What powder charge to use in my Leman

[Whitedog]

To my untrained eye, the angle of the cuts actually fit in a scenario where the rifleman would’ve been pointing the rifle downward and the person with the sword was lower down below the muzzle. Possibly on a ladder or on the ground below and off to one side. Even with no time to be reloaded, the rifle’s heavy muzzle could very well be poked and jabbed into the faces of anyone below on ladders or the ground.
Three heavy right handed downstrokes arching over and down and two or three weaker back strokes or punches.
It must’ve been a heck of a fight.
Anyway, there you go. It was found in a building by a guy.
I replaced the missing front sight blade on the original base and had a guy replace the missing section of for-end and the missing end cap.
The rifle barrel and grey bleached out forearm were held together with an old dried out and cracking piece of surgical tubing wrapped around them. The brass and copper were charcoal black with patina.
I repaired the broken and loose wrist and then put back the original copper band.
The upper ramrod thimble is a replacement too.
This rifle is a reconversion to flint. It had already been converted to percussion when it was given to me. I had a fellow weld a pan onto the lock plate to replace the partial pan that had been left on it when it had been originally converted to percussion. He did a good job.
I did the rest of the reconversion myself. I’d never done one before or since, but I’m happy with it. The rifle’s flintlock now appears identical to those that are on the original Henry Leman flint rifles that are on display in The Museum Of The Fur Trade in Chadron, Nebraska. That is an incredible museum with hundreds of fur trapping era rifles and muskets and fowlers.
Most of the original rifle remains. I think that this old gun deserved to be brought back to life in it’s original configuration.
It seems to be a very basic and no unnecessary featured rifle that was made without an entry thimble. A rifle that didn’t cost very much.
Some of you would have an idea on when it was made. I don’t have a clue. Two antique Pennsylvania Longrifle collectors and officianado’s said they believed it was an early Henry Leman that would’ve been made around the mid 1830’s when he had a little gun shop in a back room of his father’s brewery.
I’ll bet there are a lot of old guns like this one in sheds and closets.

 

[Whitedog]

To my untrained eye, the angle of the cuts actually fit in a scenario where the rifleman would’ve been pointing the rifle downward and the person with the sword was lower down below the muzzle. Possibly on a ladder or on the ground below and off to one side. Even with no time to be reloaded, the rifle’s heavy muzzle could very well be poked and jabbed into the faces of anyone below on ladders or the ground.
Three heavy right handed downstrokes arching over and down and two or three weaker back strokes or punches.
It must’ve been a heck of a fight.
Anyway, there you go. It was found in a building by a guy.
I replaced the missing front sight blade on the original base and had a guy replace the missing section of for-end and the missing end cap.
The rifle barrel and grey bleached out forearm were held together with an old dried out and cracking piece of surgical tubing wrapped around them. The brass and copper were charcoal black with patina.
I repaired the broken and loose wrist and then put back the original copper band.
The upper ramrod thimble is a replacement too.
This rifle is a reconversion to flint. It had already been converted to percussion when it was given to me. I had a fellow weld a pan onto the lock plate to replace the partial pan that had been left on it when it had been originally converted to percussion. He did a good job.
I did the rest of the reconversion myself. I’d never done one before or since, but I’m happy with it. The rifle’s flintlock now appears identical to those that are on the original Henry Leman flint rifles that are on display in The Museum Of The Fur Trade in Chadron, Nebraska. That is an incredible museum with hundreds of fur trapping era rifles and muskets and fowlers.
Most of the original rifle remains. I think that this old gun deserved to be brought back to life in it’s original configuration.
It seems to be a very basic and no unnecessary featured rifle that was made without an entry thimble. A rifle that didn’t cost very much.
Some of you would have an idea on when it was made. I don’t have a clue. Two antique Pennsylvania Longrifle collectors and officianado’s said they believed it was an early Henry Leman that would’ve been made around the mid 1830’s when he had a little gun shop in a back room of his father’s brewery.
I’ll bet there are a lot of old guns like this one in sheds and closets.

 

[Whitedog]

The bore could be cleaned of dried surface gunk but it’s still got good rifling.
I’m thinking that a penetrating solvent and a copper chorerball on a wooden rod will do a lot of good while not harming the iron barrel.

 

[Whitedog]

I’m going to film the rifle firing and try to post it here.

 

[Whitedog]

The old fellow from whom I received the rifle had brought it into work one day to show me because he knew I liked antique guns.
He wanted to know if I knew of anyone who could completely replace the original stock with a new one.
I told him that would be wrong. I’d seen Henry Leman’s stamp on the barrel and told him that the important part of the rifle and stock were still there and so have much information to tell about and identify with Leman rifles.
He then told me to just take it home. That was 1984.
He never said that he’d found it in Missouri or that he even trapped in Missouri.
We both lived and worked there in Missouri at the time and I just assumed that was where he’d found the rifle while out snooping around one day. He said it was while he’d been out trapping many years before.