Musket Help

[BobbyHughes]

Re: Musket Help

Jermey, No offense taken at all!!:D Just wanted folks to know that I wasnt trying to pass off an India Pattern as a WBTS relic.

We just formed as Birge's and we doing alot of research. We havent really taken the field as the 66th yet. Im still researching sources for good Dimick understudies, and so far the ones that I have found that look closest to the picture of some of the 66th in EOG are by Pedersoli and Lyman.


PS.. anyone got an extra original Enfield lock laying around??? LOL

[HighPrvt]

Re: Musket Help

Hey Bobby, Congrats.....
Found this on the 66th.

The regiment was supplied with a variety of arms; most noted were the rifles purchased from H.E. Dimmick. He was a well-known gun maker from St. Louis, MO. They ranged in caliber from .36 to .50. Some rifles were furnished by the men upon enlistment and they were paid a bounty for them. Those were mostly heavy barreled Target rifles; some with globe sights and some telescoped rifles.



The sporting/target rifles supplied by Dimmick were of great advantage early in the war. Due to a lack of modern military arms, smooth bore rifles with limited range were still the most common weapons. As production of arms began to meet demand and rifles were issued in increasing numbers, the Dimmick rifles started to lose their advantage. Other rifles purchased privately were also used, such as the Henry. The heavy rifles were never replaced; they were still the most accurate and deadly at long ranges.



The Henry was a sixteen-shot, .44 caliber, rim-fire repeater. The advantage of having so many rounds is obvious; the down side was their range, only holding accuracy for 200 - 300 yards. It was arguably the best skirmish weapon ever made at that time.

The regiment bought many of them while stationed at Camp Davies and was listed on arms reports with as many as 300 Henry’s; at that time, about 85% of the men.


Y'all might be better off sportin' Henry rifles.

[Curt Schmidt]

Re: Musket Help

Hallo!~

2nd OICVSS? An ambitious project... ;) :)

Curt
Company "C," 7th OICVSS


Yeah, the processing turned the green chevrons blue...)

[65thgainf]

Re: Musket Help

The Dalton relic show is in Feb.
[QUOTE=Bobby
PS.. anyone got an extra original Enfield lock laying around??? LOL[/QUOTE]

[csuniforms]

Re: Musket Help--66th Illinois

Jermey, No offense taken at all!!:D Just wanted folks to know that I wasnt trying to pass off an India Pattern as a WBTS relic.

We just formed as Birge's and we doing alot of research. We havent really taken the field as the 66th yet. Im still researching sources for good Dimick understudies, and so far the ones that I have found that look closest to the picture of some of the 66th in EOG are by Pedersoli and Lyman.


PS.. anyone got an extra original Enfield lock laying around??? LOL

Hello, Dont forget to look at Todd's American Military Equippage and the issue on Military Images on Illinois, there is a photo of a member of the 66th with a gray hat and squirrel tales in it. and they had bearskin cartridge boxes too, if I remember.
They were issued the Illinois State Contract Jacket, and trousers with kepi next if my memory serves me-- am having a lot of those senior moments lately-- must be the Holidays.

Tom Arliskas
csuniforms

[maineman]

Re: Musket Help

Does the "I" stand for Ishapor? a lot of Martini-Henry and SMLE Mk1 were designated with this for India service

[Michael McComas]

Re: Musket Help

The I with broad arrow /|\ mark was for the India Stores Depot, a late 19th Century property marking. Ishapore Rifle Factory's marking was "GRI" or "RFI", but the factory was not yet active when the musket in question was built.

[jacobite8749]

Re: Musket Help

Lots of them appeared on the re-enacter markets in the UK from 1975 onwards, to manies annoyance are still used here by many mainstreamers as a cheap option.

They fell into a number of "types"
1) Not bad muskets perhaps a 3 as Curt discribes. Mainly a basic Enfield often bored out with no rifling, about a .69 cal. Some were very good, a friend got a Tower dated and what we would call a Bess type, (same as a Bess but percussion) You could get some real bargains.
2) The dregs of all the Indian amouries, barrel cut to 36" to cut out exstensive wear to barrel, less marks.
3) Those made up of bits, and there are some real oddities, carbine stock, 36" barrel anda new fore-end. They show up and are obvious, things like the barrel bands are original but not correct to the weapon, strange ramrods, the "button" being an early type, I thought more consistant with a Bess type Tower. Swivels for slings in wrong places and wrong types.
5) New made Indian muskets patterned after the above and the early ones sadly copied the 36" barrel.

Hope that may be helpful, and it may be that the one you have is one of those. The butt tang markings are similar to the "fraction" marks of the soldier, i.e. 75 over 5 for exmaple meaning 75 soldier 5 Coy. At a guess it may be 68 Regt. That part may be original at least.

[Mojo1842]

Re: Musket Help

.

We just formed as Birge's and we doing alot of research. We havent really taken the field as the 66th yet. Im still researching sources for good Dimick understudies, and so far the ones that I have found that look closest to the picture of some of the 66th in EOG are by Pedersoli and Lyman.

Bobby, one of the impressions that our unit does is Birge's as well and if I remember right, there's a book floating around somewhere about them. Also, I'm sure that you've run across it, but there's a Dimick kit out there too.