Where can I get parts???

[Bub524]

I'm interested in building a CW era rifle/musket. I have built many muzzleloaders, mostly flint long guns, in the last 30 years, but never a musket. I would like to try building one. The problem is I don't know where to get parts, --lock stock, barrel, etc. For flint guns I made a lot of the hardware, but can't cast the parts necessary for a musket. I know where to get parts for Rev war and fur trade, but not for CW. Repro parts are fine for the first one, I can worry about original parts for the next one.
Any help would be appreciated.

[Joe Plakis, 9575V]

Go to our main site page and click on links of interest. They are links to most of the sutlers that come to the fort.

If you go on gunbroker.com you can find good guns to use as parts, a lot of muskets have been chopped, but the locks and other parts are still good. Even Ebay from time to time has original parts at reasonable prices.

When you figure out what you want to build drop a post and the SAC committee might be able to help you out with a spec sheet for measurements.

[Scott Kurki, 12475]

One of my teamates from the 7th has just about anything you could want, original parts wise, Iam not sure of reproduction parts.

Terry Kirkpatrick
(434) 374-0756
vagunparts@verizon.net
199 Mill Village Circle
Clarksville, VA 23927-3216

[Edwin Flint, 8427]

I see Central Wisconsin on your post. If that is right, you can visit Lodgewood MFG. in Whitewater Wisconsin. Should have everything you need and if they don't, they can show you where to get it.

[Bub524]

Thanks guys. I can see a potentially EXPENSIVE road trip to Whitewater, Lodgewood, in my near furture. I'm going to try to hold off as long as I can, but......I'm not that strong sometimes.
Bob

[David Disher 12143]

Bub:

I have built 4 muskets in the last several years, and although there are many resources for parts, I will share what I got and where.

Stock: Dunlap Woodcrafts. They will have a top quality walnut stock for just about any gun you would want to build. Chantilly, VA 703-631-5147 (Wayne)

Barrel: Bobby Hoyt, The Freischutz Shop in PA. (717) 642-6696

Dan Whitacre, Whitacre Machine Shop, Winchester VA. (540) 877-1468

Parts: Lodgewood, also try S&S. Most of their parts are cast reproductions, but I found their castings were, for the most part, very close to the originals, if not exact copies. If you want to buy original parts, stick with Lodgewood, as they carry a lot and know their parts, and provide sound advice.

S&S, Glendale, NY (718) 497-1100 Phil

Have fun with your project!

David Disher

[J Weber 4114V]

You should refine your desires a bit then post about that firearm.Just about every type of musket and carbine used during the war has been built by someone here.Many can be made by reworking a existing repop. Or by using a combo of orgional and repo parts.And some are just not feasible to build with out a complete machine shop at hand.
As with most mechanical things there is more than one way

[Harry Gaul]

Bub,

I have a repro stock for sale. The stock is for a full length Civil War musket.

The stock is partailly completed. My best quess is that the stock is 85% finished. I will give you a 14 day trial period. This is an examination period. If you work on it, you bought the stock. The cost is 175.00 shipped to your site.

True Blue and Diamond Hard,
Harry Gaul
3rd US
3626 V

[Bub524]

Okay, thanks for the offer. I'm going to try to get to Lodgewood in the next week and see what they have.
Bob

[Johan Steele]

I might almost suggest a M1816/22 conversion or one of the Remington Maynard Conversions which would be rifled and sighted. Both are very underrepresented in the hobby of re-enacting and I've seen very few on the firing line. Both are fascinating arms and quite fun shooters.

FWIW an M1817 percussion conversion is a nice weapon as well, I've come to fully appreciate that arm.

Lodgewood can help you w/ pretty much anything you are looking for but GO THERE don't call or email an order.

One thing you have got to do is hold an original before you even think of repop parts... there is such a difference. Very few of the repop are anymore than an poor approximation of an original and that is really quite evident once you'vehandled and fired originals.

[S.Sullivan]

Before you head out to Lodgewood, make sure they are open the day you plan on arriving.
With the weather (snow) and time of the year their attendance may be spotty as THE worker has a life outside of Whitewater.
And yes, deal with them in person. Parts I ordered via e-mail in early October have still...
Make sure in your preliminary calls they understand your mission and financial limits as well.
S.Sullivan

[R. McAuley 3014V]

I might almost suggest a M1816/22 conversion or one of the Remington Maynard Conversions which would be rifled and sighted. Both are very underrepresented in the hobby of re-enacting and I've seen very few on the firing line. Both are fascinating arms and quite fun shooters.

As much as I like Remington Maynard Conversion (as John Holland can attest), one of the great drawbacks in shooting this particular musket is that the chamber is recessed into the patent breech and being slightly smaller in diameter than the bore, makes it difficult to keep the vent clear and the interior of the breech clean. Consequently, the chamber suffers erosion on a greater scale than some other arms, whether one uses this arm for reenacting or skirmishing. While this partly accounts for the fewer numbers appearing is use today, while there are plenty of lock parts for the Remington Maynard Conversion, no one is making the special patent breech required so unless you have a useable patent breech to build this particular musket, it’s far easier to build a Model 1842 because the parts are more readily available, as is the barrel.

Most CW models can be constructed from available parts or even from some replica parts, like the M-1855, M-1861, and Richmond muskets, though subtle differences exist between these. For example, while you can drop am M-1855 barrel in an M-1863 musket, you have to replace the hammer with either a M-1855 or M-1861, just as if you put a M-1861 barrel in a M-1855 stock, you have to replace the lock because the bolster won’t fit with the high hump lock. But this hasn’t prevented barrels from being swapped around as there are literally hundreds of Richmond musket, rifles, and carbine’s with M-1861 barrels. Much the same thing has occurred with the M-1842 muskets made by Palmetto Armory, except usually being a case of swapping the Springfield lock out with a Palmetto until you come across a Palmetto with a Harper Ferry-made barrel or a stock with Harpers Ferry inspection marks when the switch becomes more obvious.

While some models will interchange, just try swapping out an M-1861 mainspring with an M-1855 or vice versa, and see if they fit? Why else to you think the replica locks by Brian Haack, Nick Brevoort, or Rich Cross are made to use M-1861 parts and not M-1855 parts. It’s because the two mainsprings are not interchangeable. The upper branch of the M-1855 mainspring is shorter than the upper branch of the M-1861 mainspring, so while the replica locks may appear to be identical on the outside to their original counterparts, the design of the interior of these locks have been altered to permit use of the M-1861 mainspring and parts because many of the M-1861 parts continued to be used up through the M-1873, so cost less because they are easier to obtain.

I would suggest that the gentlemen perhaps consider building a M-1842 or even a M-1835 flintlock musket since both of these models were later altered by rifling and sighting for long range, and used essentially the same furniture parts set, which he could either use one of Dunlap’s stock or even original wood. Unless you obtain your M-1816 parts all from the same maker, while they may be fairly close in their dimensions, they are not fully interchangeable like the M-1842 and later models. For example, if you buy an M-1841 Palmetto part or a Harpers Ferry or Robbins & Lawrence part, the tolerance is much closer because they were made using identical machines designed to make that part. The M-1816 though manufactured on the interchangeable plan was not so exacting in manufacture as was the Model 1842 and many later arms.