Watch: Overhauling a Takedown Muzzleloader With Two-Piece Barrel
Russ Chastain 06.05.19
Well, here’s something different for you. A YouTuber named Andre overhauls an interesting old muzzleloading travel rifle with a screw-on barrel and removable buttstock.
The gun itself is in rough shape, with a missing mainspring, missing percussion nipple, and a spray-paint finish. Not to mention the buttstock is just plain gone — but the all-important hand-fitted iron plate for joining it to the forestock is still there.
The sights are interesting. Check out the rear sight! The front sight is simply a low brass blade.
This old front-stuffer was originally a flintlock, and Andre believes that conversion was done at the same time the barrel was cut short and threaded and the well-executed iron fittings created, to make it a takedown travel gun.
He does some good work and the end result is nice, but I don’t think this could accurately be called a “restoration.”
There are some things to make a gun-lover cringe, such as sanding the stock, honing the bore, and worst of all dropping the hammer directly on the bare nipple. Ouch!
No matter what you call it, when he’s done the gun looks one heck of a lot better than it did when he began. Heck, you couldn’t even tell the trigger guard was brass at first.
The barrel extension is really long, which makes me wonder why the original designer bothered to make the buttstock removeable. I don’t think the rest of the gun is much (if any) longer than the screw-on part of the barrel.
Fully assembled, the entire gun is about 137 centimeters long — that’s about 4.5 feet.
Enjoy.
