These old pistol barrels

[JamesT]

  I've had this pair laying around for about 10 years now. I had removed the breech plugs and liberally applied anti seize. They are not tightened all the way. Barrels measure 8 1/8" in length and the bores measure .570 the touch holes were drilled to proof them I assume. They appear to be positioned very low. I would imagine these are from mid to late 19th century. Can you date them? What do you all think of them? Could they be used for a project?

[Mike Brooks]

They are unusable with the low vent holes. Dixie gunworks used to sell these, they are Belgian.

[bob in the woods]

I 'm wondering out loud as to whether or not it would be feasible to install a vent liner, and thus move that vent hole up ?

[JamesT]

I was wondering about the possibility of a liner myself. Why on Earth would the holes be placed where they are?

[AsMs]

I was wondering about the possibility of a liner myself. Why on Earth would the holes be placed where they are?

Looks like the tang is not in all the way.  It is not in line with the top of the barrel with the London Mark.  That is why the vent looks low.

AsMs

[Mike Brooks]

I have seen these barrels for sale before and the vent holes are actually as low as they look. Why, I don't know. It appears they intended the vent hole to be at the bottom of the pan.....not a great thing in my estimation.

[Longknife]

No biggie, make a vent liner or get a commercial one and install higher to cover touch hole, I believe liners are available in 1/4, 5/16 and 3/8,,,,,Ed

https://www.trackofthewolf.com/Search.aspx?search=touch%20hole

[Hungry Horse]

Everybodies right. The breechplug are not tightened, so it makes the touchhole position look worse than it is. But, the touch hole is too low. The fix is an oversized touch hole liner. For some reason almost all the early importers did this. I put a 5/16” liner in one of those sea service smoothbore pistols, and it worked like a champ. You just have to drill a pilot hole where you want the touch hole to be, and then drill it out with the proper number drill for the tap, easy pleasey.

 Hungry Horse

[Vicanddogs]

Looks like the plugs have been turned in past original fitting the U filed in the top of barrel and tang doesn’t line up

[mark esterly]

the o p stated that the plugs were removed and not tightened all the way to proper position.
 

[Daryl]

The bottom, dirty barrel's vent is very slightly higher than the left one & might be OK, or not.
Just an observation.

[rich pierce]

Some blasphemy here but drilling, tapping, and putting a threaded rod in a misaligned hole to plug it is safe.  If it wasn’t, breech plugs, drums, and vent liners would not be safe. 

[RichG]

well, if you can't use them I'd be willing to try one.

[JamesT]

Thanks for all the replies guys. I'm not sure if I'd try to install the liner myself or not. Can anyone give some specifics on them or when they were made ? Value? Like Mike Brooks said they do look like Liege Belgium proofs.

[RichG]

Quick internet search. The letters in the circle are Liege Belgium for muzzle loading pistol barrels for export, and the backwards "P" is for 1978. Don't know about the star above the P or the 144.

[Mike Brooks]

Thanks for all the replies guys. I'm not sure if I'd try to install the liner myself or not. Can anyone give some specifics on them or when they were made ? Value? Like Mike Brooks said they do look like Liege Belgium proofs.

Value? They don't have any to me. To you they might be worth 1K. Who knows what they me be cast from. Just because they have proofs doesn't mean they were actually proofed.

[jerrywh]

 I agree with AsMs. The breech plugs don't go with those barrel or are not in all the way.  That will help a lot in repositioning the vent holes. Those barrels look like Naval Bronze.

[rich pierce]

In the first post it was stated the breechplug was deliberately not screwed all the way in.