At this point, I'm seriously considering relining to a 38 or 44-40. The local bushnel outlet has some great scopes at rediculously good prices. But is there a reasonably cheep way to mount one?  All the mounts I see are $60 to $110. My budget will be already spent just to reline the rifle.

Lots of ideas here but what I'd do with it is build a nice .22 RF and forget using it as a deer rifle, use it to hunt small game.

Al

Quit trying to kill yourself or someone else and do what Caldflyer suggest.

I have learned a lot and been helped a lot by this forum but I make my decisions slowly and deliberately after I know all the options and costs. I'm unsure when I'll plunk down the $ but I still need to ponder the costs versus my desires. And I thank everyone for helping me through some difficult decisions.

For me, this forum is NOT about the gun. It's nearly worthless. It's been about getting help to preserve an object that I inherited from a grandfather who I loved dearly. He lived as an extremely poor farm worker who fed his family of 10 children with this gun during the depression. So it carries a lot of meaning to me. 

This forum has helped me to navigate some very difficult decisions. First, I went from an emotional high of thinking that I could hunt with the rifle to finding out that the barrel was ruined. Then, this forum helped me to understand that the barrel was totally inappropriate for the action, anyway. So this forum has helped me to make the trade-offs to decide what caliber to which I should reline. 

Since the rifle represents memories of my grandfather shooting deer to feed his family, it almost seems a sacrilege to make it into a 22. It's equally a sacrilege to return it into the 45-70 that he used--it would eventually blow up and hurt someone. I'm now faced with selling my extremely accurate 308 to offset the $450 needed to reline the 1885 so it can shoot accurately. I use the 308 during the modern gun season to feed my family. How ironic--now I will need to take deer with this 1885, also. 

When I drove 3800 miles two weeks ago to pick up this rifle, I never foresaw how this would end up. And I never foresaw how people who I've never met would write 6 pages to help me make these decisions. For me, that's what this forum represents.

I'm very good at woodwork but don't have the tools for very exact metal work. I've thought about drilling out the barrel for a liner and installing it myself. However I'm unsure how to drill out the chamber and provide the right headspace, and those require critical tolerances from what I've heard. 

I'm in no hurry. My grandson will deer hunt with me in the primitive weapon season this year for the first time. He will use my 62 cal flintlock with a 42" barrel, 1:66" twist, shooting a round ball. Ive honed the load for it to consistently shoot 1 minute groups at 100 yd. Next year I hope to include him in the modern weapon season, and our modern weapon will probably be the 1885 low wall. So I'm in the information gathering and trade off stage for a little while longer.

I was very proud of my loads and skills until I met my smith last Wednesday. He showed me his muzzle loader with which he shoots 2" groups at 1000 yard using metal sights. I wouldn't believe him but he had about 2 dozen awards on the wall for his shooting. Those are the skills I want to develop. I'm still very much a novice.

However I'm intrigued by the above post to consider relining my barrel myself. Has anyone tried it for a 44-40 caliber?

Terry, maybe we ought to start easy- with the moa at a hundred before we try to swallow the 1/5 moa at a thou? 
I can only swallow just so much, ya know?

If you are much into world muzzle loading records, check out Lee Shaver. He holds about 1/5 of the current records. Better yet, give him a call. He's very friendly. You will find him in Lamar mo.