Another New Toy

mooncoon

mooncoon

CGN Ultra frequent flyer
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Location
Vancouver Island
I picked up a french percussion cape gun at a gun show about 1 month ago and finally had it out to the range today. The gun has one 53 cal rifled barrel and one 60 cal smooth barrel. The left hammer was missing when I bought it plus the nipples required replacing. It seems to have a fairly fast twist to the barrel (about 1 : 30") and my initial shots tell me I am going to have to play with loads and powder granulations for a while. There is very little drop to the stock which combined with a fairly wide cheek area makes the gun difficult to aim. (also there is no rear sight nor dovetail for one)
I made the hammer by bending a piece of 1/2 round stock in an S shape plus a bit of filing and welded it to some 3/16 x 1" flat bar. The tumbler shafts on this gun are hexagonal and I formed the hole in the hammer by drilling a hole smaller than the hexagon then heating the base of the hammer red hot and hammering a allen key through the hole. I was lucky in that the shaft dimensions matched one of my allen keys.
I should mention that I have contoured the hammer a lot more following the photo of it rough fitted to the tumbler shaft

cheers mooncoon

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Neat project. Cool to have a rifled barrel and smoothbore. I sure wouldn't want to be standing in front of that gun no matter which barrel was being used!
Matt
 
Mooncoon, that is a fine looking rifle, I have to say I am always impressed with you skills. That man card of yours must be so big it hardly fits in your wallet :) Well done sir.
 
As usual, very well done!
I bought a project side by side combination gun at an auction - a real project piece, but originally of nice quality.
Didn't disassemble it at the auction house.
Bubba had got to it before I did. He arc welded the breech plugs to the tang, as well as the loop piece for the wedge to the barrels. None of this visible from the outside. At least I only paid $50 for it. The locks are worth that, even without the hammers.
 
tiriaq said:
Bubba had got to it before I did. He arc welded the breech plugs to the tang, as well as the loop piece for the wedge to the barrels.
Click to expand...

I remember buying a double shotgun years ago, where the little tit on the mainspring had broken off so the owner tack welded the spring in place. He also used a drop of brazing in place of a missing hammer screw. Amazingly enough the lock still worked . Potentially much worse was a Pennsylvania rifle where Bubba had ground most of the threads of a breech plug so that it could be forced into the barrel.

cheers mooncoon
 
I still have to refinish the barrels to bring out the damascus pattern. Here are a couple more combination guns for a bit of eye candy. The french gun is the top one of the group The middle gun is 44 caliber roughly x 12 g and the o/u mule ear is I think 45 x 16g. The middle gun still has the yellow fiberglass rod so favoured by the mountain men :>) :>)

cheers mooncoon

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