Shooting an original US M 1816 smooth bore musket

[fourfive8]

...continuation... begun in the Snider thread. I've had quite a time learning the ins and outs of and gearing up for this "poor man's" Brown Bess Since, IMO, to shoot its best using a cloth patch in lieu of a paper cartridge, this smooth bore needs a specific round ball diameter not available from Lee or other US makers. And for some reason most custom mold makers shy away from making round ball molds- I have no idea why?

I ordered a mold to drop a .680" roundball using near pure soft lead from Tanner in Essex, England. https://www.ballmoulds.com From time of ordering to delivery at my door in the US it took exactly three weeks- what a pleasant surprise! Many shooters and casters were worried that after the untimely passing of Jeff Tanner in 2018, the company would no longer be able to supply the specialty round ball mold market. I am pleased to confirm that the company is at this time doing well. Happy to give them a shout out.

In addition to getting set up to cast .680" round balls, I needed to re-harden the frizzen on this musket and temper it. I discovered the frizzen's hardened face was wearing through thus yielding inconsistent spark. I decided to give it a go. I'm always uneasy about working on old originals. But If I'm going to shoot this thing it has to spark! Spent some time gingerly hardening and tempering the frizzen so as not to damage it. There is always a risk of fracturing steel parts during the hardening quench or during use if the temper is not correct. But all went well and it now sparks consistently with common black English musket flints. I also ordered an extra mainspring just in case. Got it fitted to the lock and hardened and tempered without issue.

The brass Tanner molds are extremely easy to cast with and this one needed almost no break-in, dropping perfect round balls after the third cast with a melt temp of about 775' F. These molds fit on standard handles. The castings require the sprues to be snipped off after molding so I took a cheap pair of snips and ground the back to a convex surface to make for easier sprue snipping, hah!

Made another range trip this morning and no complaints! Quite a few shooters there and it seemed everyone wanted to check out the old gun! Always enjoy sharing info and history about these old shooters. I'm sure this one has a story to tell after almost 200 years.

Pics of Tanner RB mold (I like the KISS concept!), a ball with sprue, modified nipper, nipped sprue, and target from today- load was .680" ball, ticking patch, 70 gr FF BP.

 

[machinistbutler]

Man well done! I haven't played with black powder firearms yet, but I will.

Never enough time for all the fun things.

 

[Petey J]

There is a gentleman named Larry Callahan out of Missouri who makes excellent round ball moulds in any size you want. Very popular in the living history circles. I think he can be found through the Contemporary Longrifle Association. I have one of his in .595, that I got for a Fowler I no longer own.

 

[fourfive8]

@Petey J, Thanks, that's good info! Only blackpowder/muzzlelaoder cranks would understand. Has always seemed strange to me how few mold makers willing to mess with RB. I guess something about making a perfectly spherical cherry or setting up a mill to cut two matching hemispheres... or something?

 

[fourfive8]

Man well done! I haven't played with black powder firearms yet, but I will.

Never enough time for all the fun things.

Exactly. Never enough time! I have piddled with BP and muzzleloaders for a lot of years. Now and then I just have to step back, get away from modern, do some anachronism and go minimalist for awhile. They can be both exasperating and rewarding at the same time. I really don't demand too much from the old originals and am most concerned about not damaging them by shooting them. While the smoothbores aren't terribly accurate by our standards, some of the rifled guns can be scary accurate. Having said that, I would not want to be shot at by someone experienced in shooting a smoothbore. I have a couple of M1861s, an M1863 and an M1841, all original, that are consistently very accurate. Same goes for some of the black powder cartridge rifles like the Sharps M1874 and Rem Rolling Block. Still occasionally look at a target I shot with a modern C Sharps M1874 in 45-110 mounted with tang aperture rear and globe front a few years ago. 5 shots @50 yards that is literally one hole that I measured at about .1".