Shooting Original Musket

[mb3]

I recently shot my original R&JD Johnson M1816 musket, after repairing the nipple and getting her cleaned up. I loaded her fairly light using 55 gr Goex FFG, .010 lubed patch, .662 ball. Nice mild load but I didn't want to stress the musket out. We shot out to 25 yards and were able to keep the shots on a head target (8.5 x 11). I was pretty happy with the way the musket felt, and the accuracy given the lack of sights. I am a little worried about breaking the original main spring and other lock parts so, I am going to replace some of the internal parts with reproduction parts to preserve the originals. Have any of you guys shooting original rifles done this, and how hard is it to fit these parts? I am pretty handy when it comes to mechanical work (and fairly patient) so, I am confident I can do the work myself.

[maynard6]

I recently shot my original R&JD Johnson M1816 musket, after repairing the nipple and getting her cleaned up. I loaded her fairly light using 55 gr Goex FFG, .010 lubed patch, .662 ball. Nice mild load but I didn't want to stress the musket out. We shot out to 25 yards and were able to keep the shots on a head target (8.5 x 11). I was pretty happy with the way the musket felt, and the accuracy given the lack of sights. I am a little worried about breaking the original main spring and other lock parts so, I am going to replace some of the internal parts with reproduction parts to preserve the originals. Have any of you guys shooting original rifles done this, and how hard is it to fit these parts? I am pretty handy when it comes to mechanical work (and fairly patient) so, I am confident I can do the work myself.

Easy to do rifle shop usually has the springs .if you temper yourself you will have a little grinding and filing but I believe you can order them completed .Hope that helps. I did that with mine . Bob

[mb3]

Thank you for theinformation. I have a mainspring on order from Dixie Gunworks that should be here in a couple of days. I will look into tempering the spring and post how the project turned out.