Thoughts on DGW .45 Lancaster?

[mastadonald]

Sadly, I recently inherited my brother's .45 DGW "Lancaster" rifle. It was given to him by our dad in 1980 and amazingly appears unfired. I am leaning towards trying it out and am curious if any one here has experience with that model. I'm guessing 1:48?

 

[mooman76]

I have no experience with your particular rifle but I do have a DGW 32 cal mountain rifle. It is well made and shoots good. They were pretty good for production guns back in the day. I don't really know about now if they still are as many companies change where they get their parts from. I would guess that yours is a 1/66 twist but that's just a guess. It isn't too hard to figure the twist out by marking your ram rod. with a tight patch when you push it in if it makes a 1/2 turn in 24" it's a 1/48 if it makes half a turn in 33" it's a 1/66 twist. Only shooing would tell how good yours is. I'd shoot it myself. This is a very addictive sport. Sorry about your brother.

 

[Trot]

They aren't the greatest quality, but I would say go ahead and shoot it. I have one that started out as a flintlock, but nothing I could do would make that flintlock work so I switched it out to percussion. Mine has a pretty tight bore, a .440 ball and thin patch are tough to load. I started using a .433 ball and patch and it works better. Rifling is really shallow so accuracy is not that great, but still fun to shoot.

 

[2172]

mine came with both a flintlock and a cap lock I found the mainsprings In each lock to fail pretty quickly mine now shoots well with a small Siler lock Hank

 

[Wes/Tex]

I'm not exactly sure which DGW rifle you're asking about. I don't recall the "Lancaster" tag being hung on any of their longrifles. Further description or a photo would definitely help.

 

[excess650]

I don't recall what was in the DGW 35 yeas ago other than the Tn Mtn Rifles.

 

[Trot]

If mine is the same, it is marked Dixie Gun Works Lancaster, made in Italy. I am guessing made by Palmetto arms? It has a small palm tree mark as well as the Italian proof marks. It has a 35" barrel, and an odd one piece cast brass combination patch box-buttplate. I bought mine sometime around the late 70's early 80's.