Thread: Interchangeable barreled muzzle loader

I have a 50cal muzzle loader which has been my baby for the last 10 years i have won numerous black powder shoots with her

Anyway recently i had the absolute pleasure of meeting doug @homebrew.357 who if you have read his post's on here you will know that he's very talented on the tools and has bult a barrel rifleing machine
Doug very kindly gifted me a 45 cal muzzle loader barrel he had built
That i was planning to build a rifle arround but an idea came to me (why not just fit the barrel into my existing rifle and make it a quick change barrel?) a quick pm to doug with the idea and I got a reply "easy"

So a visit and a few measurements later a drawing for a new breach plug and bolster to suit my rifle was born
Doug worked his magic and dropped the new breach plug off yesterday
Doug built it very slightly over size and yesterday arvo was me smoking the part fileing the contact points smokeing and fileing again to insurer a snug fit
After a couple of hours work I got this

Dougs barrel perfectly fitted to my un modified action
(Its missing its barrel retaining pin for now hence tape)

Now the new breach plug is raw steel and needs blueing so I thought id redo the hole barrel so it matches
So this afternoon I started with this


I then wet sanded with 320gt wet and dry to this

Then 600gt wet sand

Then 1000gt and finally 0000 steel wool wet sand/polish


Ready for blue tomorrow
Cheers
Darryn

Hooked breech the classic method of fixing, it also makes cleaning so much easier. Very smart guys

All done
About 20 passes with cold blue

Originally Posted by Marty Henry

Hooked breech the classic method of fixing, it also makes cleaning so much easier. Very smart guys

Yeah its just the same setup as the original barrel
Very good for the interchange barrel idea as it only has one retaining pin which easily pulls out by hand
The barrels could be swapped in well under 30 seconds

So youll be thinking about a shotgun barrel next? Ive had a crack at ducks with my 58 zouve and a shot charge a few years ago didnt get any because I was too slow with the 2nd shot but it has been done.

nah smoothbore maybe not to use as a shotgun i shoot a double barrel Damascus steel cartridge gun i don’t shoot ducks just clays

Gees, That`s a fantastic bit of work there Rambo, looks better than my new one, wanta swop!!. No barrel making machine!, it`s just add on bits to my lathe . Glade it`s gone to a good home and now is the fun part, seeing if you can get it to shoot at what you point it at. my load was 50grs 3f, patched .440 ball, I can see some competition coming on there.

Yeah a bit of sanding involved I started at 6pm last night and took me till 12:30 this morning to get it to a nice 1200gt finish ready for blue
I gave it a good coat of oil to be sure no rust formed on the raw steel over night
I then typed this post before hitting the sack at 1:30am this morning

This arvo i fully degreesed the barrel and gave it a final polish with 1200
Before doing 20 coats of blue to get a nice finish

I always say 90% of a good finish is in prep with cold blue ive found from previous projects that you need to get a real nice polished finish on the steel to get a good finish

I will give the barrel a real good test with all driffrent balls patches and powder to really get the most out of it what I would really like to do is win a competition with it but till im confident with a good load ill be sticking to the 50cal barrel as that thing is a absolute tack driver with 45gn swiss 2Fg .490 ball and .20thou oxy oak patch it will put them through the same hole at 25m and shoot tiny groups at 50m

Impressive accuracy, whats your cleaning between shots regieme and is the patch greased or spit? That seems like a low load of powder for a round ball, but if it gives that accuracy I must give it a crack.

Hmmm, Maybe I should have a changeable barrel as well, a .45 and a .50 , all I would need is a .482' gun drill ,

brew ya bugger ya at it again-well bloody done guys pretty impressive all round!

Cleaning what cleaning thats the awesome thing with swiss powder it is a traditional black powder but the charcoal they use fouls very little it depends on atmospheric conditions but can easily get 10 accurate shots with no wipers sometimes more
Swiss is also hotter which means my 45gn load is the same as arround 55gn of something like holy smoke or goex its got its bad points though like it wears out nipples quick
Its $90 per $500gm though so pretty expensive

Patches are .20 oxi-oak wonderlube
Balls are 490 home cast
Scored a 93 out of 100 the other day 50m 13 shot vetterli the other day

@Marty Henry you don't need a huge charge and infact going to hot can lower accuracy
Shooting round ball shoots we are only punching paper so you don't need a big charge
If you're rifle shoots a light charge well I know a guy who's sholder is stuffed meaning he can't handle recoil he has a 45 and only shoots 25gns gets there and punches holes in paper which is all he needs

I shoot 45 of 2f in my 45-70 also with cork wad

I use swiss or gowex whichever i can get and usually buy bulk as supply seems erratic. Never tried the local brew holy smoke or 777. Mostly load shotty, and cartridge rifles but the 58 is a lot of fun and im starting to hunt a bit with it now so oomph is important.

@Marty Henry Mate you need to plan to come down to (or up in your case) to mountain man its a week long shoot held by the nz black powder shooters federation between Boxing Day and New Years day on a farm just north of huntly