Peabody Centerfire Breach
- Thread starter mooncoon
- Start date
mooncoon:
That appears to be a breechblock from a Model 1870 Spanish Peabody, chambered (originally at least) in .43 Remington Spanish
See here:
http://www.militaryrifles.com/Peabody&M/Peab&Mart.htm
That appears to be a breechblock from a Model 1870 Spanish Peabody, chambered (originally at least) in .43 Remington Spanish
See here:
http://www.militaryrifles.com/Peabody&M/Peab&Mart.htm
This one appears to have come from India or a british territory in that it was chambered for the 450-577 round. There are no marks on the original barrel other than a serial number (73###) and no military acceptance marks on the receiver and none left (if ever present) on the stock. The rear sling attachment was on the butt and when found the forestock was shortened to carbine length and the barrel shortened to less than carbine. Overall it was in pretty bad shape and the gun was in with a turkish peabody martini, a couple of sniders and 3 matchlocks and all were in pretty rusty condition.
I posted a photo of the gun now, in a previous posting, and it is now a 44-60 peabody after a some repairs and rebarreling.
cheers mooncoon
I posted a photo of the gun now, in a previous posting, and it is now a 44-60 peabody after a some repairs and rebarreling.
cheers mooncoon
Thanks both of you for posting these pics...interesting. Me and another gent are doing a centre fire conversion using pics and info from GrantR, which was much appreciated.
Very interesting to see what the factory CF setup looks like.
BTW, Grant, could it be a good idea to put a small coil spring over the firing pin on the conversion? Or not necessary? What keeps the firing pin from protruding? I suppose when you close the action the cartridge would push it in since it's free floating?
Very interesting to see what the factory CF setup looks like.
BTW, Grant, could it be a good idea to put a small coil spring over the firing pin on the conversion? Or not necessary? What keeps the firing pin from protruding? I suppose when you close the action the cartridge would push it in since it's free floating?
Actually, the quality of the breech block and parts appears very high...having carefully inspected mine I find it amazing what quality stuff they could make 150 years or so ago.
It is indeed amazing that one can buy one of these original blocks and have it drop into apparently any Peabody receiver without any need for hand fitting! The Providence Tool Company certainly had the capability of producing interchangeable parts in quantity back then!
One of the conversion methods I saw (and may have forwarded to you) had a coil spring fitted over the firing pin, but I don't have one on mine, and it seems to work just fine with the fairly broad pin, with its quite rounded tip.
Both of the rimfire Peabody models, as well as the other centerfire versions, were designed without any sort of "retraction spring". The hammer should not be left down on the rear end of the striker when opening or closing the action, so the striker (or firing pin) will be free-floating .... and just gets cammed back as it passes across the rear of the cartridge. If the hammer is left down on the striker, the strength of the mainspring will keep it pushed forward - not a good thing!. However, it is unlikely that any retraction spring which would fit in the firing pin recess could possibly be strong enough to overcome the force of the mainspring, anyway ....
One of the conversion methods I saw (and may have forwarded to you) had a coil spring fitted over the firing pin, but I don't have one on mine, and it seems to work just fine with the fairly broad pin, with its quite rounded tip.
Both of the rimfire Peabody models, as well as the other centerfire versions, were designed without any sort of "retraction spring". The hammer should not be left down on the rear end of the striker when opening or closing the action, so the striker (or firing pin) will be free-floating .... and just gets cammed back as it passes across the rear of the cartridge. If the hammer is left down on the striker, the strength of the mainspring will keep it pushed forward - not a good thing!. However, it is unlikely that any retraction spring which would fit in the firing pin recess could possibly be strong enough to overcome the force of the mainspring, anyway ....
- Location
- Tucson, Arizona
You can always buy a new peabody.
ww.peabodyrifles.com
ww.peabodyrifles.com
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Amazingly it looks exactly like the same rifle.
I really like my Peabody, so much so that I'm in the process of buying another one as we speak!
