misaligned hammers

[hobbler]

Is it unusual to have muskets come from the factory with the hammer misaligned? Saw that on one where the hammer cup rubbed on the cap so much it wouldn't fire.

[Mike Seymour, 3215V]

I had one misaligned on a JRA "55. I put in a vise ,gave it a slight twist in the right direction, and it worked out fine.

[hobbler]

Thanks Mike. I'm gonna give that a try. Wanta see just how far off a Zouave will coast .58 minies into the black.

[Jim Strang]

Four of our team members picked up factory-new, consecutively serial-numbered Armi Sport '42 smoothies a couple years back, and among the mechanical problems they shared were hammers that didn't squarely meet the cone surface.

Commander Eric Schuessler, demonstrating but one of his myriad machinist skills, judiciously applied a rubber mallet to each vise-held hammer to correct the misalignment.

So, in my experience at least, misalignment is not uncommon. Again, the major market for these pieces is re-enacting, so fine detail work for shooters is left to our disparate resources. And the price of a good black-powder gunsmith is above rubies... :!: