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mooncoon

mooncoon

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Vancouver Island
A couple of months ago, I found the remains of a flintlock shotgun in a gunshow. Have now finally started returning it back to a flintlock after it had been converted to percussion presumably in the 1800s and subsequently the hammers and drums were lost. A previous owner has replaced some missing wood which you can see as light patches around the locks.
So far I have filled the massive cutouts in the lock panels, with weld and made a replacement pan. Also fitted a frizzen starting with a rough casting from Dixie. The frizzen was a bit of a problem in that the pivot location was too close to the pan cover but I was able to add steel by welding. I still have the second lock to restore plus miscellaneous internal parts to make and cocks to replace but there is light at the end of the tunnel.

cheers mooncoon

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Fantastic!!!

A double with some history!! I cannot wait to see how shes going to be when your complete Sir!


Have you decided on the style of hammer, Queen anne, Germanic or French??

All I see is potential!!

Cheers
 
Nice work Mooncoon.
I seen the other stuff you have made, this gun looks better off at the start than most you posted.
Like to see it when its done.
 
Musketfire said:
Fantastic!!!
Have you decided on the style of hammer, Queen anne, Germanic or French??
Click to expand...

It is a british gun so the #### should be british although I think there is a lot of flexibility in shape. Definitely will not be a reinforced ####. The challenge is going to be getting the left fence and pan and frizzen to more or less match the right side. Also have already discovered that because the vent area is recessed about .2" (to make the gun narrower) the inside front corner of the pan cover has to be angled back a bit so that the frizzen can open. I remain in awe of the people who filed these things out in the good old days, even allowing for them working from forged pieces. I still do not have the abilities of a belgian apprentice when I look at inexpensive original guns.
All in all, I think the gun was a lucky catch for anyone who is prepared to take on the restoration/ reclaimation.

cheers mooncoon
 
Just an update on the project. I now have both pans installed and both frizzens fitted although there still needs to be work done on them where they press on the frizzen spring. There are some extra problems with recessed breaches in that the pan cover has to be set back a bit to clear the breach when the frizzen opens.
Next step is making several springs including two frizzen springs, one sear spring, one mainspring, one sear and repair or replace both tumblers.

cheers mooncoon

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Moon Coon my boy! You are doing some very nice work!And the pistol shooting you did at the Malahat Rendezvous on the weekend was'nt THAT shabby. Especially when you use a flintlock.My best wishes to Robogirl. C_F
 
I hate to be a fly in the ointment, but it looks to me like you are going to have some trouble getting the flash to the main charge, as the location of the vents seem to be in the breechplug area. I assume it can be done somehow, as they must have been the original location for the powder drums in percussion, but I am just wondering how? I must say, though, that piece is exquisite! The marbling on the stock is stupendous! I also am wondering whether the original geometry of the lock panels was kept from its time as a flinter (ie: locks tapering from front to back)?
 
The gun has "patent" breeches. There is a narrow chamber in the middle of the breechplug that part of the charge goes into, and the flash hole connects with that. This gives faster ignition and allows you to build a narrower gun than if the locks were placed where they are on a musket with a "common" breech. Note that the flash pans are tucked in partway behind the breeches.
 
Amaziah Rimfire said:
Note that the flash pans are tucked in partway behind the breeches.
Click to expand...

And that has created an unsuspected problem with restoring the locks. The distance from the pivot to the pan cover needs to be quite long so that the pan rises up as it opens and therefore does not hit the front of the recess in the breach plug. I got the right lock right by accident mostly and stupidly put the left pivot slightly too far back (ie shorter arm to the pan.) That is creating problems getting the frizzen to clear the barrels and right now I am trying to decide which is the least worst fix.
Part of the problem was that the frizzen blanks that I started with had exceptionally short distance from where the pivot hole goes and the pan starts. I had to add material to the pivot area to make the arm longer and in the case of the left frizzen was too conservative (a thousand curses).
The locks are unusual in that the tumbler stops against the sear spring screw rather than the back of the tumbler bridle. I suppose it was done to make the lock smaller but is also probably the reason that the screw was broken on the left side. Stopping against the bridle is superior I think because there are two screws to take the stress rather than one
Orientation of the lock plates remains the same because I have not changed the inletting on the stock

cheers mooncoon
 
Some photos of the conversion project to date. Most frustrating because it is not sparking as well as I would like and the sparks often cool before they hit the pans. I am coming to think that the tumblers were replaced during the conversion to percussion which limits the arc through which they travel. I think that when I get back from Heffley in September, I will make new tumblers with shorter arms and shorter links to the mainsprings which should give more travel to the cocks, hopefully more speed when the flint strikes the frizzen and get more sparks into the pans.
I am also convinced that the gun has to be loaded with 3F powder in order to get powder exposed to the vent opening. With the long flash channel around .2" diameter I doubt that 2F would ignite reliably. The recessed breeches are nice cosmetically but I am not quite as enamoured of them functionally, at least at this point.
Hopefully the new tumblers will also allow me to line up the cocks better; the photo is posed with one #### at 1/2 #### and the other at full #### :>( One suggestion that I was given and which would have worked if had positioned the gun less awkwardly, was to put a layer of soft solder on the base of the #### and put a pin in the screw hole of the tumbler, then with the #### in the right orientation, give it a tap with a hammer which leaves an imprint of the square tumbler shaft in the solder. The method worked but I lined up the wrong portion of the ####

cheers mooncoon

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Well the flint shotgun project is nearing completion. I refinished the barrels and have shot the gun, so I know it is not going to blow up :>) The barrel pattern is unusual with not a lot of evidence of the small pieces that are welded together to make up the skelps. I have included a photo of a french barrel where the skelp was made in layers so that the pattern comes out vaguely like plywood but I am not convinced that is the case with the Greenwood barrels. Also included is a photo of the join in the Greenwood barrels; the barrels were made as 2 or perhaps 3 short tubes and these were then butt welded together to form a longer tube. You can see the join as a vertical line right at the end of the wood on the forestock while the spiral welds are diagonal lines. Some barrels are made by welding on another skelp and the spiral winding continued. When that is done you get a sort of smudge in the damascus pattern at the join.

cheers mooncoon

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