Posted 2 years ago
roadweasel
(33 items)
Southern Style Flintlock rifle. I call my red headed step child , as for all the rust red rags that were produced that took to clean this up. This rifle was acquired in a group that a good friend named Bud Flap bought from a deceased friends gun collection, having no interest in the black powder guns, he sold them to me. The 5 guns were stored in a basement , a nice Jager ( That he gave me for a Christmas present, what a pal ! ) , a French Fusil , a Trade rifle , a 1860 .44 Colt pistol ( That turned out to be real ), and this Southern rifle , all in flintlock other than the colt. All needed tender loving care, as rust abound from their storage in a dungeon . This southern rifle was the worse of the lot, rode hard and put away wet. originally was a blond with little more than a iron screwed down trigger guard , and two ram rod thimbles, and horn butt plate. The workmanship was mediocre at best with extra fat wood all around. The barrel was a decent one , with nice rifling at a glance. The first oil patch I ran down the bore , sucked the oil right off it and came back out ragged. After repeated strokes, it lightened up from dark brown to rust. I then attacked it with a brass bore brush , maintaining the stroking to the bore to flow with the rifling , not turning in a drill against the rifling grain. Once it got some attention , it cleaned up nice, and looks good even with a bore scope. I do not believe this was shot much. I then tapper fluted, wedding banded, and browned the .31 cal. barrel. I re carved the stock with silver inlays in a fantasy scheme and added a iron nose cap, iron side lock plate, re-worked the small Siler lock, and added a silver patch box with all seeing eye. I figured I need the extra as mine are getting old and hard to see the sights.
You dun real good Road and your eyes seem fine from what I see here. I was trying to decide if this was really old or an artisan piece until I read your description. I would guess Carolinas or TN by style and your mentioning the thick spots of the wood. Silas locks of course are modern. Did the orig. lock have any markings ? Do you use that Laurel Mountain browning ? Was it flint originally and you reconverted? Did you get the breech-plug out ? I soaked a Colt 49 pocket cyl. once for a full year before those bloody nipples finally came loose. Luv your work. Never seen an antler(?) buttplate. Orig. or your idea ?
Thanks Blunderbuss2 , This was all together with the Siler lock on it, it was a flint from birth I suspect , as I had to replace the touch hole. I did not pull breach plug as I could visually see how well it was seated when touch hole liner was removed. And it was seated very well. Antler butt plate is traditional on this type. I figure it was made in the 1980 era .
Removing the breechplug is the best way to be able to clean the bore real well. If you aren't going to be shooting it, doesn't really matter. Good job.
It will be fine to shoot, the cleaning job removed the surface rust as it was most prevalent at the muzzle and lightened up as it went down. Lent me to believe these were cleaned and just sat for a long time with condensation as the only build up in the barrels . As I stated I could see into the barrel and all looked fine with the seat , so I did not feel the need to pull the breech plug. I do remember I was going to do it, but it turned out to be a home made welded tang to a plug . During construction they tapered the walls in ward to fit better into the stock, with the widest point on top where you view. The tapper was so exaggerated it made it almost impossible to remove with out marring the show surface with a wrench . And at the time I felt it was another can of worms I did not really need to open. I forgot to ask how the goat is doing ?
"Goat"? Refresh my memory.