It’s a stretch to put this in the “build” section, but it’s a bit of an odd ball project anyway. The last couple years as I have been more intently learning about muzzleloaders, I have picked up a few projects cheap at auctions. I figure working on them is a good introduction to how things work together and produces less expensive errors before building one.
For this one I started with a Zouave .58 that was in fairly rough shape. I sent the barrel off to Mr. Hoyt and had it reamed out to a .62 smoothbore. From there, I stripped and refinished the stock, re-blued the barrel and misc parts and blackened the brass before reassembling. I didn’t attempt for any historical accuracy here (as I understand it, the Zouave rifles are somewhat dubious in that regard anyway). I did end up with something that is pleasing to my eye and I think will be fun to use. I never seem to think to get “before” pictures, but here are a couple poor quality shots from the auction to give you an idea and one of the completed rifle.
For this one I started with a Zouave .58 that was in fairly rough shape. I sent the barrel off to Mr. Hoyt and had it reamed out to a .62 smoothbore. From there, I stripped and refinished the stock, re-blued the barrel and misc parts and blackened the brass before reassembling. I didn’t attempt for any historical accuracy here (as I understand it, the Zouave rifles are somewhat dubious in that regard anyway). I did end up with something that is pleasing to my eye and I think will be fun to use. I never seem to think to get “before” pictures, but here are a couple poor quality shots from the auction to give you an idea and one of the completed rifle.
