Sprfld. 1864 repro-who made?

[walter estabrook]

Recently bought 2 muskets at a yard sale(great price!) One was a `701s vintage Miroku Brown Bess. Other I`d appreciate info on may be similar era. It`s an 1864 Spr w/case hard lock & hammer . Fit/finish is good-only part don`t like is 2 piece stock( found after got home & took barrel out of stock(have you heardof them coming apart?) Only markings on bbl. are "Navy Arms Ridgefield NJ USA" & serial #0450.Absolutely no other marks including no proofs! Fired @ 25 yd range w/ 50 gr 3f & 575213, dead center windage & 2'' high, excelent group. Do I have a Jap. made rifle? What`s the concensus on quality?

[ken chrestman]

You have an early Italian made 64 Springfield, I had one like it last year. Mine had no breech plug, instead the tang was all part of the breech and extended just behind the rear sight, eagle on bolster faced (forward) opposite of an original and seems I had to replace the rear band to get a SAC card. The two piece stock was joined or in my case slightly glued under the rear band, I removed some wood and placed some long nails minus the heads and glass bedded the entire length of the barrel channel.

Quality; I would say it is an above average reenactor musket like all the repo stuff was and is today.

Now for the good part.

After glass bedding and some lock and trigger work the 3 L/G bore was polished and it shot one ragged hole with a big mini'e at 50 from a rest.This musket now belongs to a new member of our team who fell in love with it, Also thanks to John Holland I was able to get a SAC card, it had to be inspected because the Navy Arms was removed.

Hope this helps.

Ken Chrestman,7147V Forrest's Escort Co. Tennessee

[walter estabrook]

Thanks for info! Mine actually has threaded breech plug. Re: stock-thought about glass bedding. Has any one seen these stocks come apart from shooting?

[Southron Sr.]

Yup, I would highly recommend that you glass bed the fore stock to the rear stock as that will avoid the two piece stock coming apart unexpectedly. The Parker-Hale three bans rifles came from the factory with two piece stocks-and they had a nasty habit of eventually coming apart. Hence they picked up the nick name of "Parker-Frail Rifle Muskets."

I repaired many Parker-Frails after their stocks came apart. I have never had a stock job I did fail. If you do glass bed the stock together, I would suggest you use 10-24 screws with the heads cut off. The screw threads will provide a mechanical grip to the glass bedding compound when it hardens.

Yes, you will most likely find your groups shrink after the stock is glass bedded together.

[Muley Gil]

When did Navy Arms start selling their
Miroku made 1864 Springfield? I bought several kits back in the early 1990s for reenactors.

[Ron The Old Reb]

I don't know when they started selling them, but I bought one in 1986.