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Thread: Baker Rifle

  1. #1
    Boolit Master
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    Baker Rifle

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Name:	Baker Rifle completed  08 05 2018 002.jpg 
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    This is a Baker Rifle Kit by the Rfle Shop that I have just Built for a friend.Although a lot of work is involved the resulting Rifle is pleasing and looks authentic.

  2. #2
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    Wow!!
    Warning: I know Judo. If you force me to prove it I'll shoot you.

  3. #3
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    Buzzard II's Avatar
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    Very nice!
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    Boolit Grand Master pietro's Avatar
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  5. #5
    Boolit Buddy
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    Great looking rifle!

  6. #6
    In Remembrance



    curator's Avatar
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    I have a Baker rifle made with original BBC "Sharpes rifles" Indian-made guns and a Ed Rayl barrel. It may not be exactly politically correct but is quite a rifle. Mine has a one in 66" twist rifles barrel and shoots .600 round balls quite accurately with .018 pillow ticking patches. My only regrets is not having a windage adjustable rear sight or a dove-tailed front sight at the gun shoots about 4" left of center at 50 yards, Using "kentucky windage" I am able to keep all shots on a 8" pie plate at 100 yards from a rest. OK, the lock is a bit clunky but it sparks reliably and flints last 40-50 shots.

  7. #7
    Boolit Buddy tranders's Avatar
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    Very nice. Well done!

  8. #8
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    That is nice, very nice! I am mature so I will not envy.
    Look twice, shoot once.

  9. #9
    Boolit Master
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    Quote Originally Posted by curator View Post
    I have a Baker rifle made with original BBC "Sharpes rifles" Indian-made guns and a Ed Rayl barrel. It may not be exactly politically correct but is quite a rifle. Mine has a one in 66" twist rifles barrel and shoots .600 round balls quite accurately with .018 pillow ticking patches. My only regrets is not having a windage adjustable rear sight or a dove-tailed front sight at the gun shoots about 4" left of center at 50 yards, Using "kentucky windage" I am able to keep all shots on a 8" pie plate at 100 yards from a rest. OK, the lock is a bit clunky but it sparks reliably and flints last 40-50 shots.
    Yes at present the rifle has not been tried out yet.I have had it Proofed at the Birmingham Gun Barrel Proof House.I took on the project since the owner sent for the Kit but decided he could not carry out the work involved.I have been doing a bit here and a bit there for a few months and gradually the Rifle started to look the part.He is a friend so there is no profit in it for me except for Proofing and postage costs.The barrel alone needed six dovetails cutting plus a Bayonet Bar fitting.The Lock had been finished at the makers so that was a saving of labour for me.All in all the Rifle looks authentic and I suspect an original had been examined to make the Drawings.

  10. #10
    Boolit Master
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    That looks like a fine piece of work. The Baker was about as good a compromise design as a pre-fulminate and pre-Minié could get. The longer-barrelled and smaller-calibre Kentucky rifles held certain advantages, but probably fouled even faster.

    For curator's windage problem you could file just over a sixteenth of an inch from one side of the lug on the rear sight ladder which engages with the base, and solder a sixteenth thick shim on the other side, moving the sight over. Or to keep the sight looking right, do about a third each of that by the shim, widening the slot in the base, and filing the notch over to the left.

    Here is a target of Ezekiel Baker's, intended for publicity purposes and therefore unlikely to be pessimistic. It shows pretty convincingly how for individuals it would outclass the military smoothbore as militarily loaded, but that a rank of riflemen weren't intended to approach a line of ordinary infantry. If the 34 shots were fired without cleaning, it would explain the accuracy not equalling your eight inches. Those targets were for some unaccountable reason known as "the eunuchs", although there is no obvious resemblance to the intelligence Corps, who acquired the same nickname for not having any privates. I find it quite refreshing, though, that the targets depicted some kind of generic primitive, and neither an Imperial subject nor a uniformed employee of a competing firm.

    Click image for larger version. 

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    Last edited by Ballistics in Scotland; 05-17-2018 at 06:45 PM.

  11. #11
    Boolit Master
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    at one time you could get a baker rifle along with the sharps rifles dvd set.

  12. #12
    Boolit Master
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    Quote Originally Posted by bob208 View Post
    at one time you could get a baker rifle along with the sharps rifles dvd set.
    An expensive DVD set when was the offer?,I wish I had seen it

  13. #13
    Boolit Grand Master
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    Well done.

  14. #14
    Boolit Bub aws1963's Avatar
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    Beautiful. A work of Art.

  15. #15
    Boolit Buddy histed's Avatar
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    Is it true that the Baker could be "tap loaded" without using the ramrod? Looked impressive in "Sharpe's Company."
    All government without the consent of the governed is the very definition of slavery - Jonathan Swift
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  16. #16
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    Wayne Smith's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by histed View Post
    Is it true that the Baker could be "tap loaded" without using the ramrod? Looked impressive in "Sharpe's Company."
    According to the books they did it with undersized pistol balls, issued for just that purpose. Not accurate long range, but quick to load.
    Wayne the Shrink

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  17. #17
    Boolit Buddy histed's Avatar
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    Thanks Wayne. "Speedloader" - 19th Century style!
    All government without the consent of the governed is the very definition of slavery - Jonathan Swift
    You have enemies? Good, it means you've done something with your life - Winston Churchill

  18. #18
    Boolit Master
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    Yes the Baker Rifle was an ideal Skirmishing weapon.A few Riflemen distributed amongst the Troopers using the issued Brown Bess for Formation warfare was an advantage since the Rifles accuracy could be employed to pick out selected targets.

  19. #19
    Boolit Master
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    That is a just how the Rifle Brigade were intended to be used, distributed among line units. Marshal Soult in Spain commissioned a report which found that in a bad month in 1813 they killed some 500 French officers and eight generals.

    Here is an account of Rifleman Plunket's exploit on the terrible retreat to Corunna in 1809, which was about as successful but grim as a winter retreat can be. He killed first General Colbert and then his trumpet-major. There were a cumulative total of 2000 generals in the Revolutionary and Napoleonic wars, but Colbert was exceptional, recognised as one who was going places. The riflemen had mostly been in South America, Denmark and Sweden since their formation, and it is likely that Colbert though himself safely out of range.

    https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=...0rifle&f=false

  20. #20
    Boolit Master
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    Thanks for that account,very interesting reading.A point I observe is the relationship between the Officer Class and the Troopers.Although skilled Marksmen the Troopers where kept in their place in society and expected to perform their duty despite the severity of the command.

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Abbreviations used in Reloading

BP Bronze Point IMR Improved Military Rifle PTD Pointed
BR Bench Rest M Magnum RN Round Nose
BT Boat Tail PL Power-Lokt SP Soft Point
C Compressed Charge PR Primer SPCL Soft Point "Core-Lokt"
HP Hollow Point PSPCL Pointed Soft Point "Core Lokt" C.O.L. Cartridge Overall Length
PSP Pointed Soft Point Spz Spitzer Point SBT Spitzer Boat Tail
LRN Lead Round Nose LWC Lead Wad Cutter LSWC Lead Semi Wad Cutter
GC Gas Check