Need infomation on 1864 Springfield rifle

[fordlincoln74]

Hello, Im new to muzzel loaders. I just purchaced a 1864 Providence Tool Co. springfield contract rifle. The rifle it self is in absolute amazing original condition. Although it looks as though some on drilled out the bore and rifleing to make a shot gun which i hear was very common practice. Ive heard that barrles can be relined, what is relining and would that make the barrel safe to shoot a 58 cal round again?? Basicly Im new to this really want to get this rifel back into safe shooting condition. What shoudl I do and who can be of help in doing so???

Thank you
Brian St. Pierre
Pawtucket, Rhode Island

[Southron Sr.]

Actually, you have two options:

[1] Have the barrel relined. The only "down" side of this is that a friend of mine had an original 1861 Springfield barrel relined. The liner was "Super Glued" inside of the original, reamed out barrel. While my friend was shooting his musket, the glue came loose and the liner started coming out of the barrel, about a half inch per shot!!! When he noticed the problem he stopped shooting. In all fairness, having a barrel liner "come loose" is a fairly rare.

[2] Have a brand new barrel made. Take out the original barrel and store it and use the new barrel for shooting. I did that years ago with an original rifle musket I owned and was very pleased with the results.

There are two barrel makers that can do this for you. Bobby Hoyt in Pennsylvania (I don't think he has a website) or Danny Whitacre. To go to his website, just Google "Whitacre Machine Shop, Whitacre, Virginia" and you can pull up his website.

Both of these barrel makers have excellent reputations and make (or reline) barrels that are 1st Class and very accurate.

[Edwin Flint, 8427]

Southron has been around so long he might have had that rifle issued to him new! :P He has been around long enough he has seen everything. I have never heard of a Hoyt or Whitacre barrel failing like he described and know they have lasted for thousands of rounds.

Don't let Southron scare you, and let one of the two barrel makers he mentioned reline it for you. You wont regret bringing the old dog back to life to bark again. :D

[Jim Brady Knap's Battery]

Hoyt's phone number is 717 642 6696.

Jim Brady
Knap's Battery

[CAGerringer]

I had Mr. Whitacre reline an original 1859 Austrian Lorenz. It was reasonable, and shoots much better than I do.
Charlie Gerringer
Old Dominion Dragoons