Military heritage brown bess

[acavdragoon]

Well she's a big girl! The bess is next to my cz bobwhite(45" oal) for reference.
.744 bore do yall think a patched .735 ball will be too tight or do I just need to get some to try?

On mine I just use 100 gr of 2F, 69 caliber round ball on top of the powder and a wad of shipping paper on top of the ball. Then fire away.

 

[tenngun]

Well she's a big girl! The bess is next to my cz bobwhite(45" oal) for reference.
.744 bore do yall think a patched .735 ball will be too tight or do I just need to get some to try?

Yes .735 will be too tight. You can shoot that bare with a wad on top. But if it’s slightly humid you will find a .735 to get tight real quick.
If you try military cartridge it won’t fit with the paper around it.
For bare ball if your in a dry area or wipe often it will shoot very well.
A .715 will be a little handier to load. And will work with a patch.
After some years of playing with smoothies I’m tending to think PRB in a smoothbore isn’t much more accurate, but still hunt with PRB
A .690 will work with military cartridge and easily give you accuracy enough to a hunt or most woods walk type competition

 

[Leadball loader]

I am going to have to do this on a bess and a sea service both seem off by about a 1/4 inch by my measurement. they are solid plugs instead of with a hollow base like this. did you have any issues with this? also how did you make the notch just a rat tail file?

On my long guns that had the solid plug I drilled the vent where it needed to go slightly deeper marking the plug where it needed to be ground. I used my Dremel with a grinding bit on the plug after I got it out of the barrel.

 

[sportster73hp]

How do you kill the super polish job? Some say just use it. Scotch brite pad ?

 

[Clark Badgett]

How do you kill the super polish job? Some say just use it. Scotch brite pad ?

Green or finer scotchbrite bad will do the trick.

 

[tenngun]

How do you kill the super polish job? Some say just use it. Scotch brite pad ?

I got a good result from birch wood Casey cold blue, followed by elbow grease and naval jelly and 4 -O steel wool or great pad
Yellow mustard also works, but both take a lot of buffing afterwards to get the state you want

 

[ArmorerRoy]

600 grit wet/dry sandpaper is what I used on my Access Heritage. It made the metal look really old as well.

 

[¡Señor.Casualidad!]

Well I'm happy! Got the lock pulled apart and filed and sanded every piece smooth(mildly) filed down the sides of the sear spring(a few thou) and got the trigger pull to be much lighter. Drilled the touchhole with a 5/64 bit then stepped into it with a 1/8. Ive only fired a few blanks but I'll try to go shooting next weekend!

 

[wganz]

Yes .735 will be too tight. You can shoot that bare with a wad on top. But if it’s slightly humid you will find a .735 to get tight real quick.
If you try military cartridge it won’t fit with the paper around it.
For bare ball if your in a dry area or wipe often it will shoot very well.
A .715 will be a little handier to load. And will work with a patch.
After some years of playing with smoothies I’m tending to think PRB in a smoothbore isn’t much more accurate, but still hunt with PRB
A .690 will work with military cartridge and easily give you accuracy enough to a hunt or most woods walk type competition

An N-SSA trick is to use a wood rasp or grater to roughen the ball’s surface to give it some small divets similar to a golf ball to increase accuracy. One of the members of another team made a gizmo that you put a number of balls in it, close the lid, and give the crank a few turns to speed the process.

 

[¡Señor.Casualidad!]

Night-time blank! 70grn of 1f with a 10 gauge overshot card

 

[bigdude100]

Night-time blank! 70grn of 1f with a 10 gauge overshot card

I would say the sparks and ignites!!!

 

[¡Señor.Casualidad!]

Finally got the boys together for a shoot!!!
The bess was an absolute blast!!!!
It had no problem igniting for the 30+ times we shot it. Found that while a .690 may not have as much potential accuracy as a .715 or .735 the ease of loading and shootability was awesome! I could have loaded and shot 40 of my .690 paper cartridges without swabbing the barrel. Only issue we had was it shoots very low. At least 1.5 feet at 30 yards. I believe the inletting has a lot to do with that. You'll see in the pictures
That with just the barrel pins in, the tang floats above the stock. And with just the tang screwed in, the barrel sits above the forearm. And yes the stock is straight. I assume having a high spot like that in the middle of the barrel channel inletting can "pull" the muzzle down shifting the poi.
I will work on the channel inletting and take her out for round two!

 

[jrweis1997]

Finally got the boys together for a shoot!!!
The bess was an absolute blast!!!!
It had no problem igniting for the 30+ times we shot it. Found that while a .690 may not have as much potential accuracy as a .715 or .735 the ease of loading and shootability was awesome! I could have loaded and shot 40 of my .690 paper cartridges without swabbing the barrel. Only issue we had was it shoots very low. At least 1.5 feet at 30 yards. I believe the inletting has a lot to do with that. You'll see in the pictures
That with just the barrel pins in, the tang floats above the stock. And with just the tang screwed in, the barrel sits above the forearm. And yes the stock is straight. I assume having a high spot like that in the middle of the barrel channel inletting can "pull" the muzzle down shifting the poi.
I will work on the channel inletting and take her out for round two!

I got one of these ive been dragging ass finishing cause i gotta pull the breech plug but damn I want to now!

 

[¡Señor.Casualidad!]

I got one of these ive been dragging ass finishing cause i gotta pull the breech plug but damn I want to now!

Click on the pic

 

[FlinterNick]

How do you kill the super polish job? Some say just use it. Scotch brite pad ?

You have to work backwards.

If you start at say 180 and move up to 600 on a lock that is already polished, youi’ll end up removing too much steel., this could cause some parts to be come uninentionally worn or uneven from their original geometry.

Indian guns are polished upward near 2 micron, i would start with 1,000 grit then work back to 320 lubricating with mineral oil. I would use stones too not paper.

Be mindful of file marks, sometimes they polish over file marks, you’ll have to get rid of those or they’ll show up in a matte’ finish.

 

[Rat]

As far as shooting low, you may want to up your charge. Remember that the standard load for the Bess was from 140 to 160+ grains. Mine is much more accurate with heavy charges. 1fg works best in my Bess, but 1fg likes a heavy charge. For the very light charges/under 100 grains, then 3fg or 2fg probably works well. But old Bessie really "wakes up" with heavy charges of 1fg. Again, that's where I get best accuracy.

I think the .690" ball works best. Just use heavier patching. Denim makes a good patch for the .690", (in my barrel) and if I "chew" the ball a .023" patch works well. It also fits paper cartridges better, if you don't like grocery bag paper, and want lighter just use sammich bag paper.

Hope that helps.

 

[Rat]

Well she's a big girl! The bess is next to my cz bobwhite(45" oal) for reference.
.744 bore do yall think a patched .735 ball will be too tight or do I just need to get some to try?

.690"

 

[¡Señor.Casualidad!]

As far as shooting low, you may want to up your charge. Remember that the standard load for the Bess was from 140 to 160+ grains. Mine is much more accurate with heavy charges. 1fg works best in my Bess, but 1fg likes a heavy charge. For the very light charges/under 100 grains, then 3fg or 2fg probably works well. But old Bessie really "wakes up" with heavy charges of 1fg. Again, that's where I get best accuracy.

I think the .690" ball works best. Just use heavier patching. Denim makes a good patch for the .690", (in my barrel) and if I "chew" the ball a .023" patch works well. It also fits paper cartridges better, if you don't like grocery bag paper, and want lighter just use sammich bag paper.

Hope that helps.

I appreciate the advice! I'll try some 150+ grain loads the next time I shoot it

 

[¡Señor.Casualidad!]

.690"

Yup I've already bought a .690 mold!

 

[Rat]

Besses are now contagious!!

ETA: Personally, got this one on the want/lust list:

Brown Bess Flintlock Carbine (Black Powder Muzzleloader)

View attachment 285950

Though I'd do the 11BangBang's strip & refinish routine on the stock to lighten the color. Wood dependent, may slim down the forearm. Was thinking about pulling the barrel off & browning it; not unlike some of the pix I've seen of the Harper's Ferry Muskets. Yeah, Besses are contagious.

Wow that's a shorty. I like it. My "Ranger Carbine" has a 30 or 31" barrel which I think is a good length, but I've always also wanted a really short one. Mine is a bit muzzle light with the 31", would be nice to handle the
26" first before buying. ?