Up and running.

[mjpchief]

Finally after 7 months from finding an original J.Henry & Son .30 cal it is ready to make smoke again. Bag made by me and a repurposed copper powder flask.

 

[ETipp]

Nice!

 

[Gtrubicon]

What all did you do to it? It looks like a really nice rifle. I’d like to see more pictures of it.

 

[mjpchief]

What all did you do to it? It looks like a really nice rifle. I’d like to see more pictures of it.

When I got the rifle it was so caked in dried oil or lube that you couldn’t tell if it had rifling in the barrel and a lot of it had ran down the comb on the stock that it looked like rot on the wood. Cleaned the stock with Go-Jo hand cleaner back down to the original finish and stopped there. Scrubbed the barrel and soaked it with Ballistol several times until finally could tell it still had riflings. Turned out to be .30 cal. Got to shoot it 3 times and the bridle came apart in 2 places from what looked to be a hundred yr old repair. Sent the lock off to be repaired and waited 7 months for them to tell me they didn’t want to do the work. When I got the lock back I decided it wasn’t any good like it was and did the work myself. Had the bridle wire welded back together and filed it back in shape and repaired the sear. Pretty proud of the rifle at this point.

 

[Gtrubicon]

That’s pretty cool! nothing better than fixing something yourself.

 

[Hermit Tim]

I like it alot. And the bag too. It's really satisfying to bring new life to a rough old rifle, isn't it...

 

[mjpchief]

From the 3 shots I got with this rifle before it broke the bridle it was dead on at 25 yds. If everything works out I will get to fire it in the next couple of days. Hope it stays true to form. I just sat and stared at it for an hour today.

 

[Hermit Tim]

Let us know how it turns out. Are you gonna hunt with it or just shoot targets?

 

[mjpchief]

Just paper for now.

Let us know how it turns out. Are you gonna hunt with it or just shoot targets?

 

[Dobegrant]

Very nice looking rifle

 

[hanshi]

The rifle is definitely a looker. It appears to have been a well kept treasure.

 

[mjpchief]

Got to shoot the rifle yesterday. Fired it about 20 times using a .283 ball with .018 pillow tick patch and 20 gr of 2f Goex. Couldn’t get a good group. I think the reason for the poor group was the fact that I was using precut patch and I couldn’t get the patch to stay centered on the ball when pushing it down the barrel. Seemed like the patch was rolling to one side when I short started the ball. Next time I take it out I will cut the patch at the muzzle. But the good news is that the rifle fired every time without fail. Grouped about 2” at 25 yds.

 

[rp77469]

Great work. Next time you clean it could you take a picture of your lock repair? Thanks.

 

[mjpchief]

Great work. Next time you clean it could you take a picture of your lock repair? Thanks.

Bridle was broken in 3 pieces. Wire welded it back together and filed back to shape and drilled new pivot hole. Used all original screws to put it back together. Only thing not original to rifle is the hammer screw and the main spring.