Amoskeag Model 1861 reproduction

**threepdr** · 03-31-2017

I have the opportunity to buy one of the repro Amoskeag marked Model 1861 special muskets. They seemed to have a following when I was shooting with the NSSA a few years ago. Do these do OK out of the box, or will I need to expect to have it relined or otherwise accurized to make it competitive?

Thanks for any insight!

Mark Hubbs
Huntsville, AL

**Jim Wimbish, 10395** · 03-31-2017

Mark,

I bought one of these many years ago. Mine is the Colt signature series 3 band. The lock was fine but with a 1/48 twist, I couldn't get it to shoot the lighter bullets that I use in my other guns. So I had Larry Romano rebarrel it. The barrel couldn't be relined as it was too thin so Larry saved the breech section and used his special 3 land and groove rifling. Now it shoots quite well. Not sure if the others have this fast a twist or not. I don't want anything in a musket faster than 1/56. If you do get a 1/48 twist barrel, expect to use a long bullet over 500 grains. I doubt that you will be able to get a Hodgdon or a shorter minie around 450 gr. to work. At least I couldn't. Also, mine originally had a .580 bore and I had to use bullets sized .579". All of my other guns are .576" to .577". Years ago I had the two band version and I had it relined before I was happy with it. Another issue is soft lock parts. You might need to get the lock internals case hardened properly once you are happy with the trigger pull.

Hope this helps you out.

**ms3635v** · 03-31-2017

My son-in-law bought a Chattahoochee LG&Y repro from a former teammate. While setting it up we where experiencing erratic shots and could never really get a respectable group to speak of. So, we sent the barrel to Dan Whitacre and he put one of his barrels on the breech, which was nice because there was no fitting necessary when we got the barrel back. In a conversation with Dan, I was told that when the front sight was attached to the barrel apparently the heat caused a small distortion inside the barrel, and every time the rifle musket was fired the minie would distort the skirt when it hit that spot under the front sight, causing the erratic shots. The new barrel is 1/72 twist and it shoots a 460 grain old style minie with 40 grains of 3F GOEX powder. This combination produced very nice groups.

**threepdr** · 04-03-2017

Thanks guys,

I called Taylors, and the twist rate on this one is 1:65. I suspect it is the same as the other Armi-Sport .58 caliber rifle muskets.

**Southron Sr.** · 04-22-2017

The problem with the two band replica Special Model 1861's was that the manufacturer cut the threads for the breech plug too far into the barrel. What this did was when a Minie Ball was fired, the threads really mangled the skirt of the Minie Ball when it expanded. This of course, killed any accuracy.

I owned a brand new Special Model 1861 and found this out when I unscrewed the breech plug. I ordered a replacement barrel from Danny Whitaker. With the glass bedded Whitaker barrel, the little rifle is now a "tack driver."

**Dheisey#7003** · 04-23-2017

I have two Chatahoochie two band repro's an Amoskeag and a Colt. The Amoskeag I bought directly, and the Colt was a team member's who passed away. I bought my Amoskeag at Nationals, when they had a sutler stand, and were first opened. It had lock issues out of the box. The mainspring was weak and would not set off caps, and the sear was chipped. I took it back to them and after some heated discussions, they replaced the internals in the lock and it functioned well. It took a while to work up a load and bullet combo. My bored is .580, I shoot a custom bullet that is .579 (It was nice to have an engineer/ machinist in the family). I would say on most days the musket shoots better than I do. We will see this season...LOL. I must have gotten lucky with mine, I know others haven't been as lucky. I have not shot the Colt at Nationals yet, but it does come along with me every National, because my teammate rarely missed a National.

**William H. Shuey** · 04-23-2017

Originally Posted by Southron Sr.

The problem with the two band replica Special Model 1861's was that the manufacturer cut the threads for the breech plug too far into the barrel. What this did was when a Minie Ball was fired, the threads really mangled the skirt of the Minie Ball when it expanded. This of course, killed any accuracy.

I owned a brand new Special Model 1861 and found this out when I unscrewed the breech plug. I ordered a replacement barrel from Danny Whitaker. With the glass bedded Whitaker barrel, the little rifle is now a "tack driver."

I too acquired one of Chattahoochie's Amoskeag 2 banders and in addition to shooting erratically I started to get cook offs and when cleaning it it would pull patches of and I would have a fit getting them out of the barrel.
Bottom line was breech end threading was too far into the barrel I had Bobby Hoyt work his majic on the barrel and now she shoots fine.
Still, it's a heck of a note that a brand new gun has to be re-worked in that manner.

Bill Shuey
1st Maine

**PETER HUGHES** · 04-24-2017

I bought one that shot great, in fact I took first place in the 100yd musket at the nationals right after I got it, using the Hodgden bullet sized .578 however it did grab a patch off from time to time. Over a couple of year period I also had 2 cook offs,(no fun). (Over 40 years I only had one other) Eventually I pulled the breech plug, and found that the plug didn't fill the threads, hence leaving partial threads in the base. I contacted Chatohoochie and eventually sent the barrel back, explaining the problem. They sent me a new barrel, no charge, which I put back on, and we no longer have that problem. It's probably been 10 years now, my son has been using it for the last 7 and no further problems.

Pete Hughes, 120th NYVI

**SimonRucker** · 04-25-2017

I had both a colt 2-band and an amoskeag and also worked up a load for a colt 3 band. All 3 of them shot the Hodgdon bullet very well. I can't remember the exact load but I think it was around 43g of Goex FFFg for the 2 band rifles and around 38 grains for the 3 band rifle. I never pulled the breech on either of them but also never had any problems. The accuracy was quite good for a factory barrel.

Good luck!

**Southron Sr.** · 05-21-2017

My understanding is that it was the earliest imported replica Special Model 1861's that had the "screw threads cut too far in the breech, hence lousy accuracy" problem. The later imports from Italy were fine.