I don't know if this will be of interest to anybody or not, but here goes...
My brother contacted me about a friend of his who had an 1863 muzzleloading rifle with a charge in it that didn't "go off." The fellow needed help clearing his gun. With some trepidation, I accepted the challenge.
Right from the get-go, I want to say the shooter is a good man. Please, no disparaging remarks. He was new to muzzleloading and got some bad information about how to proceed. Let's focus on the issues, and not the man.
He apparently loaded two 50 grain Pyrodex pellets under a projectile variously described as a Minie bullet, a patched round ball, a patched Minie bullet, or a Minie with a patch under it. It failed to fire, so he removed the nipple and "threw it in the truck," and carried it around for an undisclosed amount of time, looking for someone to help.
The rifle turned out to be a M1863 Remington Zouave reproduction. The side of the barrel was stamped
ARMI JAGER ITALY, and it had a provisional proofmark from Gardone, the generic Italian "PN" proofmark, a serial number, and
XX9 stamped on the off side of the breech
. I did not find the expected date code, which is usually a little box with either Roman numerals or a combination of alphabet letters. I'm assuming the XX9 is the date code. If this is the same as XXIX, that would indicate 1973 as the date of manufacture.
I'm all about safety. I considered this a loaded gun. I thought I might unbreech it, but the plug wouldn't budge. This rifle, incidentally, had a bolster on the barrel and a simple, old fashioned breechplug, not the patent breech you might expect. I considered options, and finally elected to just use a ball puller. The bullet was out in about one minute...
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... and before another minute elapsed, the two Pyrodex pellets were out...
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This was my first experience with Pyrodex pellets. I'm sure they have a place in the blackpowder world, but it's not a place I visit. Anyway, I then committed the most egregious of sins... I blew through the barrel. It was clear.
This was actually a very nice rifle. The brass castings were robust, metal and wood were nicely finished, and wood to metal fit was excellent. Considering its age, and excepting the bore, it was in pretty good shape. I decided to clean the rifle properly. A preliminary hot water flush produced an effluent I won't describe. When the water started coming out a little less filthy, I pushed in a jag and patch. At this point, let me say that there is a species of devil that takes up residence in neglected muzzleloader barrels. I call it the Patch Demon. Push in a patch and he will grab it, and he won't let go. This particular Patch Demon severely taxed my considerable fund of profanities, but I eventually won the battle. All I can say is the barrel is not clean, but it is cleaner than it was, and with a coat of LSA in there, I hope it won't get any worse. In any event, I found the rifling is still strong:
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I advised the owner on some ways to clean it a little better, and it should be shootable.
However, I found both of the nipples that came with the rifle (both 8-1mm but one sized for musket caps and one for #11) had been bored out to about .080", which is what reenactors use for blanks, but I consider them unsafe for live fire. I advised the fellow to get a new nipple, with a proper flash hole in the .026" - .030" range if he wants to shoot bullets. I hope he follows through.
In any event, I was very favorably impressed by the quality of this rifle. I had not heard of Armi Jager, but apparently they produced a lot of guns in years past. I had never really paid much attention to Zouave rifles, either, but since I had one in my hands, it reminded me of the earlier M1841 Mississippi rifle and I thought it might be fun to compare this nice-quality M1863 Zouave with an original M1841 Mississippi that lives at my house. I did a little amateur photo shoot in my back yard. In all of these pictures, the Zouave is above, and the Mississippi is below.
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You can see the similarities in size and overall appearance, but I had not realized there were so many differences. The patchboxes are obviously different sizes, but side-by-side, I discovered the buttplates are different. The 1841 plate is flat, and the '63 is curved. This results in a slight difference in the length of pull, which is 13-3/4" for the 1841 and 13-1/2" for the Zouave. Both have a drop at the heel of 2-3/4".
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The locks and breeches are very similar, but you can see the folding leaf sight on the Zouave, and a simple "Kentucky" sight on the Mississippi:
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The Zouave has washers for the side nails, while the Mississippi has a sideplate:
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The forward barrel bands are also different, and the Zouave has a bayonet lug on the side of the barrel which the Mississippi lacks:
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I also weighed them. The Zouave was 9 pounds, 1 ounce, while the Mississippi was four ounces heavier. I would attribute this to the smaller caliber (.54 versus .58), but also the larger patchbox lid (which is quite thick on both rifles) and the larger forward barrel band on the Mississippi. Both have approximately 33" barrels.
I did what I felt I could in the time that I had. The subject rifle is now on its way home. I spoke with the owner on the phone, and we had a good conversation. He said he bought it a few months ago in a local gun store as a consignment sale, and he paid $325 for it. I would say he got a pretty good deal. I hope he enjoys his rifle, shoots it safely, and cleans it properly.
If you are still with me, thanks for reading. I get a lot of enjoyment puttering around with old guns, and thought I might share some of the joy.
Best regards,
Notchy Bob
