Thread: Black Powder Witchcraft. Regulating a BP Double Rifle

Damascus steel barrels with the two belt grooves at 12 and 6 o'clock at the muzzle and about 1:60" twist rate

Old school

Well I like to look at things very thoroughly and do a lot of checks before I live fire a 185 year old rifle.

I actually sent bore castings and patches to James Tanner at ballmould.com in England this morning.
He will make a perfectly sized belted ball mould allowing for the patch thickness and pure lead shrinkage rate.

I have also researched the Dickson barrel numbers with Dickson and sons in Scotland as they have the full Dickson Ledgers since 1820.
They do have a record of these barrels and they even have a record of them coming to NZ and that the original owner returned from NZ in 1866 but did not return with the rifle.
That is all the information they would allow without the payment of 55 Pounds.
Dickson's also hold the ledgers for a number of other sadly departed Scottish Gunmakers and provide historic records for a charge.

I will get the Dickson double and my Alexander Henry rifle records done as both are worth the time and money to research.

Technically you have to marvel at the skills of the designers and craftsmen that made these rifles 185 and 150 years ago respectively.
The Dickson barrels are in perfect shootable condition and I would rate them 7.5/10
My Alexander Henry left the workshop 150 years ago next month.
Yes it left the workshop in August 1873. It is in mechanically perfect condition and the bore is 9.5/10

Show me a rifle made today that you might expect to be mechanically 100% in 150 years ?

How interesting this is. I would never of dreamed that a belted ball would be a 'thing'.

Originally Posted by Moa Hunter

How interesting this is. I would never of dreamed that a belted ball would be a 'thing'.

As far as I was aware a 'belted ball' was NOT something you wanted... But yes, interesting as. When you see where we came from, the modern gear is quite unreal isn't it?

Originally Posted by No.3

As far as I was aware a 'belted ball' was NOT something you wanted... But yes, interesting as. When you see where we came from, the modern gear is quite unreal isn't it?

I think the belted ball was well regarded when patches and used in slow controlled fire
But there was no advantage when volley fire was needed because the balls went in un patched.
In which case a musket is just as good and vastly cheaper to produce.

But as I have shown with this Dickson Sporting Rifle, the belted ball when loaded with care and attention ( as any sporting rifle should ) can be a very accurate rifle.

But I marvel at how these barrels were made and the rifling form is so accurate.
Hence the army were never going to choose it despite good trials results

Next wet day I will start on cleaning the woodwork
The walnut looks to be a pretty nice piece
Solvents to dissolve the decades of dried on gun oils and a lot of cleaning

Originally Posted by akaroa1

Next wet day I will start on cleaning the woodwork
The walnut looks to be a pretty nice piece
Solvents to dissolve the decades of dried on gun oils and a lot of cleaning

Attachment 229931

Attachment 229932

yes that will come up a treat

And the grips took a long time to clean out but now look and feel awesome

I guess you would call the Belted Ball a technological dead end.

It had its moment when someone thought it was the answer.
Whitworth rifling was another answer that didn't last

I personally find the odd mechanical rifling systems to be very interesting.
This rifle sits well with my Whitworth as an example of things that were certainly an improvement but were superseded very quickly.

Then there was Henry Rifling, Metford Rifling as the last evolution of BP rifling and Enfield Rifling and others to usher in the smokeless types

From the section photos shown it looks like a lovely stylish piece, no doubt with good balance. A gentleman's gun

actually thinking about it..this is the origonal two groove barrel

Here it is
The Russian variation used the Brunswick rifling in the Luttich Rifle and Carbine.

The conical was a slight ballistic improvement
Circa 1843

ok so it runs a round ball with a ring of saturn right around it...so....a squat mini with a tit on each side would utilize the rifling the same way...... IF a hole of correct diameter was bored into a block,with two smaller holes bored at 12 n 6;00 before main hole was drilled you would in effect have a short slug with two bumps on each side......maybe??? maybe not feasable.....I just love the concept...its like a rifled slug with the same rifling on barrel.

Originally Posted by Micky Duck

ok so it runs a round ball with a ring of saturn right around it...so....a squat mini with a tit on each side would utilize the rifling the same way...... IF a hole of correct diameter was bored into a block,with two smaller holes bored at 12 n 6;00 before main hole was drilled you would in effect have a short slug with two bumps on each side......maybe??? maybe not feasable.....I just love the concept...its like a rifled slug with the same rifling on barrel.

Well M.D. there was a conical with wings that fitted into two mechanical grooves

I just can't remember what it's called

now THAT would not be that hard to do....