54 Burnside

[Justsomedude]

It's not everyday that a customer brings in the predecessor to the modern breech loading cartridge ammunition. He bought it for $200 from a pawnshop. I'm not sure where he got an original round from but you can see the strange ice cream cone shaped brass.

It was missing a mainspring and the hammer stirrup, along with having the stock broken right above the lock. Looking online, nobody makes an aftermarket main spring for these but I found that a Sharps spring is pretty close so I ordered one and adapted it to work after making a new stirrup.

Then I patched in a piece of walnut and spent some time with a chisel and got a perfect fit. The only evidence of the patch is the seam line but it matches pretty well. I also put in a period correct looking hammer screw and got rid of that aluminum abomination that was in it. He was pretty happy when he picked it up. I also made him 5 rounds after finding the brass online for $9 a piece and a member of a muzzleloading forum that I belong to was kind enough to send me 5 lead cast bullets for it so it was easy to fill the cases with some FF powder and seat the bullets.

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[CPJ 2.0]

Believe the rounds for that are called choads

[Justsomedude]

Believe the rounds for that are called choads

[Wambli Ska]

Wow! Nice work and a solid pickup by your customer

[PFD45]

So to load it, do you push the cartridge rear ward into a breach chamber?

[Justsomedude]

So to load it, do you push the cartridge rear ward into a breach chamber?

It has a tilt out breech block that accepts the round and then locks back into place. It's a pretty ingenious design to be honest.

[Justsomedude]

Wow! Nice work and a solid pickup by your customer

Thank you.

[Elk Creek]

Wow great restoration work!! Another saved!

[sakodude]

Nice work getting her back in the fight. If I recall correctly, Old Ron has a Burnside as well.

[Rugerfan]

Nice work getting her back in the fight. If I recall correctly, Old Ron has a Burnside as well.

I know he has/had some brass cases for one. He sent me one for my cartridge collection a few years ago

[Admin]

That is awesome! Nice work, and a cool gun.

[Bigslug]

Played with Maynards, paper cartridge Sharps, and the French Chassepot needle rifle - - haven't fiddled with a Burnside yet, but that's one of the more unique solutions to headspacing you're going to find. Cool era to study, this Period of Prototypes.

[Gene L]

I believe Dixie Gun Works has reloadable "shells" for the Burnside. Good work on the stock; you can hardly see the replacement.

[Big Al1]

Good match of the wood, great restoration! Interesting old rifle. That would be a fun one to play with!!

[Justsomedude]

Thanks all. I definitely was tempted to fire it, just to say that I did but being that the ammo is rare as it is, I obviously didn't. Also, the bore of that thing was exceptionally nice for how poor the overall appearance of the exterior was.

[Wambli Ska]

I don’t think k I could have helped myself. No way to stop me from “test firing” the repair

[Japhy]

Nice work!
Just curious what type of steel was in early vintage firearms? That does not appear to have been blued and there doesn’t look like case hardening.