Euroarms M1861?

[Ragnarok]

I bought a used and abused M1861 Springfield rifle-musket at the gunstore….badly rusted looking bore...hard/burned powder fouling 1/4 inch deep at the base of bore deep enough it had plugged-off the flash-hole. The butt-plate was terribly rusted too.


The gun is otherwise ok...good stock...external finish fine excepting the butt-plate. Lock and hammer barrel exterior have some rust stains and patina but are still more or less 'bright'. Some parts are suspiciously bright...like the barrel bands and stock nose-cap...the trigger guard is also clean and shiney. Did Euroarms use some stainless steel parts on their muskets??

Who actually made the Italian Euroarms guns?...The thing has a BS date code which should be 2002 vintage


The bore...he bore looked just awful! I scraped on it with a bore brush and Hoppe's and CLP for a bit...then some steel wool and it helped some. That's when I discovered WD-40 'Rust Removal Soak'....I mean really! That stuff is awesome! I threw some rusty tools in a pan plus the rifle's butt-plate and covered in the WD-40 soak. I plugged the nipple with wax and filled the barrel with soak too. Let the WD-40 soak work for an hour or two and dumped the barrel...swabbed the bore and there was a huge difference!....got rifling all the way down! I did the 1-2 hour bore soak thing three times and have a clean bore with some pitting..however it's shiney and looks serviceable now. Vast difference from the red rusted crusty hole it was before.


The soak stuff cleaned my tools and the butt-plate nicely too(left over-night in soak).

[Buzzard II]

Thanks for the tip! I have a few "tomato stakes" that I got cheap. Worth cleaning them up before I have them relined. Does the stuff have any effect on bluing and browning?

[Ragnarok]

Of course the Italian Springfield is 'bright' however I thought the soak stuff might leave streaks in the patina....but no. Apparently the parts have to be submerged in the rust eating soak. I will put a blued part in the stuff over night and see if it eats the blue off.

The WD-40 rust remover claims to be biodegradable and friendly to wood and plastic...claims no acid or harsh chemicals.

[dondiego]

If it eats rust, which is oxidation, it is bound to eat bluing, which is also oxidation.

[Ragnarok]

If it eats rust, which is oxidation, it is bound to eat bluing, which is also oxidation.

I placed a derelict .410 shotgun external choke tube in the WD-40 rust soak...it's a blue part with some rusty areas. This my used soak solution. Anyhow...yes I would say it's eating on the gun-blue. The soak took the minor rust off the choke tube quickly...however after over-night in the WD-40 soak there is still some blue on the tube. WD-40 rust removal soak seems to remove rust much quicker than gun blue...but it does eat gun blue too...

[Boz330]

PB Blaster also removes rust. I had a buddy who use to use it to keep his canon bright.

Bob

[Ragnarok]

I actually shot a few rounds out of the Euroarms M1861 with considerable success! I have a box of .570" Hornady balls and some TC pre-cut patches on hand so I lubed some patches and fired 5 shots with the nominal 60gr 2FF load. The TC patches are approx. .015" thick and made for a really tight starting load...I made a dowel rod starter and used a small mallet to get the patched balls started but they rammed smoothly once started. I really expected nothing as far as accuracy because there is considerable pitting and frosting in about the last 7 inches of bore...I expected it to snag patches. But no...the M1861 shot patched balls fine at 40 yards.

I do need a couple small parts for the Euroarms M1861 rifle. The front band spring was missing when I bought the gun...and the short leg of the rear sight had been chisiled off leaving the 300 and 500 yard leaves intact so I need the L shaped leaf(available from Lodgewood)...I made a beer can rear sight leaf to do my preliminary shooting...and have a Turkish Mauser band spring installed as a temporary measure in leu of a proper fitting band spring.

Did some searching for mini ball moulds and may just order a LEE conventional mini ball mould as it costs not much more than 25 pre-cast mail-order bullets would cost me. I also noted that LEE offers the REAL style bullet in .58 caliber and may consider that an option.

I'm just happy that the bore ain't trashed to the point of ruin!

[bigted]

Beg, borrow or steal some 12 gauge pure lead balls. Now put 25 graing of your 2f powder down bore. Then take several cotton balls, 3 or 4, and tamp them down on the powder pretty tight. Now take some grease ( synthetic) and severely coat the bore up and down with your copiousely soaked patch. Now take a 12 gauge PURE LEAD ball and begin to tap on it at the muzzle with a brass hammer till it is all, but just a thin ring on top of the muzzle, down the bore. Now gently tap tap till the slug is down on the cotton balls.

Here is the fun part. Now take severalblankets, a 55 gallon of water or some other bullet trapping substance, and build a soft nest to recover the slug unmolested. Cap the rifle and shoot it into your catch material.

Now recover the slug and gently clean it and measure the high points as well as the low points ... groove and bore of the slug.

Now you will know the size that it is asking for in minie's, real boolits or ball diameter with the thinnest patching material.

This info will gain you the best accuracy potential for your rifle.

Great to hear of you getting her cleaned and shooting again. Good on ya!

[carbine]

You can get replacement leaves for the sight from Lodgewood or S&S firearms. Check out the N-SSA.org bulletin board for deals on Minie Moulds. They are always for sale. Good info there on all things musket

[Ragnarok]

Does anybody know which Italian company actually made the Euroarms Muskets?

As near as I can tell Euroarms is/was simply an importer in the US and not an actual manufacturing company.


http://www.powderhombre.com/mbpproofmarks.pdf

Hmm...answered my own question...Armi San Paolo/Euroarms made my musket

[Buzzard II]

Euroarms is out of business now.

[Buzzard II]

Thanks for the tip! I have a few "tomato stakes" that I got cheap. Worth cleaning them up before I have them relined. Does the stuff have any effect on bluing and browning?

Thanks for the info- I just wanted to know what to expect. I ordered a gallon and hope it works for me.
Bob

[Ragnarok]

Ehh?...Read the instructions on the jug...de-grease and scrape thick rust....The WD-40 rust removal soak is just that....a soak product....easy enough to do for bores you can fill with it...small pieces need to be submerged in it for a period of time....destructions on the bottle....better than Dynamite or plastic explosives for bore cleaning