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The forged in breech reminds me of Bevis’ matchlock from the old book Bevis, the Story of a Boy. For the few who know it. Amazingly it can still be bought new through Amazon. Richard, I responded to your query on the other forum. Thank you for letting me fire your Torador when we were visiting.

I used lead birdshot left in strong vinegar (ie acetic acid) over the summer, topping up the vinegar from time to time and shaking the mix. Afterwards I let the vinegar dry out, gave the shot a good shake and strained out the shot into a bowl of water. Then let the water dry out and collected...

Have you seen the corrupt clowns around here at the moment? It would even reduce me to voting Labour had they the courage to reverse Brexit. But I stray into forum naughty areas and will well enough alone. Personally I blame the French. It was all going so well until they conquered England.

A doctorate thesis on 17th century muskets using experimental archeology demonstrated that soft lead round balls do obturate. For the same reason that solid lead conical in muzzle loaders obturate, in that the softness of the lead causes the rear portion to start moving under the pressure whilst...

Quite so. The recoil force, as a whole, is taken up by assorted bits of stock. But in the case of the tang my point was merely that the tang itself does not but the tang nail plays a significant role. If one looks at 15th century Western European guns and at middle eastern guns there is no tang...

The tang locates the barrel in the stock but should not bear any of the recoil load. Hence a small gap is often purposefully left. The force of the recoil is taken by the tang nail. One reason for it to screw into the hand guard. This is a good reason not to bubba a wood screw in to replace a...

For French army early percussion rifles for the common infantry there was no rear sight for extended ranges unlike those for marksmen. The instructions for longer ranges were for the thumb to be placed over the barrel with the dip at the base of thumb for intermediate ranges and the joint placed...

-40 degrees. Brrrr. Still just into double positive figures here by the sea in Blighty Richard, Come back, all is forgiven!

The cogniscenti will doubtless feel free to correct my error, but my understanding was that flat sheet butt plates of the period were nailed on?

A few years ago I did some assorted trials of match cord using my integrated pan match lock, less gun. To see how fast and easily it set off the powder in the pan and how long the cord lasted. Hemp proved to be the best material. The key treatment was the alkaline wash of ‘bucking’ to remove the...

It would be wonderful if this book were translated. I do realise that reading the old Ottoman script is not a common skill these days. edit: apparently the idea is so good that it was worth repeating three times. Ah, the mysteries of these new fangled elastic trickery machines. I have spoken...

This is of no help to you I am afraid but I got some of mine from around Meusnes, where French blonde flints are made, off the vineyards which used flint refuse as a mulch. Millions of them scattered over the fields. Not shaped of course but a careful search turns up ones which are similar to...

Originally a French service breech loading rifle for the National Guard, the Modele 1867 Tabatiere rifle used in the 1870 War. Almost certainly this one was purchased post war as surplus by a Belgian firm and converted to a 12 bore shotgun and sold by the thousands to the cheapest end of the US...

Royal Navy Sea Service muskets were painted black including the barrels etc. as a protection from sea air. Later Royal Marine muskets went over to a bright finish as a mark of pride and because the boot necks had the time to maintain them thus. The long arms of the sailors (for boarding and land...

Or a pointed heavy solid conical winged bullet in the Russian Belgian made Brunswick copies. They even made adjustable rear sights to exploit the much longer range accuracy of their round over the original belted ball. Made much use of by their Finnish sharpshooter regiments.

and during the Carlist Wars in Spain, not to mention the Honourable East India Company armies.

I have decided to leave it unaltered. Whilst I have no idea of the quality of the drum conversion nor the unique nipple size, it is all part of it’s history during it’s long unknown life in Spain where it was found. The barrel is a strong enough twist one and the lock is a genuine Nock one.

My real Baker a few years ago was 800 USD at current exchange rates. Pretty ratty in the bore and percussioned in Spain in the 19th century but a genuine, if volunteer, one. Bargains are still out there for the observant. The users must have been skinny little chaps to get down to the sights...

The service ammunition was always for a 0.620” bore.

My father was taught that ‘a rook in a crowd is a crow and a crow by itself is a rook’. Rook fledging squabs were an agricultural labourer’s treat if he could climb high enough. Soak the breasts in milk overnight to improve the flavour.