Colt Country | Home of The Almighty Colt

I agree 100 with Len on this one.

Plz keep in mind that someone talented enough to reset end shake in the manner described, NOT a job for the novice or faint of heart.
Ergo, expect to fork a bunch of bills over to have it done.

Hey, thx! 

Flintlocks. They DO present issues in their own.

Like for instance the fit of the barrel and its ignition/touch hole vs the pan of the lock and so on.
This turd in turn, a multi stage rocket.
Point of mine being i´m gonna toss after it what´s there, just finish will no doubt be round 2. First up is getting the various issue right and on the money, get to testfire and in turn alter as needed...



Right. I added a "pillar" a tad north of the base plug. Reason here is simple, albeit the barrel is old it´s still cast steel. Thus it "rings" like a tuning fork under load, just as a modern rifle does.
Granted, using black powder and this old a material it rings different vs a modern rifle but.. it will still see nodes and antinodes. So.
I´ve now set the thing up so that the entire barrel rests on the rear tang screw (which is now of way more ample dimensions(1/4")) AND that pillar. Outer dimension of that pillar is a mere 10mm, but see...
As this is a true "bastard" anyways.. Acraglas time.

See. The recoil lug/shelf where the barrel shoves all that force when fired into the stock.. has seen better days. Traditionally this area sees all of the load on an old flint or cap n ball..why fit is imperative to both save on the stock as the gun per whole.
It´s not that nature´s had its way with that area, it´s just that i guess fit wasn´t all that for starters why it´s been hammered to dust partially.
Due this i´m going to "fold in" a piece of walnut alright but to believe that´ll come out 100 is pushing it.. Thus i´m going to acraglass the entire area and pillar bed the thing while at it.
The tang screw in turn comes in at an angle, as it does on many "newer" old cap n ball guns, thus dividing the stress on the stock even more - which is of course a good thing.
That pillar in turn secures that i can alter barrel "inclination" as i see fit, which i of course have done and this brings that the entire barrel from that pillar onwards floats as well as a barrel on a modern rifle.

This way of setting it up, what i hope for is the ability to a larger degree "tune" the barrel for a given load using a regular load ladder per normal.
Bullet for it is a version used widely over here for 50cal ML´s, which is a basic sort of Minie/Burton setup. I´ll snap a pic of that asap. It has turned out to be a pill that works very very well in these guns, and i of course hope for the best in this case too.

Then as you can see i came to "sweat" a piece of steel to the side of the barrel to make fit between the barrels touch hole and the lock as tight as can be. Worked out just fine..
..and in that i took to heart what Manton (the Brit) at the turn of 1700-1800 put forth. Atop that in turn in the form of a threaded plug..
So that threaded plug i made with a sorts of flange, and this to make sure i´ve got a given set depth to it at all times. In turn that M8 threaded plug/insert has been counterdrilled from within at 5mm, to a depth where there´s rather little "thickness" left for the actual touch hole.
All a´la Mantons ideas of getting fast and secure ignition of flintlocks at the time. For starters there... a 1mm through hole.



Knowing all to well that 1,0mm isn´t all that i´ve to this day, since my motorsport days, got a set of conical "jet reamers" around. Thus i´m able to step this 1/10 mm at a time until i see reliable ignition as they come.
As it´s in the form of a plug/insert in turn.. simple enough to replace. Either to try out different ideas or.. just replace due wear from use.

So.
Finish and what not.. hey! One thing at a time right! First up i wanna get this thing going. Ordered a bunch of flints for it through good friend Geoffrey Metz of "Sixgun.se"...

Right. So barrel is now per definition free floating. Next few days will be about barrel fit vs the recoil lug/area of the stock and that pillar. But that said the original nose cone.. made for an approx 23mm diameter which this barrel is certainly not.
So replaced that with a WAY more fitting ditto i had surplus for a Monkey tail. What i hope for is that this nose piece will protect the barrel from "abuse" as you run into door jams and whatever right..

In turn.
That piece of steel i brazed to the barrel side. "Sweating" it in place. Sorry to say almost a forgotten manner in which to handle this these days, and one PLENTY strong. One starts by adding brazing material to the piece of sheet metal and the cleaned out part of the barrel both.
Then place the steel piece upon the barrel in approx location and.. out the torch comes again. Holding the piece of steel in place with a piece of steel rod.
The slight pressure and that brazing material melting will make for that the brazing gets to ALL of the area involved, making for a very very strong bond.

Front sight are often installed this way btw. Works very very well..

Nah boys. We´re getting there i´d say. Step by step. Looking forward to trying the piece out like a kid on christmas eve.. 

Yeah.
Remington man. Indeed.

One of the benefits of doing what i do is that word gets around. What that in turn brings is that from time to time there´s those in the door that simply leaves you flabbergasted.



So. This elderly gent has owned this one for a looooong time, n see now it needed service. To be looked over. Nothing inherently wrong with it, just wanted it to be checked for further use



Yep. You guessed it, time to put the pot on again. Boiling old iron out is a SPLENDID way to keep it up to snuff!

















Thing is that many pure collectors frown upon touching the guns, at all. IMO this is pure fallacy as the materials will deteriorate no matter if used or not why picking even the nicest of them apart to at least CHECK is ALWAYS a good idea.
Let me tell ya.. i´ve taken barrels out of rifle stocks looking "da bomb" just to realize that below the stockline rust reigns you won´t believe. Just because "don´t touch it, it´s valuable!"
Yeah. Whatever... *sighs*





Uhu. My 5 liter "revolver pot". I just use regular tap water, granted.. we get really GOOD water where i live so.. for some distilled water might be the right choice.
Just keep that in mind.



















Uhu, and here we go. Boiled and carded. Due this as these guns are collector pieces these days (this one gets shot though) they are WAY better maintained than back in the day.
Due that and due the boiling and carding this gun is now ready to take on another 150yrs in this condition and as long as the owner takes care of it.. no worries.

What the progressive rifling looks like on a more or less to this day new Remington NMA?





Oh! On old rare iron.
Remind me.
I´ll put a post up on not one but TWO of the approx 700 made Allen&Wheelok Armys.

I had better be clear on this once more.
This is NOT a replica, it is the real deal. The genuine article, the real McCoy.
It is a Tower stamped gun, made back in 1863. A so called export model, which brings it is the exact same gun delivered for the US civil war and....
..it is new.



















The amount of detail for us "nerds" to take in, it just never stops. Having spent its life on a wall and at officers mess i guess brings that.
In all honesty though a gun like this really belongs in either Poland or the US, it being an "export" model meaning it´s the EXACT same gun that was delivered for instance for the civil war, it´s just that it´s.. new. 
Countries where it was supposed to be used or WERE used.







Talked it over with Brett, who´s to be considered the authority on the matter (running "Paper cartridges") and he adviced me on using the so called Hay bullet.
So.
Time to rev the CNC up i guess, cause one Hay bullet mold coming up.
It´s been told they can be a tad picky on fudder why i´m going to follow the British developed manner in which to produce cartridges with a rather anal approach.







"Once in a life time".
Yep. That about sums it up.

Thx guys.
The Chassepot, story coming up on that one.
That cavalry carbine, we use that for our current nationals. Did a non intrusive install of a diopter setup to it.

 
Yep. Rather pronounced!
 

The "space gun". Or "skeleton gun" if you wish. As you might gather very very light. Welded in a bracket to the tank to be able to use a bi-pod and so on.
Needed when going accuracy work as the gun is so light it jumps around under firing otherwise.



Due that it´s about hard to catch the thing properly.



Per "normal" Artemis/Diana of course the charging handle broke. Turned a way beefier one that i knurled while at it.
That said, have to admit to being very fond of the colors from the TIG welding..