I'd think it would be more like our muzzle caps for AR family. Just meant to keep crap out and not save it's self from destruction during firing.
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I'd think it would be more like our muzzle caps for AR family. Just meant to keep crap out and not save it's self from destruction during firing.
Congratulations, this is one item I've been looking for a number of years. I've been collecting for about a thousand years, anyway it seems the long, And eventually I accumulated all the guns that interested me and started collecting the harder/rarer items that go with the weapons like the 03 Springfield and carbine grenade launchers, an unaltered original 1917 Enfield grenade launcher, a LE wire cutter and along with other hard to find items that I accumulated that eventually found but I never was able to find an original flap for sale.
Now looking to a smaller home because of age and expenses, I am in the process of down sizing my collection.
If anyone is interested, here is my US collection that I am in the process of reducing which includes a number of those scarcer items. Most of the US Civil War collection has been recently sold. My mannequin displays - PINNED DISPLAYS - U.S. Militaria Forum
Sad but it comes to this eventually for most collectors. Ray
Nice to see an original flap,
Makes sense, those plastic one are simply shot clear on the first round, and the blast from the flash hider throws it clear.
It's not a bad design, but they were not very common during my time, you might get one after the rifle went into the weapons techs for servicing. If you shot it away, you may not get another, because of this they weren't generally used in my experience.
They came in two colours black, which made sense, and bright red, which was not tactically a good idea, the red ones almost never seen the field for obvious reasons.
In Afghanistan some guys made their own out of gun (green duct) tape, but after weapons discharge became a frequent occurrence most didn't bother replacing them. Cleaning the melted tape off the muzzle became a sticky proposition as well.
I did manage to retain one of the issued plastic caps and it currently seals the end of my own AR15.
Just a suggestion, I had a musket that I had put a wooden tompion on the muzzle and when I checked the muzzle a year later, I found a previously excellent bore was showing signs of roughness and pitting. Depending where the gun is stored humidity can cause moisture to accumulate in the bore. Especially the rising and lowering of the temperature that can cause the metal to sweat.
You might consider leaving the bolt back or put something in the chamber so the bolt doesn't close all the way to allow the bore to air out. Just a thought, Ray
The red ones were bought off the shelf back in the '80s, they are an electric connector cover and we only used them a short time until we had the black ones delivered. These would be left overs.
As stated here, don't leave them on for storage as the F/S will develop rust eventually and it keeps air from circulating. Daily cleaning will of course prevent this. We also stopped storing slings on the rifles as they would rust the butt swivel...and were a mess in the rack.
always thought it would be nice to have one but have never seen one to purchase ,