Interchangeable barreled muzzle loader

I have a 50cal muzzle loader which has been my baby for the last 10 years i have won numerous black powder shoots with her

Anyway recently i had the absolute pleasure of meeting doug @homebrew.357 who if you have read his post's on here you will know that he's very talented on the tools and has bult a barrel rifleing machine
Doug very kindly gifted me a 45 cal muzzle loader barrel he had built
That i was planning to build a rifle arround but an idea came to me (why not just fit the barrel into my existing rifle and make it a quick change barrel?) a quick pm to doug with the idea and I got a reply "easy"

So a visit and a few measurements later a drawing for a new breach plug and bolster to suit my rifle was born
Doug worked his magic and dropped the new breach plug off yesterday
Doug built it very slightly over size and yesterday arvo was me smoking the part fileing the contact points smokeing and fileing again to insurer a snug fit
After a couple of hours work I got this
Attachment 73121
Dougs barrel perfectly fitted to my un modified action
(Its missing its barrel retaining pin for now hence tape)

Now the new breach plug is raw steel and needs blueing so I thought id redo the hole barrel so it matches
So this afternoon I started with this

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I then wet sanded with 320gt wet and dry to this
Attachment 73124
Then 600gt wet sand
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Then 1000gt and finally 0000 steel wool wet sand/polish
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Ready for blue tomorrow
Cheers
Darryn

Hooked breech the classic method of fixing, it also makes cleaning so much easier. Very smart guys

All done
About 20 passes with cold blue
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Originally Posted by Marty Henry

Hooked breech the classic method of fixing, it also makes cleaning so much easier. Very smart guys

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Yeah its just the same setup as the original barrel
Very good for the interchange barrel idea as it only has one retaining pin which easily pulls out by hand
The barrels could be swapped in well under 30 seconds

So youll be thinking about a shotgun barrel next? Ive had a crack at ducks with my 58 zouve and a shot charge a few years ago didnt get any because I was too slow with the 2nd shot but it has been done.

nah smoothbore maybe not to use as a shotgun i shoot a double barrel Damascus steel cartridge gun i don’t shoot ducks just clays

Gees, That`s a fantastic bit of work there Rambo, looks better than my new one, wanta swop!!. No barrel making machine!, it`s just add on bits to my lathe . Glade it`s gone to a good home and now is the fun part, seeing if you can get it to shoot at what you point it at. my load was 50grs 3f, patched .440 ball, I can see some competition coming on there.

Yeah a bit of sanding involved I started at 6pm last night and took me till 12:30 this morning to get it to a nice 1200gt finish ready for blue
I gave it a good coat of oil to be sure no rust formed on the raw steel over night
I then typed this post before hitting the sack at 1:30am this morning

This arvo i fully degreesed the barrel and gave it a final polish with 1200
Before doing 20 coats of blue to get a nice finish

I always say 90% of a good finish is in prep with cold blue ive found from previous projects that you need to get a real nice polished finish on the steel to get a good finish

I will give the barrel a real good test with all driffrent balls patches and powder to really get the most out of it what I would really like to do is win a competition with it but till im confident with a good load ill be sticking to the 50cal barrel as that thing is a absolute tack driver with 45gn swiss 2Fg .490 ball and .20thou oxy oak patch it will put them through the same hole at 25m and shoot tiny groups at 50m

Impressive accuracy, whats your cleaning between shots regieme and is the patch greased or spit? That seems like a low load of powder for a round ball, but if it gives that accuracy I must give it a crack.

Hmmm, Maybe I should have a changeable barrel as well, a .45 and a .50 , all I would need is a .482' gun drill , :cool:

brew ya bugger ya at it again-well bloody done guys pretty impressive all round!

Cleaning what cleaning thats the awesome thing with swiss powder it is a traditional black powder but the charcoal they use fouls very little it depends on atmospheric conditions but can easily get 10 accurate shots with no wipers sometimes more
Swiss is also hotter which means my 45gn load is the same as arround 55gn of something like holy smoke or goex its got its bad points though like it wears out nipples quick
Its $90 per $500gm though so pretty expensive

Patches are .20 oxi-oak wonderlube
Balls are 490 home cast
Scored a 93 out of 100 the other day 50m 13 shot vetterli the other day

@Marty Henry you don't need a huge charge and infact going to hot can lower accuracy
Shooting round ball shoots we are only punching paper so you don't need a big charge
If you're rifle shoots a light charge well I know a guy who's sholder is stuffed meaning he can't handle recoil he has a 45 and only shoots 25gns gets there and punches holes in paper which is all he needs

I shoot 45 of 2f in my 45-70 also with cork wad

I use swiss or gowex whichever i can get and usually buy bulk as supply seems erratic. Never tried the local brew holy smoke or 777. Mostly load shotty, and cartridge rifles but the 58 is a lot of fun and im starting to hunt a bit with it now so oomph is important.

@Marty Henry Mate you need to plan to come down to (or up in your case) to mountain man its a week long shoot held by the nz black powder shooters federation between Boxing Day and New Years day on a farm just north of huntly

Hell, I`m going to have a look at this, There was me and a guy shooting black at the range and a few shooters were winging about the smog we were making," Can't see our targets". :oh noes:. I know it`s camping 1800 style, but could I bring my caravan down, it sounds like a lot of fun , have to work out how to reload my 45-70 while camping, now there`s a good project, a hand held reloading tool, I`m on to it.

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Originally Posted by homebrew.357

Hell, I`m going to have a look at this, There was me and a guy shooting black at the range and a few shooters were winging about the smog we were making," Can't see our targets". :oh noes:. I know it`s camping 1800 style, but could I bring my caravan down, it sounds like a lot of fun , have to work out how to reload my 45-70 while camping, now there`s a good project, a hand held reloading tool, I`m on to it.

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@homebrew.357 that's Auckland nzda for you lol
As far as mountain man goes there are plenty of people that are no longer upto crawling arround in tents mate you will have no issues with your camper there will be more than one there I promise you lol

As far as the 45-70 goes mountain man has a couple of shoots for breach loaders but is 90% prb muzzle loader only
You will probably only need 30 rounds of 45-70 max
If you want to shoot your 45-70 a lot you are probably going to enjoy awakeri (near whakatane)
Thats on the 1st of October you stay at the campground down the road from the range so no issues with the camper (also hot pools which is nice)
Its a full day of shooting and you need a min of 40 rounds for the comp plus plenty of sighters
Targets are 50m,100m 150m and 200m 10 targets total at each distance falling plates (5 full size and 5 half size silhouettes) very good fun

I`v just plan our next camping trip, Awakeri hot pools, Sylvia likes this but I said I may be away making smoke for a bit. Will have look at joining the N Z B P Ass, it`s only $35 to join I think and a lot of fun. I will be stretching it a bit to hit any thing past 100m with my Sharps and A P R Ball at 100m I would never find it on the target, need lots of sighters.

You will be fine doug the targets are pretty large really just shoot as best you can and hitting things is a bonus
I very much enjoy this shoot I don't shoot to well compared to some that do it all the time
But always manage a few targets

Pm me your email and I will forward you through the shoot information page

You get your nzbpsf membership as part of your mountain man fee
Alot of good knowledge you can tap into aswell mate

I popped down to @homebrew.357 ,s place on Monday for a coffee and to pick up a bullet mold doug had for a .431 ball as it turns out the barrel is a little tight and requires an odd size ball
Casted some balls with the new homemade mould yesterday
And took it down to the farm for a play today
Didn’t have long so I put a target up at 25m and fired a few shots
40gn of holy smoke 3fg .431” ball and 0.010” patch
Shot very well 5 shots 4 touching and one flyer (me not the gun)
Can’t see the 4th in photo due to riped paper but there’s 4 holes in the backing board
Attachment 77845
Still more playing to do but looks very promising

Great stuff Rambo, I`m surprised my self a 1-33" twist shoots ball like that, you are on to it. Next range session 50m, 100m ? , are you wiping between shots and what are you using as a ramrod, I just made one from a old stump pulling snapper fishing rod, does the job. Thank for the beer, I`m going to have one now, Cheers, Doug.

Used holy smoke so a bit dirtyer than swiss wipeout every 3 shots
Ramrod is stainless with a bore gide
Its bloody tight a have to start the ball with a rubber hammer
After that it goes down easyer
Seems to shoot so don’t need to worry about that yet
Cheers

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@rambo-6mmrem that's looks really :cool: but......I'm afraid for you my friend the victory and fun will stop:wtfsmilie:













When your wife finds that once nice white towel :o then for you my friend I hate to think where she will take your still smoking stick and stuff it:XD: that's I guess one place you won't be able to keep your poweder dry:XD:

Luckily im single and proud of it then eh

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Originally Posted by rambo-6mmrem

Luckily im single and proud of it then eh

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Ha:thumbsup:laundry day after your finished the load development then good man!

Priority priority priority:thumbsup: