Argentino M1879 Rolling Block. Is it worth restoring?

[Claven2]

Nice looking loads (for the record, I DO prefer a wad under the bullet and a harder crisco/wax cookie - but I'm old school like that. Heck, I even paper patch my bullets for the Martini - lol)

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[killforfood]

Despite Saturday being a busy day, my son Caleb and I still managed to get up the mountain with just enough light left to shoot the Rolling Block. We ended up having to travel further than our first choice because a recent storm had dropped a large fir tree across our road. We tried another logging road further up and I began to feel the excitement build, that is until we came to a locked gate. At first I thought, what a bummer but then I rationalized, locked gate, no cars coming or going… perfect, our own private shooting range. We quickly unloaded my shooting bench and tossed out a couple spare tires to sit on. Then we hauled an old pallet up the road about 60 yards and propped it up with a stick. Here’s the setup.





I sent a quick fouler down range and attempted to get serious. My eyes have degraded quite a lot in the last couple years and I was having a terrible time seeing the sights. Now I fully understand why almost all of my rifles wear scopes.
My first impressions were…
Where’s the front site?
This trigger is harder to pull than Excalibur.
Cool, look at the sparks fly.
MAN these things bellow a lot of smoke.
Hey, that didn’t kick hard at all.





Here’s my first six shots. The highest one up in the neck area was the fouler.
Honestly I’m not very impressed with this group but there are issues that need to be addressed before we can truly ascertain the accuracy of this rifle.
The trigger pull is horrendous. I need glasses or to shoot in better light and the front site needs to be taller. Also at some point I will probably need to re-crown the muzzle.





Caleb shot the next group.





He’s got a steady hand and I trust his young eyes over mine.





Curiously his group came in even higher than mine. I guess I will need to somehow raise the front site. No, the bullets are not key holing. Because the paper was very thin and poorly supported from behind, the holes ended up being very ragged.





The light was fading fast and it didn’t make sense to try and shoot for group anymore, so we shot offhand just for fun.




I think Caleb enjoyed it every bit as much as I did, it’s in our blood.




It’s actually very comfortable to shoot. The recoil is very manageable. Caleb said it didn’t kick with the sharp slap typical of a smokeless rifle but more like a hard push.





That was fun, I just wish I had more brass, twenty shots went way too fast.

[killforfood]

Nice looking loads

Thanks.

(for the record, I DO prefer a wad under the bullet and a harder crisco/wax cookie - but I'm old school like that. Heck, I even paper patch my bullets for the Martini - lol)

In due time Claven2, I'm still learning the basics.

Do you guys have a preferred cleaning method?

I used Thompson/Center Number 13 Bore Cleaner until clean and then followed up with a patch with Bore Butter on it.

Is there anything special about cleaning BP brass? I usually use a vibratory full of crushed walnut media.