Saving a D/B Smoothbore

[Feltwad]

Quite often a gun comes along in a poor state it may have come for a barn or from a attic where the weather elements have taken there toll.
Most of these gun that are in a poor state end broken up for spares, to me every effort must be taken to bring them back to their original.
It may be a lot of work and expense but it will be worth it
Enclosed are some images of one of many guns that I have worked on to show that it can be done. On the finish job this gun was submitted to the Birmingham proof House and passed so instead of it been for spares it is now a shooting gun with a new life.
Feltwad


Relaying the ribs




The finished job

 

[hanshi]

WOW! I don't know how you did it; but considering its original condition, you did a truly amazing job.

 

[Feltwad]

WOW! I don't know how you did it; but considering its original condition, you did a truly amazing job.

Thanks Hanshi it seems there are only a few interested in this type thread and also the different patents that I have entered .It is a pity because muzzle loaders covers many different types of ignition and gun patents .
Feltwad

 

[dave_person]

Hi Feltwad,
That is a beauty and nicely done. How did you salvage or replace the breeches? Are those barrels twist or damascus and did you just clean them up or did you brown them? My pheasant gun is almost a duplicate of that gun.

dave

 

[tenngun]

Great job, I do think restoration of old anything is great.

 

[Eric Krewson]

Great job! I would be really interested in a restore along with pictures to see how you worked your magic.

 

[Feltwad]

Hi Feltwad,
That is a beauty and nicely done. How did you salvage or replace the breeches? Are those barrels twist or damascus and did you just clean them up or did you brown them? My pheasant gun is almost a duplicate of that gun.

dave

The breeches I removed from the tubes if I have to relay the ribs I always remove the breech plugs. These were only cleaned along with the standing breech. The barrels are Damascus twist these I cleaned using a wet and dry and finish with steel wool . All Damascus barrels if they have to be cleaned I brown using my own cold brown formula. on old iron barrels I use the same to bring out the mottle of the iron
Feltwad .

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[Feltwad]

Enclosed is a image of a Flintlock sporting gun with a iron barrel notice the mottle figure in the iron
Feltwad

 

[ZUG]

The only thing left to do now is to clean up that rusty old nail holding that beautiful gun on the fence :grin: :thumbsup:

 

[Feltwad]

The only thing left to do now is to clean up that rusty old nail holding that beautiful gun on the fence :grin: :thumbsup:

Zug
That rusty old nail has held every gun that I have restored for the past 45 years it is now part of the scenery for my images
Feltwad :wink:

 

[DickS]

Speaking of rusted guns,I picked up a Belgian 12 bore double that had been abandoned in a barn, cellar, etc. Not in the weather, not wet, but all external metal surfaces have 100% even rusting with mild pitting. Brown, end to end. Upon close inspection, it was apparent that the gun had been in really nice shape when abandoned to its fate. Lock and barrel internals were fine, the stock is structurally sound. All screws would turn out without effort. Anyway, I cleaned out the bores, and gave it a try. It is a shooter. Doesn't look like much, but it works just fine.

 

[Feltwad]

Speaking of rusted guns,I picked up a Belgian 12 bore double that had been abandoned in a barn, cellar, etc. Not in the weather, not wet, but all external metal surfaces have 100% even rusting with mild pitting. Brown, end to end. Upon close inspection, it was apparent that the gun had been in really nice shape when abandoned to its fate. Lock and barrel internals were fine, the stock is structurally sound. All screws would turn out without effort. Anyway, I cleaned out the bores, and gave it a try. It is a shooter. Doesn't look like much, but it works just fine.

These are good finds only cosmetic work needed always check for a charge left in the barrel.
Feltwad

 

[DickS]

Yes, I've unloaded a few over the years. One had been wadded with newspaper; used the top corner of the page. The Free Press, November 13, 1924. That would have been the London, Ontario paper.

 

[Kansas Jake]

Nice job on the restoration. I have a J.P. Clabrough & Bros. 10 gauge double with a broken stock and pieces of the stock missing. I've often thought it would be nice to restore into a shooter, but I doubt I would have the skill. It would also be a shame to part it out though. I need to dig it out and look at it again.

 

[Feltwad]

Nice job on the restoration. I have a J.P. Clabrough & Bros. 10 gauge double with a broken stock and pieces of the stock missing. I've often thought it would be nice to restore into a shooter, but I doubt I would have the skill. It would also be a shame to part it out though. I need to dig it out and look at it again.

My advice is have a go and restore ,if it is your first take it slow you may find that repairing may be easy than building a new gun. You mention a broken stock which I presume will be at the wrist this can a difficult depending on the type of lock ,if a back action there will be very little wood to secure a pin joint .If there are pieces of wood missing these are the easy on a fore end if keyed in they can blend in using stains and there is very good glue on the market today. Good Luck
Feltwad

 

[Artificer]

That was a beautiful job. I envy your ability to re-lay the ribs, as that was something I was never taught.

Gus

 

[Artificer]

Enclosed is a image of a Flintlock sporting gun with a iron barrel notice the mottle figure in the iron
Feltwad

I found this photo extremely interesting. It looks as if the checkering was cut with a single cutter rather than with a double cutter, or am I mistaken?

Gus

 

[Artificer]

Nice job on the restoration. I have a J.P. Clabrough & Bros. 10 gauge double with a broken stock and pieces of the stock missing. I've often thought it would be nice to restore into a shooter, but I doubt I would have the skill. It would also be a shame to part it out though. I need to dig it out and look at it again.

I shamefully confess I did not just crack or break the wrist on my Pedersoli Brown Bess Carbine, but actually shattered it. Fortunately I dug through the grass and found all the wood pieces and saved them for almost 20 years and moves back and forth from one end of the States to the other, until I got around to fixing that gun. I actually had to break the stock off to perform the work and get everything lined back up. I was heartsick when it loudly snapped off, even knowing I had to do it to fix it, because I just could not trust that many glue joints to hold up.

I wound up using two 1/8 inch brass threaded rods for strength that went into wood beyond each end of the shattered/broken part and Accra Glassed them in place. When I was done, it was very hard for me to see the glue lines and I knew where each one was.

Gus

 

[old gunsmith]

Nice Job,
I've had a few bad experiences with the structural integrity of aged Damascus barrels over the years so I'm rather curious as to the re-proofing standards applied to black powder firearms in Britain. As you know, we have no such requirements here in the states so we pretty much have to make up our own tests if we have structural concerns. old gunsmith

 

[Feltwad]

Nice Job,
I've had a few bad experiences with the structural integrity of aged Damascus barrels over the years so I'm rather curious as to the re-proofing standards applied to black powder firearms in Britain. As you know, we have no such requirements here in the states so we pretty much have to make up our own tests if we have structural concerns. old gunsmith

For a black powder muzzle loader shotgun to be reproofed at the Proof House the following are required The barrels must be of sound construction no loose ribs .The barrels must have a good wall thickness with no dents or bulges. The bore must be clean with no pitting and a mirror finish. After they are fired the viewer then tests them for any bulges and cracks in the Damascus also the straightness ,if everything is ok then they are stamped with the Proof House proof marks
Feltwad