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I have six BP rifles, but only three are muzzleloaders. It's hard to have a favourite out of such a small number, but I guess that if pushed it would be my original .577cal Volunteer short rifle made by Robert Taylor Pritchett from around 1860 or so. It is 'modelled', not on the-then current Pattern 53 Enfield with three or two barrel-retaining bands, but on the early Pattern 51, which had pins and tenons. My rifle also has a hooked breech for easier cleaning. The rifling of five grooves is very shallow, but was nevertheless made to take the British service bullet of the time - the Pritchett/Metford smooth-sided bullet, made famous by the Confederate Army at Shiloh, when the rapidity of the fire came as a terrible shock to the Union, who had not encountered the 'English cartridge' until then. I advise all who have not done so to watch Brett Gibbons' excellent Youtube movies on the subject, to to visit his website -papercartridges.com. His books on the subject are required reading for anybody with an interest in the years between 1854 and 1865, when paper cartridges came into their own brief decade of glory. Sadly, the ramrod was missing on purchase - this is a frawk - and I hope you'll overlook the muzzle-protector - one that I whittled from a spare bit of brass and based on one on a UK site that I felt was way over-priced.

As you can see, this rifle is slimmer and more elegant than the later P53, and handles more like a shotgun than a rifle - standing shooting is very easy, but off the bench, with the service load, it's a kicker.

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A comparison with a converted Enfield Short rifle, showing the elegance of the Pritchett's lines....
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My first foray with the bullet above and the 2 1/5 dram service load....at 50m -
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Sadly for Pritchett, his co-produced design with Metford was comparatively short-lived, although it was used by the British Army in the Crimean War to horrendous effect, especially on the massed Russian columns at Inkerman on November 5th, 1854. Brett's book, 'The Avenging Angels'. makes graphic mention of the three Russian columns advancing and getting slaughtered - piled into piles of dead and wounded ten or twelve feet deep - 7000-8000 dead within the hour and 15000 or more wounded, plus no less than three Russian brigade commanders - one after the other.

Meanwhile, a French infantry captain, Captain Claude Etienne Minié, was frantically scribbling on a scrap of paper his OWN take on a bullet design that eventually became the Minié bullet that we know and love. When the British adopted this form of bullet in .577cal, poor Pritchett's business eventually petered away, and he took up painting instead, becoming Queen Victoria's favourite water-colourist. His works are scattered on the walls of all the royal palaces of UK.
 
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I have six BP rifles, but only three are muzzleloaders. It's hard to have a favourite out of such a small number, but I guess that if pushed it would be my original .577cal Volunteer short rifle made by Robert Taylor Pritchett from around 1860 or so. It is 'modelled', not on the-then current Pattern 53 Enfield with three or two barrel-retaining bands, but on the early Pattern 51, which had pins and tenons. My rifle also has a hooked breech for easier cleaning. The rifling of five grooves is very shallow, but was nevertheless made to take the British service bullet of the time - the Pritchett/Metford smooth-sided bullet, made famous by the Confederate Army at Shiloh, when the rapidity of the fire came as a terrible shock to the Union, who had not encountered the 'English cartridge' until then. I advise all who have not done so to watch Brett Gibbons' excellent Youtube movies on the subject, to to visit his website -papercartridges.com. His books on the subject are required reading for anybody with an interest in the years between 1854 and 1865, when paper cartridges came into their own brief decade of glory. Sadly, the ramrod was missing on purchase - this is a frawk - and I hope you'll overlook the muzzle-protector - one that I whittled from a spare bit of brass and based on one on a UK site that I felt was way over-priced.

As you can see, this rifle is slimmer and more elegant than the later P53, and handles more like a shotgun than a rifle - standing shooting is very easy, but off the bench, with the service load, it's a kicker.

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A comparison with a converted Enfield Short rifle, showing the elegance of the Pritchett's lines....
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My first foray with the bullet above and the 2 1/5 dram service load....at 50m -
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Sadly for Pritchett, his co-produced design with Metford was comparatively short-lived, although it was used by the British Army in the Crimean War to horrendous effect, especially on the massed Russian columns at Inkerman on November 5th, 1854. Brett's book, 'The Avenging Angels'. makes graphic mention of the three Russian columns advancing and getting slaughtered - piled into piles of dead and wounded ten or twelve feet deep - 7000-8000 dead within the hour and 15000 or more wounded, plus no less than three Russian brigade commanders - one after the other.

Meanwhile, a French infantry captain, Captain Claude Etienne Minié, was frantically scribbling on a scrap of paper his OWN take on a bullet design that eventually became the Minié bullet that we know and love. When the British adopted this form of bullet in .577cal, poor Pritchett's business eventually petered away, and he took up painting instead, becoming Queen Victoria's favourite water-colourist. His works are scattered on the walls of all the royal palaces of UK.

Thanks for sharing your very nice & unique rifle !!!
This model's lighter weight, hooked breech, forward placement of the rear sight & use of barrel wedges instead of bands & excellent accuracy would have made it a favorite with troops.
The rifling term escapes me,, is the rifling cut deeper on the leading edge & shallower of the trailing edge ?
relic shooter
 
Too tough of a decision, some days it's the .50 Clay Smith Barn gun on the left and sometimes it's the .62 Kashtuk smoothbore on the right...
Both are very well balanced and shoot better than I do... All my others are cap guns except one of the pistols and don't see nearly as much range time as these two ladies...
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Thanks for sharing your very nice & unique rifle !!!
This model's lighter weight, hooked breech, forward placement of the rear sight & use of barrel wedges instead of bands & excellent accuracy would have made it a favorite with troops.
The rifling term escapes me,, is the rifling cut deeper on the leading edge & shallower of the trailing edge ?
relic shooter

Not unique, but quite rare. It was not made for troops, though, but for the members of the various Volunteer units that spring up in the wake of a degree of sabre-rattling by the erstwhile ally, France. The Crimean War saw the British, French and Ottoman Turkey allied against the Russians in the Crimea, and in the late 1850's, when the 'boys came home', Napoleon III cast his eyes in the direction of England. Google the British Volunteer organisation - made up of private militias with fancy uniforms, funded by the aristocracy. The current Duke of Argyll is the only person in the UK with a private Army.

Looking down the bore reveals very shallow rifling, as befits a bore made to shoot a paper-patched bullet, something I have yet to try, as I have around 200 of the bullets you saw in my post, and none of Brett Gibbons' correct diameter for patching size. I suspect that sending them here from Gettysburg is likely to break my bank...
 
I would like to expand on my post above. I own a plethora of other rifles and smoothbores. Not one firearm has yet accounted for the numbers of game taken with the lowly Ped Indian Trade. It is historically wrong and period incorrect. The lock is slow. The ignition is slow. It is ungainly as a wing shooting arm. It kicks like a drunken mule with stout charges. It's a pain to clean for a variety of reasons. Trigger pull is atrocious. Yet the 'junker' keeps killing game for me. If I point the 'junker' at something, it dies. Period. End. Of. Story. Goose, turkey, dove, deer, coyote, squirrel, rabbit, and duck have all fallen to this 'junker'. Repeatedly. Endlessly. I think I'll keep it. Warts and all.
 
I would like to expand on my post above. I own a plethora of other rifles and smoothbores. Not one firearm has yet accounted for the numbers of game taken with the lowly Ped Indian Trade. It is historically wrong and period incorrect. The lock is slow. The ignition is slow. It is ungainly as a wing shooting arm. It kicks like a drunken mule with stout charges. It's a pain to clean for a variety of reasons. Trigger pull is atrocious. Yet the 'junker' keeps killing game for me. If I point the 'junker' at something, it dies. Period. End. Of. Story. Goose, turkey, dove, deer, coyote, squirrel, rabbit, and duck have all fallen to this 'junker'. Repeatedly. Endlessly. I think I'll keep it. Warts and all.
That’s the heart of the thread.
 


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