Thoughts on a Cooey barrel

[eggwelder]

American thoughts welcome... was gifted a .22 cal cooey 82 barrel. bore is excellent. I`ve really wanted a tiny bore flintlock for a long time, and I think this will fit the bill.
I want to have it octagon to round, wedding band and then a graceful taper with a possible swamp, with a flame birch stock, pistol lock when I find one, and iron fittings- possibly poor boy.
it will be quite diminutive in size, but longer than a CVA squirrel by about 2 inch.
I don`t know anyone with a lathe that could turn the barrel, maybe I can spin it and take it down with a file. I have turned small steel items like that.
I can do the octagon- It`s only 5 flats.
main projectile will be .22 cal lead air pellets- so essentially a minie…….

I am aware of possible fouling issues, so it won`t be a problem for me.

 

[old ugly]

i think it would be a fun project. if you shoot real black powder it may fowl up quickly and need cleaning every few shots, but thats just a guess i have no experiance. it would be real cheap to shoot, probably a small charge of 4f is all it will need.
lets see it as you go.
ou
tom

 

[eggwelder]

I always wipe between shots except on my .58, but have to wipe after 3 on that. I do shoot my .32 with a charge measured in one of those long .22 cases. it`ll drop a rabbit, gopher, what have you at 25 yds.

I have the barrel, I have the stock, I can breech the barrel myself, and can make all the hardware. I did attempt a scratch made lock a few years ago, but never finished it. it may be too large for this anyway, the pan would hold more powder than the chamber... but I could scale it down- nice winter project, but I already have too many of them.
I do have a cheap Spanish lock that would fit the bill, probably an ardessa or jukar, but I could never get it to be remotely reliable. might be the worst trade I ever made. I should try a teardown and tune of that first.

 

[old ugly]

I always wipe between shots except on my .58, but have to wipe after 3 on that. I do shoot my .32 with a charge measured in one of those long .22 cases. it`ll drop a rabbit, gopher, what have you at 25 yds.

I have the barrel, I have the stock, I can breech the barrel myself, and can make all the hardware. I did attempt a scratch made lock a few years ago, but never finished it. it may be too large for this anyway, the pan would hold more powder than the chamber... but I could scale it down- nice winter project, but I already have too many of them.
I do have a cheap Spanish lock that would fit the bill, probably an ardessa or jukar, but I could never get it to be remotely reliable. might be the worst trade I ever made. I should try a teardown and tune of that first.

my opinion.
a new lock is pricey for sure. BUT. i would save up and buy a new if it were my build. i have spent many hours trying to make sow's ears from silk purses, it just isn't worth it. buy a small lock from TOW. if the gun does not work out like you planned take lock out and use it on your next gun.

 

[eggwelder]

Yeah, been looking at a small siler or a Queen Anne pistol lock

 

[eggwelder]

Here`s the barrel, turned with a handheld drill on the chamber end and the muzzle supported on a tapered brass rod. Used various files to take off the rust and bluing and smooth out the rather abrupt taper those cooey barrels have. we then polished it down with Emory cloth. I MAY take it down a bit more, to get rid of the slight amount of galling caused by an overloaded file, but probably not. Going to use the sight dovetails for either lugs or sights. Probably not going to file to octagon, i`m not sure that`s an activity i appreciate when its purely aesthetic. Next task is to cut off the chamber, drill & tap for the breech plug, and make that. I`ll show a picture of the planned stock, laminated 2 pieces of flame birch. Planning a bit of offset, so part of the glue line will be visible, probably not enough to get me too excited though.

 

[old ugly]

just a thought and i don't know what the chamber is like.
once you decide what size you are going to drill and tap the breach plug, maybe start the drill in the existing breach that may hold the drill bit straighter when you start going into the actual bore.. i am assuming you don't have a lathe.
once you have it drilled in a ways then cut off the barrel.
ou
tom

 

[old ugly]

you may even want to start the tap before cutting, you may get that straighter as well.
ou

 

[eggwelder]

No lathe yet....
will be using drill press, using a method learned from an old”really old” blacksmith i knew way back For drilling center without a lathe. Lots of meat there though, and since i`m making the plug, i have wiggle room.
chamber and barrel are perfect. When i cleaned it when i got it, there was just dirt in the barrel.
good idea though, can get it started straight and go from there.

where is stink dog creek from wainwright?

 

[old ugly]

sdc is 90 minutes west of edmonton. bush property, its where we have a cabin and gardens. i live in edmonton.

 

[eggwelder]

Iived there 9 years, well , Fort Saskatchewan and bon accord.

 

[old ugly]

i just bought an L&R john bailes lock is a bit smaller than the small queen anne. both are a bit of $.

 

[eggwelder]

Semi inlet barrel and pick of the stock

 

[eggwelder]

Yeah, i need to clean the bench off a bit. It’s not as bad as it looks.....thats a lie...

 

[old ugly]

mine gets way worse than that. no time to clean when there is guns to be built

ou

 

[eggwelder]

Wonder if i should move this to the gun builders bench.

 

[Col. Batguano]

It looks like your barrel is already inletted. Otherwise, for the octagon to round and wedding band milling you might try giving Charles Burton at FCI a call. He's not the fastest guy to get things done though.

With a gun this small I'm curious what thickness of web you are planning on using. If you go with a really thin web, like 1/16" at the breech, and minimal wood thickness escorting the barrel forward, the dimensions will make it feel like you're holding a very long pencil.

Another thing to think about is lock bolster thickness. With A-weight barrels the lock bolsters of locks like Chambers (as they come issued) seem quite thick to me. Like they're really dimensioned for B and C weight barrels. The result (if installed that way) can give the gun something of a "puffy cheeked chipmunk" look. With my A-weight (which was an FCI with a F-T-F width of 0.900" at the breech rather than the 1.0" F-T-F width of a Rice A-weight) I wound up filing down the thickness of the bolster from .25" to .20", which makes the whole gun look much more proportional. I also filed in something of a taper to kick the tail of the lock out a bit more than the barrel taper would have dictated. You also may have to bend your sear arm upwards to accommodate the narrower height in the breech area. And of course if you do that (bolster thinning), your mainspring is sure to break through in to the RR channel, another challenge to be dealt with.

Don't get me wrong. I love these diminutive little guns, but their compact size DOES add some challenges to the build that aren't there of their larger-dimensioned brethren.

 

[eggwelder]

Hadn`t thought to taper the bolster. Is a very good idea. My lock is not in Canada yet as far as I Know. Bought it from a member here. Kinda holding up production but not really.
the barrel is pretty straight, there is not a lot of barrel to work with. Standard .22 cal unmentionable barrel.
the web will be fairly thin, but am planning on leaving the wood a little wider horizontally- if that makes any sense.
not sure how to explain it, but the width will be more than the height so it feels like there is something to hang on to.
it will also be epoxy bedded For strength
not sure what the ramrod is going to be as yet- am thinking steel just shy of barrel ID. Maybe with brass tips and a tiny muzzle protector. Or just a .22 cleaning rod.
have the raw materials for everything else such as trigger and guard, barrel lugs butt plate, sights , pewter for nose cap and so on, etc

have some house Reno’s on the go, and a few other paying projects to get finished before i get back on this. I will update this as i go

 

[eggwelder]

Have my lock. Bought from a member here. Looks a bit rough but cleaned up nice. It sparks quite nicely with a beat up old flint i had, i`ll try a new one eventually.

It is now stripped down and am getting the stock prepared to inlet it. No idea of brand. Smooth plate resembles my MAVI .50 . Only marking is either a 7 or an L on the back of the plate. Still some case hardening colour on the plate, but not really a fan of that on a flintlock.

Made the breech plug today. Drilled, reamed and tapped the barrel with a hand drill, and the plug and tang are made from a
n iron deck spike from a Newfoundland fishing schooner and a 3/8 bolt. Needs straightening and finish filing . Have not decided on length. There is a gap i will need to fill, will probably make a brass spacer for that. I suspect i`ll use a few more of these spikes in the trigger and guard. I have some wrought iron pulled from the same schooner wreck i`m thinking i`ll forge into the butt plate and maybe the pipes.

 

[D.Summers]

Man, this is pretty exciting!!