This is going to be long winded so bare with me. I've owned this gun many years and match worthy accuracy. Douglas XX .45. Beautiful rifle too built by a master artisan who has now passed so I can't ask him. The drum is VERY far back on this gun and I had always assumed the drum was centered at the face if not even behind the breech face with a little fire channel filed in the breech. However, the drum threads for the nipple and clean out screw are worn slap out and I was in the process of replacing the drum when I saw this and had a heart attack. The breech face appeared to be BEHIND the drum hole completely.....maybe. 25" from the end of barrel. I quickly counted my blessings that it had never went boom in my face. However, ran a .45 scraper down, not even visible. Hmm.....ran a .36 scraper down....felt a lip then it extended all the way past the drum and bottomed.
So, based on my measurements it is breached about. 75" deep then the plug is milled around .36"+ for another half inch to the drum. My biggest question is why? I do have an underhammer bench gun with a coned breech and nipple drilled into back of cone.....but this one blows my mind. Ironically, never had a misfure or hang fire in years of shooting it, but that breech has never been scraped all the way to bottom even once???
Is this something more common than I realized? This gun was built in the 80's. Do I install my new drum and go back to shooting or should I be concerned at all. Thanks.
So, based on my measurements it is breached about. 75" deep then the plug is milled around .36"+ for another half inch to the drum. My biggest question is why? I do have an underhammer bench gun with a coned breech and nipple drilled into back of cone.....but this one blows my mind. Ironically, never had a misfure or hang fire in years of shooting it, but that breech has never been scraped all the way to bottom even once???
Is this something more common than I realized? This gun was built in the 80's. Do I install my new drum and go back to shooting or should I be concerned at all. Thanks.