Played a bit yesterday afternoon with a Toradar/Torador folks.
I'd fixed the shattered stock some time ago.
Why I like different, I don't know. Maybe someone can help me out? (Therapy?)
As these guns usually had a powder chamber that took a huge load, (around 200 -240 grains being common) I felt lucky when this one had only a slight tightening at the breech instead.
(powder chamber was usually in the form of a truncated cone, largest at the breech face, and narrowing at front so a ball will not pass through. )
This one is from Jaipur arsenal, in Rajasthan, and would be a hunting gun. It is long and heavy!
As these did not change much over the hundreds of years, they are hard to date, but this one seems about late 18th-earloy 19th C.
It takes a .535" ball with no patch. Bore still a little rough for a patch.
The original wadding was dried cow dung! Very cheap around here so I tried it. Dry is best!
First shots were with 2 1/2 drams of 1 -F as coarse powder seems to have been used. At 60 yards, the hits were low and a bit spread. (smooth bore, or fairly smooth anyway!)
It goes off like greased lightning with hemp matchcord soaked in wood ashes, with 4 F priming powder.
After a decent few shots, I wondered, seeing as they originally used a lot more powder how a double dose would work. It went off with a fair crack with 5 drams!
The cow dung seems to work very well for sealing the bore. :-) This charge brought op the POI to Point of aim, so knew we were on the right track.
as the groups were a bit wide, I tried it at 30 yards , and we seem to be on the money. it really dents quarter inch plate.
I had two old felt 20-bore wads I'd picked up while checking targets, and with these , it was more accurate than with the cow dung! Shame, as cow dung comes free.
Here are a couple of photos of the 30 yard shots.
the two at the left are with cow dung wads, and the right two are with the felt wads.
The latter put deeper dents in the target.
Seems I need to now try felt wads at the 60 yard target.
Please pardon the not a long rifle, but it Is long, so we're half way right!
The two circled shots were with felt.
2 swallows don't make a summer, but worth further trial....
