the other "project"

[OH Osthaus]

I am afraid I lied -

I said there another "project", and there is almost nothing to do to this one. I was told all sorts of issues.

I was planning to take the 10 bore Clabrough out to defend a friend's hunting property against an onslaught of geese, If I have the time this weekend to fix the one actual problem, this may go along. - The right lock needs a little jiggle to cock, I have seen this before on flintlocks, dirt or a burr in the notch may be all it is. On the Clabrough, it was simply a slight bend in the trigger tab where it met the sear arm.

This piece matches the letter perfectly - 9lbs on the nose - 32" barrels on a #2 frame, not that much drop, I put one of those thin neoprene velco pads on it and it fits fine.

I don't have a 10 ga bore gauge - but when I stick the 12 one down the tubes, it goes to its max reading. From there, I find the right barrel only compresses it a few thous, but the left presses in quite a bit. the letter shows a much lighter shot concentration in the right Vs the left tube. I have not found anything on Mr Armstrong yet, but I just started, I am guessing he saw a marsh or two over this rib.

The bores have modest coverage of light pitting and good thick walls if I decide to polish them at all. The outside has no rust, and I can see some nice figure in the twist under the patina. And they ring like the proverbial church bells.

Someone had rapped the left lock plate a few times with something hard, maybe to seat it, and left some tiny dents. From the original pictures, I had planned to have the filled by TIG welding and the plate redressed, but in person, they aren't that bad. So I may wait to see how much they bother me. And the repro buttplate is too small - I'll get some careful measurements and order a better fit. The hammer screws are new.

so here it is -













never had a fishtail - that was a selling point


decent wood that needs a refinish, a very minor chip in the toe


the undersized buttplate


the dents

[charlie cleveland]

very nice goose gun you got there...i think it s gona make a great gunlooks like its ready to go now...charlie

[Mills]

That looks like one I recently bought, except mine has a few real issues and does not have the fishtail toplever.

[OH Osthaus]

ok - except for the cosmetic refinishing

the actual gunsmithing on this project is done


had a few minutes during lunch, so I took the locks off and trigger set out

out - the right lock cocks fine

so on to the triggers

turns out, the front trigger, especially the upper tab, had so much petrified oil on it that trigger could not return to the full resting position

so, I took the assembly apart, scrubbed everything clean, ran some folded 400 grit paper in the trigger slots, took a needle file to a couple burrs

and - reassembled - now everything works perfectly.

nice smooth triggers, no need to tap on it to seat that marked up lock now with the dirt removed.

surprising the wood in there look pretty good- i will still go through the oil removal process before refinishing .