Antique Percussion Guns

damosan · Mar 17, 2015

So my wife bought me a smooth bore 1867 EIG percussion pistol for my birthday. It has seen better days -- the nipple has a chip up front and the wood has been pinned in spots but everything seems very solid. It has been seriously used over the last 150ish years.

There was some light rust in the bore but no real pitting. That cleaned right up.

Once I score some .65 lead I plan to take it to the range and run some light patched loads through it (25-30 grains -- service load was 55 grains apparently). The question I have is caps. What size caps work well with these old percussion guns? Can I assume musket caps will do the trick?

Am I looking at buying a few different sizes and just seeing what works?

Thanks.

WeaponsCollector · Mar 17, 2015

Musket caps would probably be too big. Pistols usually use #10 or #11 pistol caps.
#10 is slightly smaller, so I'd go with #11 and if they are too big and they fall off just pinch them a little before putting them on the nipple.

Blacksmith101 · Mar 18, 2015

Here is a link to a PDF on how to select the right size by Dixie Gun Works:
http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=...Lrfo94Jrrp1cHx038UbqB2Q&bvm=bv.88198703,d.eXY

epps1919 · Mar 18, 2015

wilcam47 · Mar 23, 2015

epps1919 said:

Epps you working on any new projects?? I havent seen you post much...I almost asked about you in the MIA thread

damosan · Mar 23, 2015

There is no way #10s or #11s will fit this bad boy. I'm thinking a musket cap of some sort will be required.

Whatever the story is on this thing -- it's a long one. When I first looked down the bore I used a poor light and it looked cruddy (as in dirt) as hell. So I took a 12 gauge brass brush to the thing and and the metal close to the muzzle looked pretty good. I thought I was done.

Over the weekend I thought I'd start round two.

So next I wrapped a 3" patch on the bore brush, dunked it in hoppes, and went back to work. The brush came out a red muddy color.

With a raised eyebrow I went and got a more powerful light and looked down the muzzle -- I saw what looked like impacted silt at the bottom of the barrel laying at an angle. I took a brass rod and started to carefully chip away at the silt for a bit. Then I'd tip it over and use a plastic mallet to tap the barrel.

I did this for 5 minutes and had about a 1/4 cup worth of red silty dirt sitting there. Along with what looked like chunks of impacted black powder. These weren't flakes of carbon but actual chunks of black material.

So *now* the bore is almost clean. It's rough but not to the point of making it a display piece. A patched ball will def. work.

I do have a pic but no where to host it.

D.

epps1919 · Mar 23, 2015

wilcam47 said:
Epps you working on any new projects?? I havent seen you post much...I almost asked about you in the MIA thread

I'm still working on gulf Ball mortars, beer can mortars and the Coffee mill gun carriage plus regular work.

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