. Let us know how it does.
Mike

 

[TFoley]

Now I have the correct bullets, Mike, I don't have to go futzing around with any kind of mix-up filler, but many thanks for the suggestment!

Sad to say that today's 'inaugural shoot' had to be postponed until Wednesday for a few reasons, but trust me, it WILL happen!

 

[poker]

The best rifles end up in the best hands! That Pritchett proved that Tac.

 

[TFoley]

You are all very kind to an old f**T and his even older rifle. I only hope I can do it justice on the firing point.

 

[Muddly]

Rifle porn...
Congratulations to you Sir, on an amazing rifle. It would be a thrill to pour and ram...

 

[TFoley]

Range report.

60gr? Pussycat with tumbling bullets.

65gr? - ditto

70gr - two out of twelve tumbled.

75gr - next time.

 

[TFoley]

I know that some here have an interest in history that happened outside America and before the Civil War, so here is a background piece to an important part of that war, which saw much use of the so-called 'English cartridge' loaded with a smooth-sided and paper-patched bullet designed by the maker of this rifle - Robert Taylor Pritchett.



I've previously posted stills of this lovely rifle, but in this little movie you can see details that the stills don't show - the barrel-maker's code just ahead of the bolster, and the cartouched P on the underneath of the wrist, as well as a long number of unknown provenance on the rear tang of the trigger guard.

You'll notice that the ramrod is a replacement - I'm still looking for one with more age and mana than this one.

Shooting it so far has been interesting. At 60gr of Swiss version of 2Fg, five out of ten of the 580gr swaged bullet key-holed. Same at 65gr, but at seventy only two went in at an angle. Upping it to 75gr I had just one, but weighing in at just seven pounds, it was starting to make itself felt, recoil-wise. No doubt by the time it gets to 90gr all signs of keyholing will have gone, but so, unfortunately, will my shoulder. I'm going to ask my friendly bullet maker to make one very slightly bigger, that WILL expand enough, or smaller, so I can PP it.

Watch this space.