The past four months have been very interesting as I've sought to determine if this (what I thought to be) 10ga W Morse & Co muzzleloader was of the period that it could have come west over the arm of my great, great grandfather after the Civil War. With your help I've been able to determine that indeed it is of the correct period. So with that knowledge I decided to do a complete disassembly and thorough cleaning. That process is done and the gun is back together (and in amazing shape.)
The first step was to clean the thick black grime off of the stock. Steve (SKB) was very helpful in sharing his process for doing this. I followed his guidance and after 15-20 scrubbings in some places and then well spaced out steps of raw linseed oil and 0000 steel wool (with a few light touches of 400 grit with raw oil on stubborn spots) the stock was clean and ready for hand rubbed light coats of boiled linseed oil. My goal was not to refinish the stock but to clean and re-oil it.
Before
After
While this rubbing and drying process was going on I began carding the barrels and other metalwork. The rust was so thick in some places that I doubted that I could remove it all but the outcome was more than I'd hoped for. Not only did the rust disappear but some interesting things came to light. On top of the rib I found "LAMINATED STEEL" and under the forearm area where the rust was lighter I was able to get some good pictures of the twist pattern. Thanks to Drew for identifying the pattern and confirming that rather than technically being "laminated steel" as from a "puddling" process these were barrels that were made from bars of iron and steel laid on top of each other.
The barrels were given multiple hot soapy baths (in my gunsmith's soap tank) and this turned out to be a bit of a challenge because of the 43 1/2' length of the barrels with the tang. Near the end of the process an interesting item floated out of one of the barrels.
A 20" stem of oats!
With the carding and cleaning steps completed what I thought initially to be an integrated tang turned out to not be. Miller your suspicions were right. Once the thick rust was gone it was clear that there was a junction line and a few taps of a plastic mallet separated the two.
After many, many strokes with a brush and patches the bores were clean and we were able to take an accurate bore measurement. It is actually an 11ga as DmColonial noticed on the barrel flats.
Earlier this week we were able to finally reach for the Rem oil and reassemble the gun.
Having passed my biblical "three score and ten" it is a special satisfaction at this stage of life to look at my great, great grandfather (that's the only known picture of him in the background) and imagine his thoughts as he survived the civil war and then came to the conclusion that his future lay to the west. And now to know, as best we can, that this firearm was a primary tool in his being successful in those new lands.
Thanks to you all for your interest and for your help along the way. Special thanks to my friend (and gunsmith), Karl Casebeer.
