Home Forums Hunting & Shooting BPCR Well, I went and did it.

After measuring, remeasuring, etc, I took this old Civil War Allen & Wheelock Drop Breech originally chambered in 44 Henry and made it work with something a little more conventional.

I haven't got an overall pic, but here's a stock photo of the gun:



This was designed by Ethan Allen, (not that one, the other one) at the latter portion of the War of Northern Aggression, and saw limited production (<2000 or so) and reportedly limited use by the militia in Yankee states, but what the hell - I liked it.

I rechambered it to 44 special. Seemed to be the best fit to the current chamber if I wanted to use the barrel - which I did, considering the bore looked sweet.






The rifling is pretty aggressive in rifling depth, 0.430/0.412 so lead bullets are a must. No problemo. Saeco #446 ordered and received. Also, given the frame age, black powder only is in order. No problemo. Got a case of FFFg.

I had to re-align the free floating firing pin from its rimfire alignment to centerfire, which I did, filling the old channel and checking protrusion.



Finally got it all together and took out a test round.



Primo.

I marveled at the simplicity of the gun



But the real surprise into form and function came when I was taking repeat shots.



Not a bad get up for 150 year old gun...

Very nice!!! Looks like a fun little piece!!!!

Outstanding!

Are you going to deer hunt with it this year?

Ed

Absolutely.

I got my stunt shooting meat rifles ready to fill the freezer, but I suspect my "me" time in the field will be spent with this and the underhammers.

The gun I have has a post hole for a tang site as opposed to the ladder sight in the pic. The post insert is split and has a lock nut to tighten it at elevation.

It is about 0.22" diameter, so I will need to work something up for that. Figure I'll flatten the front and mark ranges on the flat side.


I have the Merit adjustable sight waiting in a box, to put in the post and a KNS crosshair sight for the front.

Sweet rifle! hope to see it with a Nice deer!

Here's the payload.



Pulled a 3" group at 40 yesterday. I really need to replace the current front sight with a flat blade in lieu of getting the peep working.

OOOOO...Those will leave a mark!

Ed

Very nice. What do you think your loads are doing? 900-1000 fps?

That's ballpark. The calcs say 1063, but I'll chrony it when I get a chance.

With a bore that's 430/412 and a bullet thats 430/411 at the bullet neck before the ogive, there's not a lot of room for blow by. It's taking it all.

I like happy beginnings.

Had an old Reinhard picket rifle for some time that now resides in his museum in Ohio. .38 bore and .416 groove it had. Shot old school picket bullets (sugarloaf) pretty well, but there was some head scratching involved in sorting out the patch dims.