When is a gun too old to shoot?

smellie said:
There is an article on the Bonham's auction site from England regarding an upcoming sale. Seems the deceased owner actully fired, on a regular basis, his pair of Felix Werder, Inventor, brass-barreled pistols. Felix Werder made brass barrels which were almost as thin as a matchbook cover, yet would take the same Proofing as an iron-barreled pistol. His secret was lost for nearly 300 years and has only recently been rediscovered.

So it seems that if the critter is in decent shape, there really isn't much of an issue, just so long as due caution is exercised. In the case of the Werders, that would, to me, include avoiding the use of powders designed after about 1750, which is about the time the modern composition was developed.

I do know that my Sniders don't complain, but they ARE pretty modern (1867 and 1871). I have an iron-barreled Enfield which will be back on the range this coming Summer. It was built in 1857. I would like to try out an original Brunswick but they are a bit high for my budget.
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These pistols?

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Likely those will be the actual ones.

There are only about 30 Werder specimens still in existence and most of them are singles and a few Carbines. I believe there are only three sets of pistols extant.

AFAIK, nobody else at the cusp of the wheellock/flintlock period was making brass barrels and certainly not as light as those. Werder was a genius!

I would buy them myself, but I think they will prove 40 or 50k over my budget for this week. Come to think of it, 40 or 50k could be a drop in the bucket for a pair as magnificent as these. Where did you get the picture? I was on Bonham's site just a couple of nights ago and they didn't have the photos up yet.

I wonder....... sometimes, just once in a while...... is it okay to covet....... just a bit?
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agentcq said:
Most WWII or WWI items should be good to go with the proper ammo and inspection.
Some shooters like myself don't like to shoot all matching rifles as you might break a small matching part. I know this sounds extreme, but this did happen to me once.

I have an engineer friend who doesn't like the idea of shooting mid 1800's firearms or older. Metal can actually crystalize over time and become like glass. If shooting an older firearm from the 1800's use proper or light loads, use BP and have a gunsmith check it.

I know tons of guys shoot Martini's and Sniders and I even shot my IMA Nepalease Enfield multiple times, but I probably wouldn't shoot an older rifle/gun unless you have the metalry knowledge to prove my engineer friend wrong (he is also an avid BP shooter and only shoots his reproduction rifles for this very reason).
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all my rifles got NDT and i never find any dangerous crack on the old one and i don't believe the steel can be re-crystallize except by some heat treatment, it could develop some inter-granular corrosion over time or if the metal got expose to some chemical.... can you ask your friend to give you some reference on that ?
 
Yah when you break stuff on the older ones it's certainly harder to fix.
I've got a .32 rimfire with a broken mainspring.
 
Bazzoka_Joe said:
all my rifles got NDT and i never find any dangerous crack on the old one and i don't believe the steel can be re-crystallize except by some heat treatment, it could develop some inter-granular corrosion over time or if the metal got expose to some chemical.... can you ask your friend to give you some reference on that ?
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Or perhaps some science.....just because he's an engineer doesn't mean he's correct. Yes even engineer's are incorrect at times, they're people too;)
 
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