Ohio half stock rifle

[Crewdawg445]

Great info, it definitely is a smooth bore for sure. I honestly think home methods are going to clean her up nice! It's definitely one beautiful rifle, more pics to come!!! Really I want to avoid having the barrel re worked, so keeping my fingers crossed.

 

[Fernando Keilty]

hello

For only concern. I think the date, 1857, is achieved by punching above 6 5.

Affectionately. Fernando K

 

[Crewdawg445]

Indeed it clearly is an 1857, my concern was with posting this particular topic in this thread, if it wasn't indeed pre 1865 for some reason. Anywho, I'm heading to pick up some chore boy pads to scrub the bore. The kroil has been at work with great results already from just an overnight soak. I'll mic. the bore tonight to gauge it's caliber, looks allot like a .40 just from eyeballing. Got the stock and brass cleaned up nicely along with the pewter cap, ballistol has cleaned everything up great without harming the deep patina on the brass. Waxed everything with ren. wax, just need to hit the barrel now!

 

[Crewdawg445]

Well we had a birthday get together since my wife, and mom share the same birthday and I'm a day after... didn't get a chance to do more than pull the drum, and get a good glance of the interior of the bore. I have to say I'm very pleased, will require a good scrub but certainly one of the better bores I've seen even in comparison to a vast majority of mil-surp pipes I've came across. From my end, there isn't any substantial pitting or major rust issues, just allot of grime. Should be a fine shooter! can't wait to hear this beauty go bang!

 

[rickystl]

That's really good news about the bore condition. Every once in a while you get a lucky break. :thumbsup: That it's a smooth bore vs rifled probably helped with the outcome after cleaning. Again, great news! It's always super fun being able to shoot an original. Keep us updated. And...Happy Birthday!
Rick. :hatsoff:

 

[bpd303]

:hatsoff: That's great... very satisfying to give the old ones their voice back.

 

[Dphar]

Towards the end of this link on page 6 is a rifle built by J. Hefner, Marian, Ohio.
It is a pdf file so you will need to have Adobe installed to open it.
http://www.aolrc.org/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/vol-iv-no-1-feb-1982.pdf

The barrel looks to be an original but the stock is obviously newly made.

If the bore is even badly damaged the gun is worth far more than the price mentioned. Excellent find. :thumbsup:

My thoughts too.

Dan

 

[Crewdawg445]

All right gents, here's were I stand as of now. Before taking my wife out for the birthdays, had a few moments to start in on the bore. I've used copper chore boy pads before, yet this time they wouldn't cut through the buildup. Switched to squares of scotch brite pads cut approximately 1"×1". Kroil was used and after 30 passes (actually 30 ×2) per pad and 15 pads later, that's a whopping 900 passes with kroil and scotch brite. The majority of the caked on junk has been removed reveling a little shine and pitting, better than I expected! I'll give the barrel on more session with this method which should bring her back into shape, certainly being a smooth bore has been a tremendous help! here are some before and afters. Obviously bore shots are a little had to judge, but it really is looking great.

Here's a post shot, showing the nasty buildup before any attempt to clean it up.

The after, 900 passes with kroil and scotch brite, very effective.

Mass of used pads and patches... After this I waved the :surrender: for the day.

 

[hawkeye2]

A lot of work and a very big improvement. I'm not sure you can get it much better but it is quite shootable in its present condition provided everything else is OK. The pitting would cause it to foul fast. Since it is a smoothbore (I can't see where you mentioned the bore size) you could simply have it reamed to a larger standard bore size or you could have it reamed and rifled (my choice). Bobby Hoyt could do either job reasonably giving you an accurate shooter for a reasonable price.

 

[Crewdawg445]

Good day, I spent another hour or so lastnight having at it. Got 100% of the fouling removed, pitting is minimal but to be expected with its age. None the less, I'm sure it'll make a fantastic shooter. I'd like to keep the bore original, this is my first smoothbore so I'm excited to play around with loads. I left my mic. in my tool box at work, so I wasn't able to gauge the bore. From just judging it's caliber off hand, I'm almost positive it's a .40

 

[Crewdawg445]

On second thought, I did contact Mr. Hoyt and left a message regarding his services. Does he have an email address or another alternative contact method?

 

[rickystl]

Again, glad to see the barrel clean up as well as it did.
Unfortunately, Bobby does not have an email address (that I know of) or a Web-Site. He can be very difficult to reach. I've never had much luck getting return calls. I just keep calling early morning hours every 3-4 days. Only way I've ever been able to reach him. He is super busy, and his services are high in demand. In fact, he is the ONLY avenue available (that I know of) for different types of barrel liners.
That said, Bobby has re-done at least 7-8 original barrels for me. From simple burnishing, to re-bore, to new steel liners in both smooth bore and rifled. He does outstanding work at very reasonable cost. His schedule varies. I've had barrels back in 6 weeks, and others back in 6 months. :haha:
But just keep calling per above. You will eventually reach him. Real nice and knowledgeable guy. Rick. :hatsoff:

 

[Crewdawg445]

Well started working on the lock. The tumbler screw was completely stripped and the threads destroyed. So, this morning at work...
(on break of course!) Made an 8-32 bottom tap and re-threaded the tumbler hole. Ordered a new tumbler screw from TOW to have everything all put together.

 

[Crewdawg445]

Well, Mr. Hoyt contacted me today and we discussed options with this particular barrel. As a last resort, I'll definitely have him smooth things over and give me a new smoothbore in .45 caliber. I'm hoping she shoots well, certainly want to maintain the original bore. On another note, Mr. Hoyt would certainly get my business, he was a pleasure to talk with and VERY knowledgeable!