Antique Rifle restore our parts?

[mark fish]

Would you repair or part out this rifle?

The barrel is stamped "Jones rifle works" and "Landas 21" on the top flat and .38 on the bottom.

The bore is dark but the rifling seems strong.

The powder drum was blown in half it failed at it's weakest point.My guess after a century of regular use. The barrel shows no visible sign of abuse or failure.

Evidence that this rifle was used often. No easy to see here but the bridle is very worn at pivot point. Also not seen here the face of the lock plate is deeply cratered around the drum area.

 

[john12865]

It all depends. What is the gun you have? Would it be more of value to sell to someone trying to restore a gun like it. I don't like to see old guns cut up and torn apart if they can be restored. When you talk about restoration,do you mean as a wall hanger or as a firing weapon? Too many times people pick up an old gun and destroy it's historical value by cutting it up and parting it out.

 

[Zonie]

Although I really like the idea of restocking the parts from an old gun, I would have to give serious consideration to the idea of making a shootable gun from that barrel.

The location of the drum threads relative to the rear end of the barrel tells me that either the breech plug is drilled for a "patent chamber" or the thread length of the breech plug is about 3/8 inch at most.

Although many of the old guns had very short breech plug threads with age and the rust that comes from it they may not now be safe to fire.

If the breech plug threads extend forward of the drum location it probably would be safe but before putting a lot of work into making a "shooter" out of it I would want to proof test the barrel.

 

[horsesoldier03]

I guess it could be a diamond in the rough, but it looks like junk to me. You would have to replace alot of parts and chances are once you fired it a few times, other parts would start to fail. I would scrap it and build one from scratch.

 

[mark fish]

Thanks for your input guys.
I have decided to give this gun a second chance. It's appears to have taken care of more than a few generations of shooters. It seems only right I return the favor.

I will take zonie's advice and proof test the barrel assembly.
The breech plug is a half inch long an extendeds to the front of the powder drum with a groove for powder cut on one side.
Many challenges lie ahead.
I will post my progress.