Lookie what my uncle gave me

Just regular old Tung oil, my friend had a jug of it sitting around he used on his guitar which still has a finish on it. Worst case scenario I can always strip and re-apply if it doesn't hold up. I think it looks awesome, the wood has a reddish tint in person.
 
jjr said:
My uncle said he shot it when he was a teenager like 40 years ago, then it's been in the basement ever since. He said when he shot it he could hear the bullet tumbling as soon as it left the bore, so I'm assuming either the rifling is shot out, or the ammo sucks. I've read that paper patching your bullets is necessary for some of these so I'm hoping that's it.

That's my show and tell, I'll be looking for a guide to do a full disassembly and cleaning on this thing to see if it's in good enough shape to shoot.
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A 71/84 should normally have a bore diameter of about .446" Maybe a little larger depending on wear and tear as well as the quality of the tools used to make it 140 years ago. A Model 71 generally has a bore diameter of .451" In general, I would think the commercial ammo should be sized for the .446" diameter, as 71/84s seem to be more common than 71s.

That CIL ammo should be smokeless, at least the ammo my great uncle had was. The CIL brass is not the best for reloading. It has a balloon head and the brass tends to split. If you plan on shooting it, I suggest you source some Bertram brass. It is expensive, but has solid head construction. I bough mine at Rusty Wood's Trading in BC and had it shipped to me. Loaded with black powder, I didn't need toresize it before loading again. I'm not sure how many firings I will get away with before resizing. Availibility of .446" bullets is better than .451"
 
35Wailin said:
A 71/84 should normally have a bore diameter of about .446" Maybe a little larger depending on wear and tear as well as the quality of the tools used to make it 140 years ago. A Model 71 generally has a bore diameter of .451" In general, I would think the commercial ammo should be sized for the .446" diameter, as 71/84s seem to be more common than 71s.

That CIL ammo should be smokeless, at least the ammo my great uncle had was. The CIL brass is not the best for reloading. It has a balloon head and the brass tends to split. If you plan on shooting it, I suggest you source some Bertram brass. It is expensive, but has solid head construction. I bough mine at Rusty Wood's Trading in BC and had it shipped to me. Loaded with black powder, I didn't need toresize it before loading again. I'm not sure how many firings I will get away with before resizing. Availibility of .446" bullets is better than .451"
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I'm fairly certain I won't be shooting it. I soaked the bore and scrubbed the crap out of it, still looks to be a rough patch in there. It's just a family heirloom at this point, don't want to bother getting it counter bored or anything like that.
 
Fwiw, I had a largish rust patch in a SMLE that I couldn't get rid of by normal means.

I ended up wrapping a jag in steel wool and went to town on it... and it came up fine and didn't come back.

It was always a ##### to keep clean, though.
 
35Wailin said:
A 71/84 should normally have a bore diameter of about .446" Maybe a little larger depending on wear and tear as well as the quality of the tools used to make it 140 years ago. A Model 71 generally has a bore diameter of .451" In general, I would think the commercial ammo should be sized for the .446" diameter, as 71/84s seem to be more common than 71s.

That CIL ammo should be smokeless, at least the ammo my great uncle had was. The CIL brass is not the best for reloading. It has a balloon head and the brass tends to split. If you plan on shooting it, I suggest you source some Bertram brass. It is expensive, but has solid head construction. I bough mine at Rusty Wood's Trading in BC and had it shipped to me. Loaded with black powder, I didn't need toresize it before loading again. I'm not sure how many firings I will get away with before resizing. Availibility of .446" bullets is better than .451"
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I bouht my brass from rusty wood aswell. Not to bad for price when you realize you can reload the cases countless times. My loads are about 14,000psi. Im upto 25 relaods per case so far, using smokeless. H4895

Also my bore sluged at .446 with a few lose spots when pushing the slug through so i size my cast bullets to .447" they shoot well.

Im pushing a 430gr bullet at 1640fps for deer hunting, thats near max load but no signs of pressure and i fire the same bullet at 1450fps for target shooting ( i use hodgdons load data for the trapdoor 45-70 and keep the loads under 18,000psi,
 
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