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Overhill
December 30, 2011, 01:55 PM
I have an 1861 tower that appears to be a shotgun. it has no sights
. only a bead on the front of the barrel. it has the crown behind the trigger. The barrel has a crown with a V under it. There is a wmillwar1 under the barrel and a serial # GHLTT. I cant read the first four digits. There also is a 41F on the barrel. The stock and everything else looks like the normal 58 cal. rifle. What do i have here?

Hawg
December 30, 2011, 02:00 PM
A bored out rifle.

pvt.Long
December 30, 2011, 07:08 PM
a smooth bore .58 maybe? Lots of smooth bores were issued without rear sights. Whats the point of having rear sights when at 75 yards youll be lucky to hit the broad side of a barn?

Hawg
December 30, 2011, 07:21 PM
a smooth bore .58 maybe? Lots of smooth bores were issued without rear sights. Whats the point of having rear sights when at 75 yards youll be lucky to hit the broad side of a barn?

They didn't make a smooth bore musket in 1861. A lot of smooth bore shooters will dispute the last part of that statement.

pvt.Long
December 30, 2011, 09:00 PM
I am one of them smooth bore shooters, I have one and enjoy shooting it. Its an 1853 India pattern 3 band Enfield I have a smooth and rifled barrel. There were thousands of enfields made, smooth and rifled some of them were even swamped barreled which is half rifled half smooth. Could it be a .577 retooled into a .58? Could it be an 1853 recycled as an 1861? Could it be one that just missed the rifling process?

Hawg
December 30, 2011, 09:08 PM
1861 is the manufacture date. It's still a pattern 53 which were all rifled and .577 caliber. A swamped barrel is one that starts out big at the breech and tapers down towards the middle and then starts to swell back out towards the muzzle. They are all smooth bores. There were thousands of Enfields and Springfields with the rifling bored out and turned into shotguns after the war.

Overhill
December 31, 2011, 02:59 PM
1861 is the manufacture date. It's still a pattern 53 which were all rifled and .577 caliber. A swamped barrel is one that starts out big at the breech and tapers down towards the middle and then starts to swell back out towards the muzzle. They are all smooth bores. There were thousands of Enfields and Springfields with the rifling bored out and turned into shotguns after the war.


I think you may have nailed it. The muzzle does vary in Dimensions . I thought is was some sort of jug choke. i still wonder what gauge it is.