Civil war era muskets.....

[CMHouchins]

I’m gonna ask my dumb question so don’t you all laugh to hard. I saw where a fella here had a pre-civil war era musket for sale. Nice looking piece. He said the barrel had been reclined. Now my question is.... are these safe to shoot? I’ve had the reproductions but must admit I don’t know much about shooting the true civil war era firearms. Even being refined do you have to shoot reduced powder loads or??? Thanks, Craig

 

[ohio ramrod]

I assume you ment relined,not refined. It depends on how well it was relined. If it was properly relined it would be safe to shoot.

 

[hawkeye2]

The vast majority of CW era arms are of much better quality than the reproductions. I shoot both originals and repros but my match gun is an 1861 Springfield and my wife shoots a '63. If inspected and found to be sound they are perfectly safe to shoot and there is no need for reduced loads, that is unless you want to beat yourself to death. We shoot 40 grains of 2f in a rifle-musket where the service charge was 60 grains. Accurate and mild recoil. Our repros have had a lot of work including relined barrels to bring them up to an acceptable level. Some originals I shoot are a Maynard carbine, 61 & 63 Springfields & a Potsdam musket.

 

[CMHouchins]

I’ll be.... you might have just cost me some money!!! I didn’t know that was possible.

 

[dave951]

I’ll be.... you might have just cost me some money!!! I didn’t know that was possible.

Come hang out with Hawkeye and me at the North South Skirmish Association. You'll see more original Civil War arms in one place than you ever thought possible and many of them being fired live including artillery and mortars.

Like Hawkeye said, if the arm is basically sound, a simple reline of the bore might be all that's needed to make it ready for live fire.

 

[gemmer]

Flint 1816, 1841 Mississippi, 1842 Springfield(rifled), 1842Springfield(rifled, carbine length) 1863 Springfield. All relined except for the 1863. Relines by Bob Hoyt.

 

[CMHouchins]

Thank you for the invite and the info. I appreciate it!! Gemmed..... that 1842 you have for sale is what caused me to post this question. That’s a neat carbine Sir

 

[griffiga]

I shoot my original 42 all the time with ball, shot and buck and ball loads.

 

[PastorB]

My original 1861 Colt Special (mfg. 1862) is my go-to hunting rifle. I've shot thousands of Government standard 60 gr. loads thru it without a hitch. Occasionally I've even upped it to 75 gr., with a 510 gr. Minie. No problems at all, I'm certain it will outlast me. Like a previous post said, the originals might be of higher quality than Italian repros. I constantly am replacing springs or or some other part on them.

 

[CMHouchins]

That’s a real neat pic!!!!

 

[Calum]

'morning,

Agreed about the originals having higher quality springs. Any time that I'm able, I replace the repros with originals. Same with the bayonets - most repros will bend and stay bent if you just look at them funny. And the original bayonets are much lighter weight.

Mike

 

[hawkeye2]

Nice display Calum. I had forgotten about bayonets, bent more than one repro trying to push it in the ground at Ft. Shenandoah in July and August.

 

[Calum]

Thanks Hawkeye! A couple have actually moved on, while others have moved in. Just don't have a current photo...

The bottom one, is an original heavy barrel target rifle that folks here helped to identify. Two of the Sharps have original locks, as well as bayonets. And an original 1816 Springfield, converted to caplock, has moved in but isn't in the photo.

MIke