Bore question

[jmf]

What do you make of a bore like this in an 1800’s caplock?

[rich pierce]

Seems like somebody worked on the muzzle.

[Daryl]

That's my guess. It's also been fired without being cleaned. Looks like a fairly steep "pitch" in the rifling as well.

[Tanselman]

Looks like it was reamed out to create a shallow chamber to accept the ball and patch more easily and prevent fumbling, before ramming/pushing the ball down the barrel.

Shelby Gallien

[jmf]

Yeah it seems like for starting ease, but I was more amazed at the rifling. Ive never seen such a twist rate.

[Bill Paton]

The appearance of the rate of twist in an image depends on the focal length at which the image was taken. If the camera is set on wide angle, the twist seems slow. If it is set on telephoto, the twist rate seems very fast.

The muzzle recess in this barrel looks much like that of Hall breechloaders. They had a similar recess in the rifling to facilitate loading if the gun had to be charged from the muzzle.

Bill Paton

[jmf]

Thanks Bill, but are you saying one can’t believe their lying eyes? I wasn’t aware that cell phone cameras had wide angle or telephoto lenses. I guess I learned something new today!

[Daryl]

TC did that to some guns a while back, about an inch deep - according to the advertisement.

[heinz]

Guessing a bit, that might be a gain twist for a Pickett bullet, with the rebate near the muzzle taking the  place of the bullet starter?  Pickett bulletts are notoriously hard to keep lined up without mechanical help.

[jmf]

Thank you Heinz, That makes more sense to me than anything I could come up with. I do remember reading about those sugarloafs in Ned Roberts book, but have never seen one up close. Would a sleeve be needed to sit in the recess to aid in keeping the pickett bullet straight?

[Daryl]

That is doubtful. I've never seen an original muzzle bored to that design.
What I have seen a lot, is Remington barrels with the outside of the muzzle turned, for a guild bullet starter.
In order to have the sugar-loaf or picket bullet load straight, the starter must be used, which has close fitting rod
with the appropriate bullet nose shape cut into it, then also the ram rod must also have this centering feature.
The muzzle shown appears to be someone's idea of making it easier to load, perhaps to get the ball or bullet down
into the bore a ways to negate the use of a short starter/bulger/peg.

[jmf]

The barrel is marked underneath.