577 snider info

[tactical870]

As much as I've always beein into rifle and shotguns, I've never played with antique centerfire stuff (beyond a little reloading for 38-72). I just purchased a .577 snider marked 1862 Enfield. It needs a fair bit of work but I would like to shoot it. Anyone care to share some reloading tips? Where do I find parts? (I need sights and could use a better stock). Thanks

 

[Musketfire]

Hello Sir!
The enfield snider is a fine arm and I am sure yours will give you many years of great joy!

You can use many parts for reproduction percussion enfield rifle muskets such as lock internals, barrel bands and furniture, these parts are prolific!

As far as needing a new stock goes I would advise you to repair the origional that goes with it, unless its quite drastically damaged most problems can be repaired.

It may help if you could post a picture of your rifle and we can suss out what you need to get er going!


Cheers

 

[tactical870]

The stock is broken and has been repaired just behind the lock area. It seems solid enough but seeing as I didn't do the repair I can't really tell how well it was done. The muzzle has some severe pitting and needs to be recrowned. The bore looks decent but the rifling is very light.

 

[vagrantviking]

If the stock repair feels solid use it as is just not as a crutch or club. Would be great to see a pic or two as mentioned.

If it ever does need to be replaced there are people out there that can build one from scratch or partly inletted new stock could probably be fitted but IMHO the stock of a muzzleloader or an original gun like that is a truly integral part. Its different from the the modern guns that just drop in and can be changed every ten minutes.

Hope you get it up and running. There is no feeling that can compare to firing a piece of history like that.

Elwood Epps, Track of the Wolfe and Buffalo Arms are places to look for reloading stuff. Importing should not be an issue with tooling or antique type brass (24 gauge brass shells work too if I remember right).

 

[tactical870]

I think I'm going to try to re-crown it myself. Mechanically it's in decent condition but missing it's sights. The finish has been bubba'd to the point where I am seriously considering polishing it and having it reblued as I can have it done by a friend at next to no cost and the gun has already lost the majority of its collector value by being shortened and hacked with. I figure I'd rather see it as a decent shooter than a wall hanger. Any ideas for sights? I was toying with the idea or a red dot just to prove it could be done (and I'm going to lose the groove for the front sight when I crown it) but I might consider decent iron sights if it can be done economically.