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Thread: Gallager

  1. #1
    Boolit Buddy
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    Gallager



    Guys. I picked up an old original Gallager at an auction down in Italy recently and first up just wanna show it off, but also wonder if anyone out there can help me with a rather major Q i´ve got on it.





    For those not in the loop, indeed a so called capping breech loader. I "trial" dropped in one of the rounds i developed for the Maynard out of 50 Beowulf brass and.. SHOULD do the trick, albeit in more modified form.

    Slugging the thing though i ended up at .530" major, which i guess can attest to why many claimed bad accuracy out of these guns using Smith style boolits.
    Anyways.





    Gun came with this little hand written note telling that the "new" owner (after the war) picked it up on june 17th 1865, and how it followed him along later on a journey from sea to shining sea.
    Kind of a neat provenance.



    Yeah. Fireformed these to fit the elongated chamber of that Maynard i did recently. Works da bomb to be honest, works very very well and is thus in my book a cheap n effective alternative to "off the shelf" brass for the Maynards.
    Chamber of the Gallager is slightly larger though, but i presume the brass will take that fireform too. It´s not a massive difference and we´re after all talking black powder.
    Future will tell but if it falls through i plan to revert to either 50-70 or 50 Alaskan that i cut down.



    Yep. That patch box is no doubt the original.



    ...in turn a rather late serial. Now. This is my major Q cause this is a cap n ball gun right..
    The Gallagers caught a bit of flack from being hard to eject the shells from. To the point where a kind of "beer bottle opener" was deviced to go over the shell and then you pulled straight back to eject the casing.
    In the case of THIS little carbine though it sports an extractor. A claw type setup that runs the entire bottom end of the receiver and screws in from the rear of it. One attachment screw in other words.
    That claw is tapered running from rear to front and the groove cut into the receiver is approx 0,1" deep. Actual claw was broken off so since i´ve repaired that and although it seems i made it a tad stiff (it dents the rims slightly) it sure seems legit in itself.

    Now. That groove and the extractor in itself is NOT a "bubba" jobbie but no doubt it was either there from day one OR it is an arsenal job. No two ways about that.
    There´s also a relief cut in the underside of the barrel for the claw, and to follow suite a similar cutout in the thrust area of the receiver.
    So?
    What gives here? Do we have any member that deep in the loop on Gallagers?





    Sights i´d say are "generic" carbine sights of the time. Marked for 100/300 and 500 yards.

  2. #2
    Boolit Buddy
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    Rifling indeed a tad dirty, as it showed, and what´s more as i´ve understood the "later" Gallager rifling. Ie; faster twist (gain twist even) and more on the dot dimensions.



    Lock within in turn looks.. like most the rest of the gun, if not better even.



    Yeah, look. This just a first trial. What i did was check the rear thrust surface and then fabbed a rim to fit which i brazed onto a cut down 50 Beo case. Diameter of rim approx 17mm (0,67" inches). From a measurement standpoint seems legit enough and what it lacks in diameter vs the Maynard ain´t much. A couple of tenths of a millimeter (iow hundreds in fractions)







    Indeed the bore cleaned up REAL nice. Here the rifling twist becomes way more evident.



    As the intent is to shoot it, as with all my other old guns, it was handed a fresh crown on the lathe. Always do.



    Threads for the nipple though were in real poor condition. To the point where the 5/16-24 threads were stripped to a level where you couldn´t torq down on it anymore.
    Reasoned back and forth and decided on fabbing an insert. No.. no that´s NOT poor fitment, that´s a welding ditch for the TIG to work.
    The actual insert was installed with a 4/100mm press fit..



    Damage wasn´t due erosion but, i guess, due cross thread. Sry to say, and it is what it is. Yes. Repair will be visable when done but there´s no two ways about that.

    Anyways.
    Extractor and Gallagers. Any insight on that matter?

  3. #3
    Boolit Buddy
    BP Dave's Avatar
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    About 5000 Gallagers were made for rimfire Spencer cartridges. They had an extractor held by a single screw. If that's what you have, there should be a dog-leg firing pin that hits the rim instead of a percussion nipple. From the side it looks like a nipple, but it is solid and does not have a hole for the cap flame. Perhaps someone "reconverted" it to a percussion cartridge--seems like an odd project, but anything is possible based on necessity.

    The breech face on the rimfire Gallager is flat and has a rimfire firing pin hole; the original percussion Gallager has a recess in the breech face, so when it is loaded the cartridge case is halfway in the barrel and halfway in a recess in the receiver.

    --DJ

    (edit: changed "bolt face" to "breech face")
    Last edited by BP Dave; 09-21-2021 at 08:58 AM.

  4. #4
    Boolit Master
    elk hunter's Avatar
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    I like it! Of course I like almost anything from our civil war era.

    Keep us posted on how you get it shooting. Lots of pictures of course.
    BIG OR SMALL I LIKE THEM ALL, 577 TO 22 HORNET.

  5. #5
    Boolit Buddy
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    Thx.
    No. Hole from the nipple down sure exits in the center of the cartridge and it doesn't look like someone's been at it.
    True though that the breech face is flat. As stated approx 17mm in dia (11/16).

    Could it be some sort of intermediate solution?

  6. #6
    Boolit Master
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    have you busted a cap on the nipple & checked too see if it is indeed clear to the barrel & you can blow Smoak out of the barrel after fireing it?

  7. #7
    Boolit Grand Master Tatume's Avatar
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    Very nice, thank you.

  8. #8
    Boolit Master
    Bent Ramrod's Avatar
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    A flat breech face, even with percussion cartridges, would eliminate a lot of problems with the Gallager. The chamber would need extending to use the same charges, but the lockup would still be at least as strong as the Maynards.

    I have an Erma-Werke copy of the Gallager, with the original setup where the brass case is chambered 2/3 in the barrel and 1/3 in the breech. With thick brass cases that hold ~40 gr of powder, it shoots easily, but accuracy isn’t of the best. With thin brass cases holding 70 gr, it’s a lot more accurate, and powerful, but once a case sticks in the breech instead of properly in the end of the barrel, it is a miserable job to get it out without damaging it. Not all that easy to get out, with damage, either. Generally, it turns a mellow morning of shooting into a high-tension psychodrama. Not fun.

    The books say the Gallager was the most-hated Civil War carbine. Apparently, the troops issued them had the same problems I have with shooting the thing. Too bad, as it has a lot of good design features, and is hell for stout. Some improvements like yours has might have made it one of the best.

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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