IMA Gurkha Brown Bess.

M

mckutzy

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Hello guys/lady's. A friend recently had purchased several muskets from IMA in the US. He got 5 of the IEC gurkha marked bess's.
They have new made stockes and all the brass inleted. The locks and barrels we untouched. They were coated in what I could call it as very antiquated cosmo made from Yak grease. I have the opportunity to go over all and clean them all(I am starting to think what did I get myself into). These locks besides being 200+ years old, are covered with this fossilized yak crap.

I tried to use a few oils like wd40 and g96 gun cleaner. This stuff loosens up a bit, but more to just get a bit of liquid between the parts. I ended up, after washing up my hands, using gojo NON pumice hand soap to get the crap off the metal parts. I got most of the parts separated with the WD and g96 and some very light slow turning the screws out.
With the parts separated, I worked the parts with the soap in by hand, and that took most of the stuff off. It was kinda unreal seeing black crap being washed off and shiny metal underneath.

After about 4 hours(I went slowly cause I didnt want to mess anything up), I had managed to get a 200 year old musket lock looking from rough to working and looking good.
Here is some pics.....

What I started with..... they buff a bit in the middle to show what lock it was when they sell it.

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After about 4 hours of cleaning, disassembly and reassembly....

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Now 1 down, 4 to go.(To be fair, this one was the easiest as it functioned albeit not well, the others ill show later....) This will be fun... Oh... I havent really seen the barrels yet, my buddy still has them and I know they are going to be a choir, let alone the barrel inleting.

Good times, Ill keep you all posted.
 
have fun they make nice decoration after done these are nepal made and well 200 years old any of the muzzleloaders coming out of nepal should be considered wall hangers only

i have found murphy's oil soap and a new clean toothbrush to cut through all that yak fat with ease
 
Ya I'm going to soak the other three. I've started on #2, the other functioning lock. I have got to get some diesel from the gas station, keep forgetting.
I'm surprised at the state of preservation of the metal. I've worked on many repro long lands and some of these are in better shape.

The last set of repros I worked on looked almost the same as per there finish. They were all used and had a similar wear, these were also like 30+ years old, not exactly a comparison but back in the day these were used for about 40 or so years before storage.

So for the originals, it seemed like second nature after having some experience under the belt.
 
mckutzy said:
Ya I'm going to soak the other three. I've started on #2, the other functioning lock. I have got to get some diesel from the gas station, keep forgetting.
I'm surprised at the state of preservation of the metal. I've worked on many repro long lands and some of these are in better shape.

The last set of repros I worked on looked almost the same as per there finish. They were all used and had a similar wear, these were also like 30+ years old, not exactly a comparison but back in the day these were used for about 40 or so years before storage.

So for the originals, it seemed like second nature after having some experience under the belt.
Click to expand...

the early guns got it good they were stored in the basement of the castle most of the nepal stuff was stored in that grease they used is red incolor for the most part and it really stuck

it may look nice but id still call it a wall hanger the breech end of the barrels one can only think what they look like
 
Oh ya ill take a good look at the bore and breach area. I think I'll take them out up on the crown land gravel pit areas, sand bag them up and test a few shooting loads, not reproofing but just added measure to what max we'll be shooting them at if we want to shoot ball.
 
When I test a barrel, I much prefer to take it out of the stock - reduce the risk of damage to the stock. I make up a lumber cradle, with a block for the barrel to butt up against, and tie the barrel down to that. Sandbags to keep everything in one place. To fire, I use a length of two lead wire, with a twist of steel wool across the wires at the business end. 9v battery connected when its time. Steel wool incandesces, fires the priming. More positive control than fuse.
If I test fire with the gun assembled, I don't use the tire trick; much prefer sandbags. Under, behind and on top of the gun.
 
Oh ya I will be testing individual barrels out of the stocks. I was thinking about the 9v thing awhile ago to use that instead of long fuse that is expensive.
I like the Idea of making a holder for the barrel out of wood. looks like it would hold it better that bagged up and by itself.
 
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