Smooth bore 69 cal. muzzle loader

[Jbob]

I've had this one around for many years and used it to take Deer and Turkeys although you need to be pretty close using mixed shot.
12 gauge wadding fits perfect so I just load it as you would any muzzle loading shot gun using a mix of different size pellets according to what I'm hunting.
Can anyone tell me anything about this rifle made in Belgium by the Spasco Corporation ?

[Junk Yard Dog]

I am not familiar with that company offhand, just another outfit providing reproduction front stuffers to the US market I would guess. Ever since the 1950's demand for stuff like this has steadily climbed. I have a .69 but it's the 1816 Harpers Ferry flinter by Pedersoli of Italy. Simple to shoot, I just rub a .30 round cleaning patch with bore butter and stuff it down with the round ball, it's a basic combination that has worked well, or will until I run out of that bag of round patches.

[Jbob]

This one was dirty and black as coal when I first got it many years back looking very old. Have no idea of the age or anything else about it. Fun shooter, does a really good job plucking a strutting gobbler at 30 yards.
I keep my mixed rounds in plastic 35mm camera film bottles, everything from bb's up to 45 cal slugs in size.

[bunkysdad]

I like it. It has a great look to it.

[Jbob]

I like it. It has a great look to it.

I usually wrap it in camo tape from one end to the other when I have it out in the woods. I've also had this one on the field here at Civil War reenactments several years back shooting at Yankee folks.

[Junk Yard Dog]

Buck and Ball loads? You can shoot at Yankee folks but remember they all come from Massachusetts, Maine, Vermont, Connecticut, New Hampshire, and Road Island, not New York. You can shoot the ones from Jersey if you want

[OLd_Sarg]

I have to cast up some .69 and .71 caliber balls and shoot my unfired (and nearly unsnapped!) 80's vintage Brown Bess Pedersoli that I bought very cheap at an estate sale about 6 weeks ago. the wood work and parts fine is exceptional on this piece.

BTW it is .75 caliber

[bunkysdad]

Well Sarg, let's see it. Sounds great.

[Junk Yard Dog]

All the Brown Bess muskets were in the .75 family, measurement's today are very precise, but the originals could be a bit erratic when it came to uniform bore size. Close was good enough. The French muskets were .69 as were our first smoothbores, but then they were pretty much copy's of the latest French muskets.

[OLd_Sarg]

I found out I need a better camera, or I have to take my Brown Bess outside to get a picture of it, I cant get back far enough to get the firearm in one frame in my shop, maybe I need a panorama camera

anyway, I cast some .69 balls for it and now trying to come up with a dowel the correct size to roll some paper cartridges for it.
and .69 balls take a lot of lead out of the pot fast!

[entropy]

about 12 to the pound.

[Tourblanche]

It is a long story .

.69 " was " 18 balles à la livre de France " 18 balls per french pound ( 489 grams )

as comparaison , the actual 20 ga/.62 ' ( 20 balls to the english pound / 453,5 grams ) was 28 balls to the french pound .

The history of gun making in the city of Liège ( Luik in flemish ) is a long one . So.... in the early years of the american civil war
the various Belgian factories sold weapons to the Confederates and bought them back years later when muzzleloaders became obsolete .

Said muzzleloaders were rebuilt in various configurations to be sold in Africa and South America . Some of those composite were ... well ... " interesting " . As old part became scarce , some substitutes were made . Some barrels were high pressure seamless tubes .



Later in time , Americans started the black powder revival just in time for the last days of the Liège gunsmiths .

Here is a catalog from the "60 on this page , your gun is in it .... or one very similar .

http://www.littlegun.be/arme%20belge/ar ... k%20fr.htm

[Tourblanche]

Some of you may remember this

http://i156.photobucket.com/albums/t3/T ... 59699c.jpg

This one is mine ,

http://i156.photobucket.com/albums/t3/T ... 010430.jpg

It is somewhat historic .... but it would be a looong story .

[Tourblanche]

More info about Liège gunsmiths

http://www.1960nma.org/Hanquets/Hanquet ... 030109.htm

http://www.littlegun.be/arme%20belge/a% ... e%20gb.htm