Making a Short Land Brown Bess

[smart dog]

Hi Folks,
My shop focused on making Rev War period military arms for much of this summer.  We completed a Ferguson rifle and a short land pattern Brown Bess.  We have another short land on the way.  We also completely reworked Miroku Bess and Charleville muskets.  My apprentice, Maria, worked as armorer at events held at Ethan Allen's homestead, Hubbardton battlefield, Fort Ticonderoga, and Fort at No. 4.  It was a busy summer.  Here is one of the short land King's pattern muskets (Brown Bess).  We started with a plank of walnut and a mix of parts.

 


Bess barrels are not hard to inlet because for most of their length they are almost straight tubes.  Is is just the rear 12" that changes a lot.  On this gun, we used a Pedersoli barrel.  We could not wait for the Rifle Shoppe to provide barrels for the short lands so we used ones taken from Pedersoli and Miroku muskets.  They are very fine barrels but a bit undersized so we had to take measures to keep the stock dimensions close to the originals. 







The lock on this gun was made using a TRS lock plate, frizzen, and flint cock, combined with Miroku internal parts and hand forged feather and main springs.  The Japanese tumbler needed reshaping as do all the commercial Bess reproductions. The lock is good and unlike the repros, would actually have passed British ordnance inspection.

















Maria inlet the lock and the mortise matched the originals very closely.









dave

[smart dog]

Hi,
No task is very hard in making a Bess but it really helps to have accurate drawings and to have handled original guns.  During the process I visited the collections at Fort Ticonderoga to view some originals to add to my library of data on originals.  The curator, Matt Keagle, brought out several guns from the Robert Nittolo collection, which the Fort recently purchased. I was able to measure 2 short lands and checked the dimensions of our copies.  We were right on the money despite the smaller barrels. We installed all the components.  This gun has a steel ramrod.







Then shaped the stock.



















One secret to making an authentic looking King's musket is to get the right butt plate.  It should be 5 1/4" to 5 3/8" tall and at least 2" wide.  The plates on the repros are too small.  You can see the difference here comparing a Miroku stock with ours and at the bottom a Pedersoli with a correct butt plate.  Our plate was a long land pattern casting from Goehring that we shaped into ashort land plate. It was a little small so we stretched it and widened it using a cross peen hammer.
 









Our stocks are American black walnut but the originals were English walnut.  Actually, during the Rev War, the British imported a lot of walnut from Italy.  Anyway, we had to stain the stock to look like English walnut.  We first painted it black with a dilute black aniline dye during the whiskering process.  It got completely scraped off but left pigment in the pores of the wood.  That helps give the stock an older mellow look. 
   



After scraping and sanding with 120 grit, we stained the stock yellow with aniline dye.  That killed the cold purple-brown of the black walnut.



The finish was Sutherland-Welles polymerized tung oil wiping varnish.  There is a false notion among many reenactors that the muskets had a dark, dull, in the wood linseed oil finish.  That is rubbish.  The originals were painted with a heavy coat of a linseed oil and copal resin varnish.  They were not about to finish muskets with oil that would take months to dry if ever.  The finish is a bit glossy.
   


dave

[smart dog]

Hi,
Here is the finished musket.  The owner, who works at Old Sturbridge Village in MA, reenacts Massachusetts  militia during Battle Road and Bunker Hill and aso Warner's Regiment, the Green Mountain Boys. He wanted a gun that could have been captured from a British soldier during the retreat from Concord or Bunker Hill.  To that end, a "TOWER" assembled pattern 1769 short land musket would be in the hands of some of the light infantry at that time.  Most soldiers still had long land besses. One unit that could be a source for this gun was the light infantry of the 4th regiment of foot, the King's Own Regiment.  So I engraved K's Own Reg't on the barrel and 10 over 23 on the wrist plate. The company of light Bobs were added to the regiment in 1771 so they might have a higher company number, hence the 10.  The 23 is the rack or soldier number of the gun.  I still need to add the proof and inspection marks and also tarnish the barrel but here is the gun essentially finished.

 
























Now on to finishing the second short land.

dave

[rich pierce]

Mighty fine!

[Robert Wolfe]

Thanks for posting.

[Daryl]

The colour is just GREAT!!! - wonderful work.

[smart dog]

Hi,
Thanks for looking guys.  I tarnished the barrel and added a "white lightning" vent liner.  I install the liner on all these muskets because reliable ignition is a safety feature even during reenactments using only powder.  With live firing ball, it is critical for safety.  I don't expect the owner to do much live firing but his gun will be safe and reliable if he does.  In this case, I bought liners made of carbon steel from Barbie Chambers rather than stainless steel. That way it disappears in the barrel and will tarnish with it.
 


I drilled out the hole to 5/64", which works really well with these big musket barrels.  I've developed a way to stamp ordnance and maker's marks on these barrels.  The steel in Pedersoli and Miroku barrels is really tough and difficult to stamp.  I have the appropriate stamps.  So I pressed the stamps into an ink pad and stamped paper.  I then scanned those stamped images and brought them into Powerpoint so I can reverse them and print them on to transparency sheet.  Then using Tom White's "Transfer Magic" solution, I transferred the marks to the barrel and engraved them.  The engraving is not hard. Finally, I used the engravings to lock the stamps into position on the barrel, and hammered the stamps with a ball peen hammer. It worked. 



Next, I added the store keeper's mark on the butt stock.



Then the crown and crown over inspector's number behind the trigger guard.



Finally, I turned the Pedersoli ramrod tip, which is an incorrectly shaped flat button, into the proper rounded button shape.




I also added production marks on the stock and parts.  The bottom of the barrel is stamped "DP" for me and "MG" for Maria and then I engraved "Braintree Hill".

I will test fire the musket this week.

dave

[Tim Crosby]

because reliable ignition is a safety feature even during reenactments using only powder. 

 Dave, what kind of load do they use in them, powder and what?

    Thanks, Tim

[smylee grouch]

Wow, A two person production team. Maria and you have been very busy and making some super nice guns. Congrats to both of you.

[smart dog]

Hi Guys,
Thanks for commenting.  Smylee, I am down to just myself right now since Maria is at college.  I still have summer work to finish up. 

Tim, 90 grains of 2F, 0.710 caliber round balls, and 20 thousands patch works well.  I can shoot a 4-5" group at 50 yards with that load.  My biggest issue is aiming the musket because the stock does not have enough drop at heel to fit me and I have a hard time getting my cheek down on to the stock.  My sight picture always includes a lot of looking over the barrel.  The historical military load used 165 grains of powder and 0.69 caliber balls in a paper cartridge.  During loading, the paper cartridge was bit open and about 10-15 grains of powder poured into the pan, the frizzen is closed and the rest of the powder (150-155 grains) was poured down the barrel and the the ball still wrapped in the paper was rammed down on top. This facilitated fast loading but did not make a very good gas seal and accuracy was compromised. There are some records indicating they may have loaded with 210 grains of powder and 0.710 caliber balls while fighting in the Rev War.  The recoil must have been punishing.  Sergeants instructed their men to tuck the stock in tight so they did not get hurt.  The original barrels were much bigger in the breech than the modern repros.  Pedersoli and Miroku barrels are 1.2" diameter whereas the originals varied between 1.31 to 1.41"  in diameter.  It would be really punishing to used a historical load in a modern repro.

Below is a target shot with one of my recreated Brown Besses at 50 yards from a bench.  The shots labelled "A" were made with 90 gr 2F powder and 0.71" ball but no patch.  The others were wrapped in 20 thousands patches lubed with Ballistol and water.  I shot 2 very low, then corrected my sight picture and shot 2 more a bit higher.  Finally, I corrected again and fired 5 shots just to the left of center. 



I always seem to shoot these muskets with the same performance whether shooting from a bench or off hand.  It does not ever seem to matter as the results are the same.

dave

[Tim Crosby]

because reliable ignition is a safety feature even during reenactments using only powder. 

 Dave, what kind of load do they use in them, powder and what?

    Thanks, Tim

  Good info but I was interested in what the "reenactors" are using for a load. Powder and paper?

  Tim

[Daryl]

That's excellent shooting, Dave. Lots of guys cannot beat that or even meet it,  when shooting a rifle off the bench.
I am not surprised with the bare ball group size "A" in comparison, either.
Terrific musket, Marie!!

[smart dog]

because reliable ignition is a safety feature even during reenactments using only powder. 

 Dave, what kind of load do they use in them, powder and what?

    Thanks, Tim

             

  Good info but I was interested in what the "reenactors" are using for a load. Powder and paper?

  Tim

Hi Tim.
They just load loose powder without even a patch.  The loads vary person to person but I don't think they use more than 50-70 grains.  The gun sounds more like a "whoosh" than a bang.  They don't want smoldering shot patches or paper cartridges littering the battlefields so in most events they pocket the empty paper cartridges.  At some events, they are not even allowed to use their ramrods because of the risk that someone forgets to remove it and fires it down range.  I am hosting Warner's regiment at my home and property on Oct 14 & 15 so they can do live fire practice on my range.  I'll have standard round targets for them to shoot at 25 and 50 yards on Saturday and then silhouettes and gongs at 30 and 60 yards on Sunday.  Half the regiment are ex-Army or marines so they know their way around the guns. However, many of the younger guys and even some of the veterans have never fired a round from their muskets at a target.  It will be an eye opener for many of them because they will have to aim and hit a mark.  They will find that their modern Italian, Japanese, and India-made repros with 10-20 lbs triggers are difficult to shoot accurately.  Moreover, during the frequent misfires at events they typically just empty the gun by tipping the muzzle down if they cannot get it to go off.  That is not so easy when loaded with a patched bullet.  So they are going to learn how to keep their guns firing reliably and safely.

dave

[Daryl]

Cool! Both of Taylor's Bess' have been quite accurate. I attribute that to the large bore size and his use of a .715" ball and .022" patch in the .75 bl. and a .735" ball and .030" patch in the 10 bore barrel of his second musket.
Yeah, it is snug, but loads easily.

[Tim Crosby]

because reliable ignition is a safety feature even during reenactments using only powder. 

 Dave, what kind of load do they use in them, powder and what?

    Thanks, Tim

             

  Good info but I was interested in what the "reenactors" are using for a load. Powder and paper?

  Tim

Hi Tim.
They just load loose powder without even a patch.  The loads vary person to person but I don't think they use more than 50-70 grains.  The gun sounds more like a "whoosh" than a bang.  They don't want smoldering shot patches or paper cartridges littering the battlefields so in most events they pocket the empty paper cartridges.  At some events, they are not even allowed to use their ramrods because of the risk that someone forgets to remove it and fires it down range.  I am hosting Warner's regiment at my home and property on Oct 14 & 15 so they can do live fire practice on my range.  I'll have standard round targets for them to shoot at 25 and 50 yards on Saturday and then silhouettes and gongs at 30 and 60 yards on Sunday.  Half the regiment are ex-Army or marines so they know their way around the guns. However, many of the younger guys and even some of the veterans have never fired a round from their muskets at a target.  It will be an eye opener for many of them because they will have to aim and hit a mark.  They will find that their modern Italian, Japanese, and India-made repros with 10-20 lbs triggers are difficult to shoot accurately.  Moreover, during the frequent misfires at events they typically just empty the gun by tipping the muzzle down if they cannot get it to go off.  That is not so easy when loaded with a patched bullet.  So they are going to learn how to keep their guns firing reliably and safely.

dave

  I would imagine they get pretty dirty with just powder so at least they have some experience cleaning them   That should be an interesting weekend.

  Thanks, Tim

[PK1979]

They will find that their modern Italian, Japanese, and India-made repros with 10-20 lbs triggers are difficult to shoot accurately.  Moreover, during the frequent misfires at events they typically just empty the gun by tipping the muzzle down if they cannot get it to go off.  That is not so easy when loaded with a patched bullet.  So they are going to learn how to keep their guns firing reliably and safely.

Forgive my naivete, but I just had my first opportunity to shoot a Bess reproduction (Pedersoli I believe), and it indeed had about a 9 lb trigger pull. Is that not historically correct?

I will say, the trade fowler I shot alongside the SLP, with a 2-3 lb trigger, was more pleasant to shoot by some margin.

[Daryl]

The loose ball 3-shot group marked A, compared to the patched 'groups' kinda tells a story, doesn't it?

[smart dog]

Hi Daryl,
It sure does.  Click on the link below to see videos of some of Warner's regiment live firing their muskets.  Virtually all of the guns used were either built by Maria and me or we worked them over.  The one gun you see that misfires is the only musket we did not build or refurbish.

https://www.facebook.com/pfbid02qxGw1k8D2MqyCn9QsptaWw84tv1w5nYQwJ3vtHEBDsmmkG7thwMaQKSXfYyrSm96l/videos/pcb.10163170503449838/664335242477181

dave

[flatsguide]

Dave, thanks for the great photos and write-up. I learned a lot.
Thanks,
CheersRichard

[Daryl]

Thanks Dave. Ignition appeared as good as any flint rifle I've seen. Nice.
Not having a face-book account, I was only able to see the fellow shooting a 'live' round. Make Ready --- Fire/boom.