• Friends, our 2nd Amendment rights are always under attack and the NRA has been a constant for decades in helping fight that fight.

    We have partnered with the NRA to offer you a discount on membership and Muzzleloading Forum gets a small percentage too of each membership, so you are supporting both the NRA and us.

    Use this link to sign up please; https://membership.nra.org/recruiters/join/XR045103

Search results

L & R
shop deals on amazon
Muzzleloading Forum

Help Support Muzzleloading Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
  1. dave_person

    Ever see one of these?

    Hi, The idea goes back to at least the 17th maybe even 16th centuries. It worked as long as you loaded correctly. Many gunsmiths in both Europe and America played with the concept. dave
  2. dave_person

    Building a British Pattern 1800 Rifle (Baker)

    Hi Guys, Great post , Terry! I love Rudyard's posts and I've learned to decipher most of them. He has this rich British vernacular style that makes me feel like I've been in a bubble all my life and really know nothing much about other people. Rudyard, I am drinking a dram of Laphroig and...
  3. dave_person

    Brown Bess pistol

    Hi, First none were made in 0.75 caliber. So which pattern pistol? Pattern 1730 land service, pattern 1738 land service, pattern 1756 light dragoon, pattern 1759 Elliot's light dragoon, pattern 1760 Royal Forester's light dragoon? For sea service there is the pattern 1718, pattern 1756, and...
  4. dave_person

    Building a British Pattern 1800 Rifle (Baker)

    Hi, This will be my last post for a while. I have to get my demos and seminars ready for the Kempton Gun Maker's Fair next weekend. I fully mounted the patch box and its retaining spring. It came out well and is strong and works very well. The spring is very simple to install. There is no...
  5. dave_person

    Boiled Linseed Oil Finish?

    Hi, Probably every new builder on this sight has posted the same question. There are many finishes that work well. BLO sold today in hardware stores is linseed oil mixed with solvents to speed drying. It is not the same as what was traditionally called "boiled linseed oil", which was actually...
  6. dave_person

    Building a British Pattern 1800 Rifle (Baker)

    Hi, Nice guns! Thanks for sharing them. If you are trying to get nice colors from case hardening, your lower temps are the way to go. I find best colors between 1375 and 1500 degrees. I am not trying to produce colors rather to carburize the parts and I go much hotter because that increases...
  7. dave_person

    Rebuilding an old Indian made 1756 Brown Bess Musket

    Hi, The rammer channel and hole on a real Brown Bess are about parallel with the bore, which is why some holes break into the barrel channel right at the breech. A real Bess barrel flares a lot at the breech so the distance between the barrel and ramrod is very small at the breech. However...
  8. dave_person

    Building a British Pattern 1800 Rifle (Baker)

    Hi, So now on to the trigger guard. This is nothing like installing a guard on a typical long rifle. This involves a lot more planning and fiddly work. You have 3 points of contact and 2 must intersect exactly with the fitting of other parts. The first step is that the predrilled hole in the...
  9. dave_person

    Building a British Pattern 1800 Rifle (Baker)

    Hi guys and thank you for watching, This post will be big and contain a lot of tricks for solving problems. I hope you pay it some attention. I installed the butt plate and it looked like the process would be easy. I just had to cut the slot for the tang lug and inlet the pointy end of the...
  10. dave_person

    Estate Assistance with origin of Rev War Musket

    Hi, I am reasonably certain it is a Dutch or Belgian made musket. Don't be fooled by the barrel marked "Suhl". Those barrels were traded all over Europe and were frequently used on guns made in Holland and Liege. The stock looks Dutch and so does the lock and butt plate with massive screws...
  11. dave_person

    Building a British Pattern 1800 Rifle (Baker)

    Hi Bob, Part of the success so far of this project is the stock is good English walnut not some dodgy piece of soft, splintery, black walnut. It cuts and shapes very nicely leaving smooth surfaces behind. My favorite stock wood. dave
  12. dave_person

    Building a British Pattern 1800 Rifle (Baker)

    Hi, The side plate and side nails are in. The plate took about 5 minutes to inlet once cleaned up. With the side plate position predetermined by the rough machine inletting, the locations of the side nails are kind of fixed. That means they are as well on the lock. Fortunately, everything...
  13. dave_person

    Building a British Pattern 1800 Rifle (Baker)

    Hi, Thanks for looking and commenting folks. I got a lot done today and it was delightful. This gun is going together so easily and well, and Jane and Jesse Mellot deserve great praise for it. My first task today was to finalize the lock. I case hardened the parts yesterday but the battery...
  14. dave_person

    Building a British Pattern 1800 Rifle (Baker)

    Hi Terry, Wow that gun is a special case! I really like the cheek piece on that one compared with the standard. Along with the way Rudyard's Baker is shaped around the lock and sideplate, I have to call the owner and find out what he wants. I always drift toward refinement and better design...
  15. dave_person

    Building a British Pattern 1800 Rifle (Baker)

    Hi Rudyard, Great photos. Very helpful. I noticed on your Baker that the tail of the lock and side plate panels are nicely shaped and given a little flair. Most Bakers I've seen just come to a point with no tail. Is yours unusual Rudyard? I would prefer to shape the tails as done on your...
  16. dave_person

    Building a British Pattern 1800 Rifle (Baker)

    Hi, More work done. I case hardened the lock parts except for the lock plate. I still have to drill it for the side nails. I packed the parts in a mix of wood and bone charcoal and heat soaked the pack at 1575 degrees for 3 hours. Then quenched the pack in water. The battery (steel, hammer)...
  17. dave_person

    Building a British Pattern 1800 Rifle (Baker)

    Hi TFoley, Thank you and yes there are some details I would like to see if any photos exist. One issue is the bayonet bar. Bailey states in his book on British military rifles that the lugs were dovetailed and then brazed. That would be like the front sight on Brown Besses. However, in all...
  18. dave_person

    Original brown bess breach plug

    Hi, They thread into the breech end of the bore and tighten down on the end of the barrel and the shoulder at the end of the internal threads. Use the search function to find many threads about building Brown Besses on this forum. dave
  19. dave_person

    Width of fore stock on Bess and similar muskets?

    Hi, Based on measurements of a dozen or so original short land and long land King's pattern muskets the average width across the forestock is 1.45" and never more than 1.5". The width of the swell averages 1.67" for pattern 1756s and later. It is a little bigger for the earlier patterns...
  20. dave_person

    Were guns browned in the time period?

    Hi Rust browning barrels began to be popular in Britain during the 1770s. Here is a painting of an English gentleman with his sporting gun from 1784: Clearly, the barrel is browned. However, rust browning was not common or popular in the US until the 19th century. Before then, barrels and...
Back
Top