Found MUSKET in thrift store.

[DaveN]

I have a friend who originally bought the rifle and fixed the trigger and then gave me the rifle. He has been refinishing any thing and every thing for as long as 60 years. From old cars to rifles, knives, binoculars you name it. Through this great site and as much hands on I can get out of him I hope to have a nice rifle when all is done.
I will have the sight in 6-8 wks from the Rifle Shoppe and he was going to show me how to sweat it on. I think the bore is worn beyond shooting as the rifling is very faint(smooth) and the pic I saw on one for sale looked sharp. The sight for my purpose will be for looks.

Information

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[Patrick Chadwick]

OK, but have you looked at Part 5 of the Argentine RB series?

[Claven2]

I wouldn't assume the rifling is bad. 19th century rifling, especially pre-1870, was not that unifiorm. It may have been made the way you see it - generally these were not shot enough to wear rifling out. Also, the original rifle round in a Jager would have been patched ball, so the rifling just grabs cloth, not the bullet itself. I wouldn;t sentence it as a non-shooter unless I had tested it for safety and then accuracy.

Cheers.

[Patrick Chadwick]

Claven2, thank you for your support!

DaveN please note:
A barrel that only shoots lead balls cannot be shot out in a normal lifetime. It can, of course, be ruined by poor maintenance (rust, bell-mouthing from incoorect cleaning) and patches themselves can be abrasive. But if you can see rifling from one end to the other, then it is a potential shooter from the point of view of internal ballistics. Provided, of course, it is not suffering from some fault (deep pitting, delamination of a damascus barrel...) which could make it hazardous. That is something that neither Claven2 nor I can judge from a distance. But you say you can see rifling, and the outside was not covered in rust. That is one compensation with "treacle" rifles - plastering varnish over everything does at least help to save the thing from rusting. Since Bubba will not have varnished inside the barrel ("out of sight - out of mind") then that is the weakest point. See if you can get a light inside that barrel! (A white-light LED on a thing twin cable will do)

But back to the woodwork!
I hope to hear from you soon, with some photos of wood looking a lot better than before!

Patrick

[DaveN]

PC,C2, I do want to do a good job and I now know where to find the info ARG pts 1-5 and 6
thank you PC. I browsed parts 1-4 and read part 5 and realize this stuff is going to take time if I stand a chance of doing it right. It is now time to take a deep breath and contemplate what I'm about to get myself into. Am I up for what may be quite a journey. I will make a list and begin aquiring what I need if it's a go.
PS: it may be sacralege but I've seen "Elmers" wood filler (with real wood in it). Is this good, bad dare I say cheating or just not the way to go? DN out for now.

[Doug Rammel]

FWIW The smallest size mag lite will fit down a barrel of this caliber. Let it slide down the barrel gently. You can see all but the bottom 3 inches of the barrel.

What's a treacle rifle?

[DaveN]

Thanks, I took the lets call it a percussion tube and used a pipe cleaner and blew out through muzzle and then shown a flash light (torch) and no go. What I could see from shining the torch and looking on an angle, it looked nicely rifled. When i get a sm mag lite I'll post a picture.

[Patrick Chadwick]

I took the lets call it a percussion tube and used a pipe cleaner and blew out through muzzle

If that means that the nipple is free (you have to learn a bit of the lingo) it is very good news. Because of the narrowness of the ignition hole, they are frequently rusted up solid. That tells me that the rifle was at least not put away dirty, full of blackpowder residue, the last time it was fired.

[Patrick Chadwick]

PS: it may be sacralege but I've seen "Elmers" wood filler (with real wood in it). Is this good, bad dare I say cheating or just not the way to go? DN out for now.

Yes it is sacrilege! Common-or-garden wood filler will not bond well to ancient wood and will simply shake loose in a rifle. The proper way to do it has been so well demonstrated by Claven2 that I can do no better than to say: read what he wrote, and study the pictures. But get that stock clean first, so you can identify the wood, to get a good match.

And don't worry about all the stuff for the Argentine. It is enough that it is all available. Your target for tonight (OK, the weekend) is to clean the gunge off that wood, as per Part 5, and hopefully be so encouraged by your success that you feel the urge to do the whole job and turn it back into a shooter. Yes, I am an optimist, because even if this is probably not going to turn into a muzzle-loading match winner, the experience will enable you to look at other opportunities with a much sharper judgement.

My first refurbishment was a wallhanger, a "treacle" rifle. Underneath the oil-rotted varnish was a very fine Brazil Mauser in 7x57. I still have it. Will post a pic some day, but not now. With you and Joel I am feeling like a midwife giving instructions to two first-time mothers at a distance of several thousand miles - I wish I could be there, and desperately hope it's all going to turn out well!

Sorry about the purple prose, but I really am rooting for you guys. Don't give up!

Doug Rammel: you will find the "treacle" rifle further up in this thread. I posted it as a morale booster for DaveN, to show that even horrible-looking stocks can turn out very nicely.

Patrick

[Patrick Chadwick]

Fear not! I have not suggested that DaveN should refinish the metal, just that the wood could be cleaned up with the gel stripper independently recommended by Claven2 and myself (so that's at least 2 out of 1,000,000 who think it's a good idea!).

DaveN, I had not recommended that you dismantle the rifle just yet, because of the fear of ruining screws and pins. I have had seen steel pins in wood that were rusted right through on rifles a century younger than your Jaeger. But you got the pins out in one piece. You were lucky. This suggests to me (just a guessing game, you will soon be able to tell me the truth) that whatever the wood is, it is not oak. Oak contains tannin. Tannin is acidic, and if that shaft was oak those pins would have rusted to crumbs by now. I still guess beech, from the lighter swirls that show through the gunge.

I understand jmoore's concern, just stick to the wood for now, please!!

Patrick