Search results

Been casting my own .715 round balls with a Lyman Ideal mold, using a Lyman ladle for over 50 years - it's the same mold that my Dad once owned. I find that the Lyman ladle holds more than enough lead to fill the mold well with enough lead left in the ladle to form a head of sufficient mass to...

Ike - I was not addressing your post in particular; I merely hit "reply" to contribute to this thread. Your post - which raises a good question - was merely the one directly before mine.

A few years ago, a Pedersoli musket blew up as well. Why isn't that brought up again and again? Two India- made muskets exploded. The one that was sent to White Labs was shown not to be defective but probably exploded due to fouling build-up in the bore, to the point of being...

Just to clarify; I did check the musket when it arrived to see if it was loaded and guess what - it was! Using a ball puller and an auger-style home rigged tool I removed buckshot (about 00 size) felt wadding and some somewhat degraded powder. I emailed the seller (GunBroker) to let them know...

Thanks to all for some fine suggestions. Here's what I've done; the breech well past the nipple is standing in an acetone/ATF mixture. It's in an olive jar - tall and narrow - so it was easy to seal the gap between the top of the jar and the barrel. I marked a line with a felt marker where the...

Jim - It's a right-turn bit to drill the hole that the left-turn easy-out gets inserted into. It just doesn't want to drill that nipple.

The problem with drilling it out is that the metal is so darned hard. I bought an easy-out and the corresponding drill bit; the bit is "black oxide" which the manufacturer claims to be better than high speed steel bits. It won't touch that nipple, just spins against it in my drill press.

Here's my problem - I bought a M1816 Harpers Ferry musket that has been converted to percussion using the Belgium/cone in barrel method. Try as I might, I cannot get that nipple out. I've been using mild heat and aerokroil applied two or three times a day for eleven days now and it won't budge...

Never Seize. Works great - not HC/PC but neither is Teflon. And who really cares? The only downside is that I cannot seem to apply it to even the smallest threaded machine screw without getting it everywhere. Insidious stuff.

Or if you're married. And wish to stay that way.

I'm sure that you don't mean "3/16ths"; you're pushing a quarter of an inch with a touch-hole that size.

If there are flintlocks in Heaven - and for Paul's sake (and many of the rest of us as well) I hope that there are - I'll bet that right now Paul and Saint-somebody-or-the-other are involved in a spirited lead versus leather debate. And that saint, whoever he is, has his work cut out for him.

That speaks volumes.I feel exactly the same way. Doesn't matter if I agreed with Paul or not; he was a gentleman and a passionate advocate of our hobby. R.I.P.

I have used leather, wedged firmly in the v-bend. It only causes a slight increase in spring tension. I've used it long-term. I don't worry about the spring breaking as the leather will compress somewhat but you would have to decide for yourself if you wish to try this method. Good luck with...

Another possibility - I remember, back in the day, being able to buy that product as a blank; without any cavity cut so a person could try their hand at making their own mould. These could be someone's less than stellar results when trying to make their own moulds from uncut blanks. At least...

If the trigger pull is really 20 pounds or so the very first thing that I'd check would be if the trigger or sear is binding due to poor inletting. Many of these guns were sold as kits and skill levels varied quite a bit among the folks assembling them. And I've seen binding (usually the...

I remember Fess Parker being featured on the cover of a Dixie Gun Works catalog years ago. In particular I can remember in the "cover story" inside that catalog he referred to a "prop rifle" touching off a "squib" of powder, and describing the beating that the prop gun took in the making of that...

That last 1/2 inch is probably going to have powder in it anyway.

Back then, Dixie had their own house brand of caps that they said were made in Italy - they were supposed to be hotter than the domestic ones. I bought a thousand of them. As I remember, they were corrosive, or at least seemed to be more so than the Remingtons of that time. And I do remember...

There are no proof standards or proof houses for U.S. made muzzleloaders. There are, however, hundreds of thousands of lawyers willing to jump on anything that appears suspect. Tends to keep pretty good standards for American smokepole builders. :haha: :rotf: