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Hi all,
About 4 years ago I started working on a project to make a reproduction of a Hewes and Phillips conversion of an M1840 flintlock-to-percussion musket.
At the start of the Civil War, there was a shortage of weapons on both sides. The Union went and emptied their arsenals and discovered they had thousands of then-obsolete flintlock muskets in their inventories. These included 1816, 1822, 1835, and 1840 smoothbore flintlock muskets. Some had already been converted to percussion using the "cone in barrel" method, where a bulge was upset in the top of the breech end of the barrel, which was then drilled and tapped to accept a percussion cone. These conversions were expedient but recognized as sub-optimal as there often was not much material to drill and tap for the cone.
So, a great rush was undertaken to convert these muskets to modern percussion arms. In addition to converting them to full bolster percussion arms, they were intended to be rifled.
The firm of Hewes and Phillips (H&P) converted some 12,000 of these muskets to percussion. This was done by chopping off the breech end of the barrel (be they flintlock or cone-in-barrel), threading it, and then making a new breech which threaded onto the original barrel. A rear sight was also installed, in preparation for them being rifled (US smoothbore muskets did not have rear sights, only a front bead).
But the need for the arms was so great they were sent out to the field without ever rifling them. This makes them an unusual rarity in US-produced smoothbore military arms in that they are smoothbore muskets with a rear sight.
In modern times, these muskets have become highly sought after in competitive shooting circles such as the North-South Skirmish Association, where sighted smoothbores give a decided advantage over unsighted ones, especially with our precision-tuned target loads.
However, there are no modern reproductions of this arm, so your only choice is to shoot an original.
I discovered that the M1840 was the last US arsenal-produced flintlock musket. Unfortunately, no one makes a reproduction M1840 musket, so it's not possible to just convert a modern M1840. However, as you might expect, it is virtually identical to the M1842 that followed just a couple of years later. Armisport/Chiappa makes an excellent reproduction of the M1842. And, since modern reproduction manufacturers already use a threaded-on breech as a manufacturing expediency, I thought it would be a fun project to recreate an H&P conversion using the Armisport/Chiappa M1842.
Here is a video I made that documents the process I undertook:
[video=youtube_share;t8uNtLMaRn0]
About 4 years ago I started working on a project to make a reproduction of a Hewes and Phillips conversion of an M1840 flintlock-to-percussion musket.
At the start of the Civil War, there was a shortage of weapons on both sides. The Union went and emptied their arsenals and discovered they had thousands of then-obsolete flintlock muskets in their inventories. These included 1816, 1822, 1835, and 1840 smoothbore flintlock muskets. Some had already been converted to percussion using the "cone in barrel" method, where a bulge was upset in the top of the breech end of the barrel, which was then drilled and tapped to accept a percussion cone. These conversions were expedient but recognized as sub-optimal as there often was not much material to drill and tap for the cone.
So, a great rush was undertaken to convert these muskets to modern percussion arms. In addition to converting them to full bolster percussion arms, they were intended to be rifled.
The firm of Hewes and Phillips (H&P) converted some 12,000 of these muskets to percussion. This was done by chopping off the breech end of the barrel (be they flintlock or cone-in-barrel), threading it, and then making a new breech which threaded onto the original barrel. A rear sight was also installed, in preparation for them being rifled (US smoothbore muskets did not have rear sights, only a front bead).
But the need for the arms was so great they were sent out to the field without ever rifling them. This makes them an unusual rarity in US-produced smoothbore military arms in that they are smoothbore muskets with a rear sight.
In modern times, these muskets have become highly sought after in competitive shooting circles such as the North-South Skirmish Association, where sighted smoothbores give a decided advantage over unsighted ones, especially with our precision-tuned target loads.
However, there are no modern reproductions of this arm, so your only choice is to shoot an original.
I discovered that the M1840 was the last US arsenal-produced flintlock musket. Unfortunately, no one makes a reproduction M1840 musket, so it's not possible to just convert a modern M1840. However, as you might expect, it is virtually identical to the M1842 that followed just a couple of years later. Armisport/Chiappa makes an excellent reproduction of the M1842. And, since modern reproduction manufacturers already use a threaded-on breech as a manufacturing expediency, I thought it would be a fun project to recreate an H&P conversion using the Armisport/Chiappa M1842.
Here is a video I made that documents the process I undertook:
[video=youtube_share;t8uNtLMaRn0]
