To Brown or not to Brown

[wiscoaster]

....What, if anything, would our 1760's long hunter have carried with him to use and prevent this?

Funny, what popped into mind was that this was mentioned in one of the Sharpe's Rifles novels, by Bernard Cromwell. What it was, and which book, escapes me. Too many years ago. But lots of historical fact in fiction genre.

 

[appalichian hunter]

I would think on the frontier they would have used whatever protection was most available, perhaps bear grease or oil and even rendered deer tallow. I really don't see a hunter out in perhaps hostile areas tearing a barrel off there gun, more like to wait until back in the settlements.

 

[Grenadier1758]

I do minimal polishing of my Derringer rifle. It has developed a dull gray patina to the barrel as well as the dull patina of the brass. Here I am shooting it. No mirror surfaces to spook any game.

Brass was more common. It is sturdy enough for some hard use. It doesn't take long for the brass to take on a dulling patina to become almost brown.

Even with the barrel still in the white, my Derringer Rifle with brass hardware does not reflect light as the white barrel has become gray and the brass quite dull.

View attachment 216532

Now, my King's Musket is a different story. Brass was chosen for the hardware on the King's Musket. I am sure brass wouldn't have been selected unless it was suitable for hard military use.

 

[Coinneach]

That is exactly my point but have never read anything to tell me what they did about it. The military arms were kept bright and Heaven help the soldier who allowed a spot of rust. When Robert Rogers was putting together his Rangers he worked by a different set of rules than the regular army, they wanted to be able to move through the woods unobserved and a shiny musket just doesn't do this. A long hunter of the period spent months in hostile territory and usually would have preferred to be unobserved, but have never heard what they did about it. Just letting their most valuable tool rust up doesn't sound like something they would do so I'm curious what they did do. With the centuries of accumulated research knowledge by members of this forum I'm pretty sure someone out there knows.

From what I've read over the years the Brit Army were issued small patches of old chain mail to burnish the Brown Bess barrels, rather than polished them. Some records have it that Brick dust was used to polish barrels, others that it was discontinued because of the wearing down of barrels. I use to brown my barrels, but nowadays prefer to tone them down by dulling their surface to a grey hue. Unless a manufacturer browned a barrel, would the new owner want to strip his new or 2nd hand ML down to brown its barrel ? Possibly more practical over time to control the natural rusting process with dry wiping, or burnishing to a grey colour.

 

[teflonhunter]

I put a light coat of pure lanolin on part of barrel in the stock when I did last assembly. It's been a few months since and i plan on pulling it apart before hunting season and see how things look.

 

[Mulemauler]

Funny, what popped into mind was that this was mentioned in one of the Sharpe's Rifles novels, by Bernard Cromwell. What it was, and which book, escapes me. Too many years ago. But lots of historical fact in fiction genre.

Loved that series and while pale compared to the books the BBC series was still very watchable.

 

[hanshi]

In general I prefer browned barrels because I just think they're attractive. For years I had a nice .50 rifle that was "white". Actually the 42" barrel was not shiny but rather a bit dull. The rifle hunted and shot targets frequently and was only wiped down during cleaning. The barrel quickly gained patina and never was shiny and never glinted at all. I still have a percussion that may have once had the barrel browned but any finish has been long gone leaving a dull, grayish finish that I like.