Matchlocks

camerl2009 said:
yep bought a flintlock pistol from military heritage lock was slow and fit and finish was not so good i sent it back with out thinking twice

affter i seen that some where vary bad i seen a pic from one where the breech plug was only held there by the tang screw the threads on the breech where not engaged on the barrel :eek: one of two things could happen with that one gas blow back in to the threads and have them rust and pit till the breech plug fails or it could be shot back into the eye or face

i would not trust any gun made in india

its not the barrel im worried about thick walled dom or seamless tubing is good enough for muzzleloaders its the breech plugs and locks that are the turn off
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Loyalist and military heritage are 2 different companies, Blair services everything he sells and is a excellent guy to deal with "one of the best I have dealt with anywhere frankly" Military heritage is just a bulk importer and in my opinion they really don't give a rats ass about what they sell.

I bought a unit from military heritage a few years ago......the service was horrible and the product was bad, I have bought a couple arms from loyalist both as kits and they were both EXCELLENT muskets, the locks were great and everything else was extremely high quality.

In fact One day I hope to get one of there matchlocks in kit form so I can fancy up the stock to my liking.
 
Musketfire said:
Loyalist and military heritage are 2 different companies.........
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You beat me to it, :D Yes, you are definitely comparing apples to oranges when it comes to Loyalist vs military heritage. Peter Twist is a great guy, and knows a whole lot about history and re-enacting; but (IMO) he should stop selling the less than acceptable pistols/muskets on his web site. I don't know anyone that has had a good experience with any of the pistols or longarms from the MH site.
 
camerl2009 said:
thay may be 2 differnt companies but both have said there guns are made in india
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Well, I've had to fix a fair share of both Pedersoli's and even U.S. made flinters and cap guns - You're going to find good and bad no matter where they are made. Lately, I've seen a number of Thompson/Center and CVA guns with broken main-springs, etc or simply just badly assembled or piss-poor manufacturing. Two that come to mind were downright dangerous IMO. (Of course, I think that many of those may be built on the other side of the pond as well).
 
tiriaq said:
I believe it was 1015. In addition to the matchlock, made some Brown Bess barrels as well. Also used some with .625 ID as well.
Seamless mild steel tube is quite satisfactory for smoothbore barrels, provided it is free from flaws. It is quite ductile, and in the event of a problem is more likely to bulge or split, rather than shatter.
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Good to hear. I was concerned with 1028 being too soft.
I was wondering about case hardening but was worried about it then being too brittle.
Had the idea of hard chroming the bore to .615 and tapping the muzzle for a Rem choke tube maybe even a rifled choke!
I was thinking of either a snapping matchlock or a wheel lock. Know of anyone making repro wheellocks?
 
I have the english style matchlock from dixie gun works quality seem very good ,it arrived in the white and I polished and stained the stock and browned the barrel it turned out quite nice I use a .690 patched ball
 
Original iron barrels are really soft. Soft is better than brittle. High power rifle barrels are stress relieved, not hardened. Although Parker Hale barrels are quite hard - I suspect as the result of hammer forging. If one fails, it will break into pieces, whereas most other makes will bulge or split.
I used to buy steel from Drummond McCall. According to the salesman I dealt with, they supplied steel tube to a major Cdn. mfr. for shotgun barrels.
Mild steel tube is quite strong enough for black powder smoothbore use according to the tables. The elongation numbers are such that distortion will occur before failure. The proviso is that there cannot be flaws in the metal. As far as that goes, there is no reason that tube could not be reamed and rifled for a round ball muzzleloader.
1137 is a better barrel steel for muzzleloaders, but it is available as barstock, and requires boring and reaming. A lot of commercial ml rifle barrels are made from leaded screw machine steel, LaLed, 12L15, etc. Read the numbers on this material, and you will wonder if it is a particularly good idea.
I know little about internal plating, although have heard of something called hydrogen embrittlement.
Check the actual measurements of the choke tubes. .625" is pretty close to an overbored 20ga, nominally .615". It might be possible to ream and thread a .625 bore, and get good results with tubes.
 
I work in a hydraulic cylinder shop/factory. I know lots about internal plating of pressure vessels. :) ...and if I don't I know lots of people that do.
For now its still a pipe dream lol.
I shouldn't have to worry about hydrogen embrittlement as long as the liberated gasses are allowed to purge from the barrel as its plating and not trapped where they can permiate through the steels pores. The trick is to start with a highly polished surface free of "pin holes".
 
Bingo!
You would certainly need to polish the bore to a bright finish. Sometimes there are fine surface striations, no doubt from the mandrel.
 
ive seen barrels made from 4140 for muzzleloaders but its been stress relieved(aka normalized ) but softer barrels are ok for smooth bore barrels
i would not want too soft of a barrel for a rifled gun
 
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