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m/1851 Swedish navy

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Racing

32 Cal
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Thought you guys might get a kick out of this one.

It is a 16mm (.63") cal chamber loader developed for the Swedish navy to be able to shoot far across open water.
Underhammer as you can see.

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Rather cumbersome piece,and lightweight they are not. But that said rather tight shooting though.

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In essence you can pick if to load it this way or as a conventional front stuffer. No doubt it was developed to take paper cartridges,or more to the point SOME were. Mine was not,and indeed the chamber is all in at a few hundreds of millimeters above them 16mm flat.
What we´ve concluded amongst us,those of us owning these pieces,is that the specs for them can vary a bit.

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My particular one was made in 1854 as you can see.
Seeing the circumferance of the "breech" it leaves rather little wood around the actual chamber part of the rifle why it´s very very common for these rifles to develop cracks in the stock right there.
This one´s still intact though.

Them small brass nails in turn? Well,they´re to hold a "click leather". You simply install a piece of stout leather between one such nail each side of the stock and are thus able to dry fire practice all you want without the hammer being able to hit the nipple.
It takes regular musket nipples by the way.

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Indeed grooves and rather pronounced such. Barrel on mine looks about like new and shoots accordingly.

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Original bullets for them are kind of a "spitzer" deal. But as with any muzzle loader,take your pick. Finding molds for the 16mm flat dimension though isn´t exactly Walmart and indeed many of the molds we make ourselves.
Bullet weights used range from approx 550 grains to a whopping 900.
Yes. This is a friggin hand cannon. Make no mistake.

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Why that is? Well,the chamber is of ample proportions. To the note where it,depending of bullet choice,will muster an EASY 140 grains and even 150 with certain types. A handful at those levels?
Indeed.
Service charge though is along the lines of 85 grains.

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Trigger group is rather simple,but oh...it cleans up REAL nice for a downright glass trigger break. Materials involved are hardened.

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Here the "lock" parts for the chamber lever. Simple and to the point. Lever in turn holds a small knob that you basically just cant as you lift to release it.

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To make the chamber seal even better i´ve opted to cut to fit a copper washer. Brings that the rifle soots about nil as the chamber truly is sealed now as you bring it down in position.

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Mine i´ve equipped with an old peep setup. A diopter,Swiss of manufacture actually.
 
Indeed.
Fact is at the time there were plenty of guns that ran "both ways". Ie;could be breech/chamber AND muzzle loaded both.
The Westley Richards Monkey tail for instance comes to mind... et al.. Funny tidbit in all of this is that THIS particular rifle could,and it is from that point of view completely unaltered. Ie;this rifle was intended to be run both ways.
Many of them were not,they were cartridge guns that were chamber loaded ONLY. These sport chambers of approx 3-4/10mm wider diameter then this one. Peculiar setup to say the least and one i´ve never had explained to me. Calipers don´t lie though..

The basic idea stems from the 1840´s. Sweden and Norway both adopted them,first ones were made in Belgium, the Norweigans across the entire field. Thus the Norweigan ones are to be found in a downright plethora of versions,i´ve HEARD that they the last leg could even be had with Whitworth rifling.
Swedish ones though were the m/1851 only.

To me it´s more about period than being "true" ML´s. The era between 1830 to 1890..progress and evolution with a speed unpresented since..and by 1900 it was "all" over and done with.

That period around the 40-60 though,it´s just mind blowing. What was state of the art one month was old news the next.
 
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