Hanyang rifle issue (Chinese 1888 Commission rifle)

[Flophound]

Hi all,
First post to the forum.
With working from home and not going out much, I finally have taken the plunge into getting more involved in my shooting- reloading, casting, and minor gunsmithing.
Got in a project gun recently. A Chinese copy of the German 1888 Commission rifle.
Now I've long heard of this phenomenon, but in all my years of collecting milsurps, this is the first time I've seen a bore that has been shot out. I slugged the bore and it comes out a just a hair under .33cal.
The way I see it I have a very small bore musket on my hands, and as such, just going with it and shooting .33 round ball in it was the first thing to come to mind.
But it does bring up a bigger issue, without the spin imparted by rifling, would the ideal shape of the projectile be different?
I'd love to hear your thoughts on that, or thoughts on my situation in particular.
Cheers,
Flophound

[Gtek]

Does it have rifling left? Slug it and get as close casting and just see.

[Jniedbalski]

U could have it bored out and re riffled for .358 don’t know if it’s possible but it might work out great

[gpidaho]

Flophound: Welcome to the forum. With the rifle you describe, I believe you could have some fun shooting round balls over black powder. Gp

[Flophound]

Does it have rifling left? Slug it and get as close casting and just see.

I slugged the bore, there's no rifling that I can make out on it, or with a flashlight looking down the bore. It did seem to have a tight spot around the middle of the barrel.

[Flophound]

U could have it bored out and re riffled for .358 don’t know if it’s possible but it might work out great
.358 is a good idea. I'd want to do it myself, so it would be another learning opportunity. I basically bought the thing as an experiment/skills builder.

[Flophound]

Flophound: Welcome to the forum. With the rifle you describe, I believe you could have some fun shooting round balls over black powder. Gp
Thanks for the warm welcome, Go.
An inline breech plug may well be the way to go. Was also thinking about reaming it out to .410 smoothbore since I got a lot of .410s and could always use another.

[elk hunter]

Why not just find another barrel and have it installed? I put one on my 88 because of a bad rust ring in the original barrel.

[Jniedbalski]

.329 8mm or .338 might also work if it’s not to far gone

[bruce drake]

https://www.ebay.com/itm/ORIGINAL-ANTIQUE-GEW-88-05-1888-COMMISSION-BARREL-ASSY/353173929631?hash=item523ace7e9f:g:3wkAAOSwvdxfIMw s
A pig in the poke since you can't inspect them over ebay but if you are willing to buy a Hanyang, this might be the cure for that bad barrel.

[Der Gebirgsjager]

Another welcome to the forum, Flophound. There were a lot of these Hanyang '88s on the market maybe 30 years ago. There should be some parts around, and rebarreling is certainly an option. Only you can make the decision and decide if the overall condition of the rife merits the expenditure.

You might also surprise yourself by shooting some as-cast, unsized boolits in it-- sometimes there remains enough rifling in bores that appear shot out to still shoot on the paper.

[Flophound]

I should have stated up front- I bought the Hanyang to be the donor gun to the barreled action 88/05 I bought. The 88/05 came with magazine and trigger assembly as luck would have it, so the donor Hangyang wound up not donating much, and being the kind of person who hates to just throw something away, I'm looking for a use for the remaining Hanyang bits.
I appreciate the ideas, folks. I got some good ideas to chew on now.

[Speedo66]

Is it possible the bore is totaled leaded up? If you haven't done so, try some serious elbow grease with some of the metal cleaning aids, i.e, Choirboy shreds, brass mesh, etc., and see if you get any results.

[Flophound]

I'll definitely give it a shot. No reason not to. Judging from some of the others I also managed to get my hands on, I imagine it's shot out. They slug out at like .33 and only have very thin round rifling remaining.
They're all beat to heck. I imagine they were used near constantly from the Boxer Rebellion through the Communist take-over