1855 rifle

Here is my first scrach built? rifle. I was building it when I first was getting on line.It has a .575 bore.[aka my namesake] 7 lands,1 in 54 twist.Jerry Harmon barrel.Cross LR sights,Lockplate and bands nose cap are by Brian Haack.Stock is from Dunlap. Hammer and lock internals are orgional. They are Much better than the Italian repops. The barrel is full length epoxie beded.I use West systom epoxie. Finish is boiled linseed oil and Turps. I have goten a nice no creep 4 lb triger pull on this lock.
I built this rifle for shooting in N-SSA musket comp.It was inspected and meets all of our requirments. I have used it for 7 years or so and have put about 5,000 or rounds through it. The target was shot a couple years ago.Was at 50yd with tha RCBS Hodgen,.576 sized to .575. Homemade lube.


http://img.photobucket.com/albums/10...5/9d7dda0f.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/10...5/Mvc-026f.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/10...5/MVC-001F.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/10...5/MVC-002F.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/10...5/MVC-007F.jpg

Hey Jim....That's neat!

Where can I find me some groups like you've got in that 5th picture?? LOL.

What bullet is that? It kinda looks like the Hodgdon.




Russ

Jim, Great post and pictures. I a little jealous because I've got all the 1855 brass mounted rifle parts, old/new R. Cross lock with original internal parts, and one of Rich's long range sights, a Dunlap stock, except my barrel is a Whitacre .577 bore. Like you, I've had bad luck with imported internal lock parts, and good luck with the genuine, War Between the States army surplus and canibleized lock parts. There are a few guys like Brian Hach and Rich cross that know how to make good parts, when they have the time.

I've been too lazy to finish mine, after I put together a .58 cal. C.S. Richmond carbine with a Whitacre barrel , One of Brian Hack's locks with original internal parts and a R. Cross sight and a Dunlap stock.

I also found a repo .58 cal. C.S. Richmond 3 band musket that I put a B. Hack lock with original internals that shoots like your 1855 from a rest. Since someone had de-farbed the 3 band musket I had to take it to the small arms committee for an approval card just like I did the carbine.

The problem with that musket is - when I pick it up and shoot it standing, it scatters boolits all over. Must be the nut on the trigger.

Will see you on the line
Bill

Russ, That is a Hodgen. It is a nice boolit. It was designed by a N-SSA shooter. Comes in 3 dia. too. .576,.578 and .580. I realy love the captive base pin aka Rapine type but in iron is a real plus. There are some sutlers selling custom base pins too.
Lyman makes a copykat one called the Blue/gray. in .578 only. It has the lyman type knob-base pin. Looks just about the same. Flattery is ......
Does cost 20.00 bucks less though,but I love that captive pin
That target was off a bench.I dont get them groups very offen.And I never get em offhand.That is what we count

Hey BP Bill, Glad to see you here on this new,and hopefully last "Cast Boolit" board :] Hope all is well with you and the better half? Spring is here,Time to make smoke.
You ever get that Henry going?

Nice looking piece, the group shines too.

.............Shooter575, that's a right handy looking musket. I favor 2 bands and carbines. But I know what I just typed and also must say that an old shooting buddy, '3 Band Bob' had somewhere come up with an early Lyman importation of a 3 band P53 Enfield. A very nice solid and well executed piece. Could that thing shoot!!! You had a hard time missing with it and could just shoot, and shoot, and shoot.

He was off on disability for several years and so he and I would stay late at the range and shoot BP. He was my early mentor when I got my Whitworth and later my 2 Band P58 Enfield. Early on he was shooting a M1855 with LR sights, and a 1861 Spfld.

So one day he shows up with the Lyman import. As I said a very nice looking and feeling piece. He spent a couple hours over a couple weeks and had that thing drilling really great groups. Came down to the fact that it really liked the simple old Lee 500gr minie' just fine with nothing but Crisco in the base.

I recall one Tuesday with us sitting on either side of a bench shooting and handing it back and forth. We were shooting at the 200 meter gong, which I guess was probably about 11x14 inches and hitting it everytime. That musket got hot! We shot it until we ran out of caps or Minie' bullets, I don't recall which now. He sold it to a mutual friend for $500. I was incredulous. He said he sold it for 2 reasons. One was that it was boring (too predictably accurate, no kidding!) and the other was that the Marines were never issued that musket. Yeah, he'd been a Marine.

After that he went to shooting a .69 cal rifled M1842 till it got to hurting him! Not too long afterward he ended up going back to work and kind of lost interest in the whole shooting thing. Last I talked to him he still had all his stuff though.

Long as we're talking boolits and showing groups:

http://www.fototime.com/A91EEC7A16C5109/standard.jpg
These were shot as a lube comparison one day for no particular reason. Each had 5 rounds fired with each lube before firing for group. The Minie' is from a mould I bought from Maven some years back. Very similar to a Raphine in looks and operation. From an outfit named Challanger. Never seen another nor heard of them before or since. The rifle is a Parker-Hale 2 Band Enfield, 48" twist and progressive depth grooves.

http://www.fototime.com/6BF0D8313CD43F3/standard.jpg
Same rifle. I was very tempted to make it a 10 round test, but chickened out.

http://www.fototime.com/160A828BA92E81A/standard.jpg
This was a quick and dirty test I did because I had a buddy really nagging me about "Why don't you use Pyrodex?". I had tested Pyro over some months trying various lubes, powder charges, and etc. But for him I did this test. He shut up about Pyrodex, but I never could get him to try BP in his Hawken.

....................Buckshot