Brass Barreled NW Trade Gun

[gizamo]

Picked it up late today.  Sorry for the poor quality indoor pics.  Better ones soon.

Terry Briggs built this gun a couple of years ago. Re-purposed a original barrel an modified a Bess lock. The trigger came out of the early parts bin. The original breech was still perfect.  The barrel is 32 inches and it is a 69 caliber.

[rich pierce]

That's a dandy!

[wattlebuster]

I like that an I love them big bore guns

[WaterFowl]

Hand Cannon! what does it weight? where's the balance point? is it smooth bore?Very interesting!

[Bill of the 45th]

Lucky Bugger!  great Squirrel/lCanoe gun.

Bill

[Hungry Horse]

I would be very careful with an antique barrel. And at 32" long if it fails, it may not be the first time, it probably was longer in the past. IMO life is too short to roll the dice on a barrel made when standards were a little sketchy.

  Hungry Horse

[Eric Kettenburg]

I have to second that; not to !$@! in your corn flakes, as it's a great looking gun and I absolutely love the brass barrel, but there is no way on this planet you could pay me enough money to shoot a 200 year old brass barrel.  I value my fingers, and eyes, and arterial blood supply far too much.  It only takes one time out of 1000, or 2000, or   I don't like to gamble, I'm not a lucky guy.  I would sincerely recommend sending the barrel to Bob Hoyt to have it lined with... something, albeit smaller bore obviously, if you insist upon shooting it.  Even then, I would personally be thinking about the durability of those breech threads constantly. 

Super cool looking piece otherwise!

[gizamo]

Good suggestion on lining the barrel. Hoyt  will be getting a call. I wanted a 20 gauge anyway.  The barrel and breach were both carefully examined. The gun was proofed. Then shot a good bit before I bought it. For now it's going to be a conversation piece/ wall hanger.

[TMerkley]

Just a question,
Was the brass barrel more common at that time for Naval purposes due to the Salty environment?

I know there aren't a lot of original brass barreled arms.  They may have been melted down for other stuff...

[Eric Kettenburg]

There are a goodly number of what appear to be naval blunderbusses and musketoons built w/ brass barrels.  It's not my specific area of interest but I know I've seen a few.  It offers decent resistance against environmental corrosion in damp or salty environments.  What it does not offer is good material breakdown resistance in the presence of sulfuric or ammonia based conditions, both typical to blackpowder use.  I have seen a LOT of old brass that has become very, very brittle - almost like glass.

[Seth Isaacson]

Lots of British pistols, blunderbusses, and musketoons were made with brass barrels. A decent amount also have nearly all brass parts. I've yet to see one that was "glass like." All but a few of the thin walled pistol barrels have been very sturdy. I'm sure a properly tested antique barrel can be safe to use. It sounds like everything was carefully looked over and proofed.

[Eric Kettenburg]

Well I can tell you 100% I have seen a lot of old brass that I would describe as 'glass like;' you can easily take a piece between your fingers and snap it or, if thin enough, actually crumble it into pieces.  Seen it, done it, worked with I can't even count how many guns carrying it and sure not going to shoot a 250 year old barrel made out of it.  Nor do I think that proofing old barrels in any way indicates safety because the proofer, unless he is xraying or magnafluxing it or something like that, has no way of knowing what stresses, cracks or fissures he may have just aggravated.

[BOB HILL]

Eric, fully agree on the brittle old brass. Seen plenty of it.....Bob

[Smoketown]

Amoniated cleaners were causing a LOT of cracking when used on cartridge brass.

Cheers,
Smoketown 

[gizamo]

Great discussion...  Wonder if the barrel is actually brass?  Perhaps it's bronze.

Is there a easy test to tell the difference.

[Eric Kettenburg]

I'm not sure if there is any kind of test you could undertake that would not be either destructive (i.e. chemical, or a sample being needed) or very expensive (non-destructive spectrography).  Either way, though, I don't think it would matter because both materials can become brittle with age and environmental exposure.

I want to reiterate, I don't mean to $#@* on your thread here because it's a super cool looking piece!  It really looks fantastic.  I just cringe a little at the idea of using such a barrel un-lined w/ a piece of modern barrel steel and as I've gotten older I notice I've gotten a lot less reckless than I used to be.  I guess I'm becoming a scaredy-cat hahahahaha!