Belgian Smoothy

[Metalshaper]

found one of those Belgian made 'Trade' gun/smooth bores a few weeks back. you know the ones with the HUGE lock hanging on its side ( that takes two hands to cock the hammer  )
half stocked and with the lil wire ramrod  passing through the one remaining/unsoldered pipe...  this one turned out to be a 20 gauge. Solid but pretty crusted up with gunk and grime over it. The barrel wasn't exactly sewer pipe condition, but yeah rusty and dusty for sure. Barrel is 1" acf at the breech.. tapered octagon for about 12" then transitions to round after some filed in 'rings' around the top half. about 33.5" long and approx. 0.75 at the muzzle.

So here is where I'm at and what I'm thinking. Have the parts off/apart and degreased.. ran the works through a batch of Evapo-rust and brushed with wire brushes to get most of the oxides off the thing.   with the breech plug out, I turned a reaming head out of hard nylon to get ready to ream and clean the bore. hoping the bore is solid enough after reaching 0.625-.63 that I can reline it with the piece of chromoly I bought? .625" OD by .035 walls making it a .555 bore.

From there, what do you think?? Opinions??? a Smooth rifle..or a trade gun??? The lock is HUGE about the same overall as a Brown Bess.. 6.375-6.5" x 1.2" plate. Not really sure is my eye sees that lock being right for that kind of gun?< would need to rebuild it and put it on a bit of a diet to make it usable >  May use this as an excuse to finally make my own lock?? have planks of walnut to use, so stock wood is not an issue..

So, what does the Gang think??

Respect Always
Metalshaper/Jonathan

[redheart]

I think that in most cases trying to turn a sows ear into a silk purse usually turns out to be a regrettable waste of valuable time.
You should sell this thing for a wall hanger and use the money to buy good parts to assemble a good gun. Just sayin.

[Metalshaper]

I think that in most cases trying to turn a sows ear into a silk purse usually turns out to be a regrettable waste of valuable time.
You should sell this thing for a wall hanger and use the money to buy good parts to assemble a good gun. Just sayin.

RH,

 Yes, true enough but I'm looking at it as a learning process. mainly interested in relining the barrel and using it for "another" gun.  I believe the barrel is sound enough for that.

The rest of it is questionable in style and such that they really don't fit or belong on any gun without work.. ( at least to my eye ) rebuilding the lock is another matter of learning for me. Figure out how bad this one is and seeing what could be done differently to make it useful..   if for nothing more than lighting tinder or showing at demonstrations??


I'm not a prolific builder, by any means. I'm self taught in almost every skill I have, so the Challenge for me is to learn...

I appreciate your reasoning and thank you for it!!

Respect Always
Jonathan