MikeChapin
58 Cal.
- Joined
- Apr 5, 2005
- Messages
- 2,183
- Reaction score
- 6
I have a old kit gun imported by Hopkins & Allen. I originally got it twenty odd years ago for my son who was a teenager at the time. I helped him put it together and finish it and he used it for a year or so. He left it with us when he left home.
It went through several moves with us and when we settled here I noticed the front sight had been damaged. I replaced the sight and sighted the rifle in about four years ago. I cleaned it and just ran an oily patch down the barrel every six months or so.
I asked my son about the rifle. I was going to ship it to him but he didn't want it and told me to do with what I wanted with it.
The rifle is a percussion with a drum ignition. When the rifle was put together the lock did not line up very well with the drum. It was a pre-inletted stock so we were pretty well stuck with the setup. I had some time on my hands so I took the rifle apart to clean up the inside of the lock and see if I could do anything about the lock/drum configuration.
Long story short, there wasn't much that could be done about the drum/lock problem without restocking the rifle. I did see how unusual this rifle was constructed.
The rifle is a .36 with a 25" x 15/16" barrel, half stocked in what appears to be beech. The nose cap is just a flat piece of brass screwed to the end. The barrel is very tight .36. Any patch larger than .010 takes a hammer to get the ball down the barrel. .010 is tight but goes down easily enough with just the loading rod. It does tear up cleaning patches. If I was to shoot this rifle more I would have to get another .36 jag and turn it down a little.
The breechplug and tang are separate but do not have a hooked breech. The breechplug is screwed in but has a hex end coming out of it. This mates up with the hex opening in the tang. The barrel is held in front with what looks like a 3/32" pin that is hidden by euchucian(sp?) plates.
The lock is a little strange. The internals are herkey. It has a bridle but no fly in the tumbler. The mainspring is a leaf spring and the sear spring is a coil spring that fits into an extension of the bridle.
The trigger is a single type trigger but has a light spring to let it rest against the sear with no slack. All this together gives the rifle about a two pound pull. Not bad at all for a rifle this cheap.
The barrel is short enough that the thick barrel doesn't seem front heavy at all. It hangs nicer than you would think from the thick barrel.
If the spirit moves me, I my get a new stock for it later. It does alright now so it may be a while.
I was wondering if anyone had run across one of these rifles before and has a little more information on them.
It went through several moves with us and when we settled here I noticed the front sight had been damaged. I replaced the sight and sighted the rifle in about four years ago. I cleaned it and just ran an oily patch down the barrel every six months or so.
I asked my son about the rifle. I was going to ship it to him but he didn't want it and told me to do with what I wanted with it.
The rifle is a percussion with a drum ignition. When the rifle was put together the lock did not line up very well with the drum. It was a pre-inletted stock so we were pretty well stuck with the setup. I had some time on my hands so I took the rifle apart to clean up the inside of the lock and see if I could do anything about the lock/drum configuration.
Long story short, there wasn't much that could be done about the drum/lock problem without restocking the rifle. I did see how unusual this rifle was constructed.
The rifle is a .36 with a 25" x 15/16" barrel, half stocked in what appears to be beech. The nose cap is just a flat piece of brass screwed to the end. The barrel is very tight .36. Any patch larger than .010 takes a hammer to get the ball down the barrel. .010 is tight but goes down easily enough with just the loading rod. It does tear up cleaning patches. If I was to shoot this rifle more I would have to get another .36 jag and turn it down a little.
The breechplug and tang are separate but do not have a hooked breech. The breechplug is screwed in but has a hex end coming out of it. This mates up with the hex opening in the tang. The barrel is held in front with what looks like a 3/32" pin that is hidden by euchucian(sp?) plates.
The lock is a little strange. The internals are herkey. It has a bridle but no fly in the tumbler. The mainspring is a leaf spring and the sear spring is a coil spring that fits into an extension of the bridle.
The trigger is a single type trigger but has a light spring to let it rest against the sear with no slack. All this together gives the rifle about a two pound pull. Not bad at all for a rifle this cheap.
The barrel is short enough that the thick barrel doesn't seem front heavy at all. It hangs nicer than you would think from the thick barrel.
If the spirit moves me, I my get a new stock for it later. It does alright now so it may be a while.
I was wondering if anyone had run across one of these rifles before and has a little more information on them.
