What caliber ball in old hexagonal* barrel rifle? * Edit:Octagonal with seven sided twist-Pictures

[PapaG]

Actually, that bore is seven sided, not hexagonal. Seven lands and grooves. Heptagonal.

 

[stageman]

Got some pretty good info on this site:http://americanlongrifles.org/forum/index.php?topic=49029.0

 

[4v50 Gary]

I think the gun was percussion from the start. That's an interesting half moon cheekpiece that I haven't seen before. Whereabouts does your family come from?

 

[stageman]

I think the gun was percussion from the start. That's an interesting half moon cheekpiece that I haven't seen before. Whereabouts does your family come from?

North Carolina and Georgia. ;-)

 

[Snidely70431]

Many years ago I needed to measure the bore of an old German rifle. I used a mixture of sulfur and carbon, melted and poured into the bore. I looked it up in Clyde Baker's Modern Gunsmithing.
The method described is to drill a hole in the center of a cork the size of the bore and insert a 1/16" wire in this hole as a handle, as the cast is quite brittle. The cork is inserted in the bore, the mixture is poured into the bore, and the cork is pushed out.
His recipe is 2 ounces of sulfur, 3 grains of powdered lamp black, and 3 drops of gum camphor dissolved in alcohol. This has to be slowly heated and stirred continually. When the mixture arrives at a thin pouring consistency it is poured quickly into the bore. A rod is used to slowly push out the cast, which can then be measured. It shrinks very little, maybe .0005 at the outset, and .001 the next day.