Manton Percussion

[Ed Blake]

I used to have a Manton similar to that one. Check the bores with a very small flashlight that you can slip down the barrels. A wall thickness check would not be a bad idea either. Mine was an 11 gauge or thereabouts. Use wads one gauge up so they will be snug in the bores. #2 black powder will do it. Have fun. Oh, and make sure it's unloaded. Measure your ramrod along the outside of the barrels, and then reference that when you slide the rod inside the barrels. You'd be surprised how many have been loaded for years. I did that when I got mine and found a bunch of old wadded up newspaper at the breeches.

[Mike Poindexter]

For what its worth, a Manton muzzleloader was what old Pomp Eddins shot in Nash Buckingham's wonderful story "Playhouse", just recently reprinted in the 30th Anniversary Sporting Classics magazine: "Muzzles paper thin. Locks that sang like harp strings...." Pretty high recommendation it seems to me. Good luck.