Cbashooter wrote on Mar 1^st, 2022 at 7:33pm:


cbashooter, Sorry if this has turned into a threadjack for you, I didn't mean to cause that but it is exciting for me. I am glad you got the rifle you did and hope the groups are small!

We would Love to see a picture of the Rifle Cbashooter and Congratulations.

Isn't a starter like that just to start a bullet coaxially into the barrel, that is, it has to have a smooth bore otherwise you would need another starter to start the bullet into the starter.

Sorry, that was a reference back to kootne's post.

So you have to start by pushing the bullet into rifling in the starter to then push the bullet into the barrel? Why not just push the bullet into the barrel. It would make more sense if the bullet could be put into the smooth part of the starter, that is, the end away from the muzzle and the add the pusher to enter the tapered rifling in the starter and be perfect as it entered the rifling in the muzzle. No?

Oldman1950, Pope muzzle loading rifles had two scribe marks on the barrel at 3 O clock. One for the 175 grain bullet and one for the 195 grain bullet. Most are now worn gone but here is one that survived as new.

Perhaps this illustration might help to show how to muzzle load a "Pope" rifle.

Randy's book The Golden age of the American Schuetzenfest would clear up how this works and give a great history of the typical match around 1900. It also gives a whole lot more. Required reading!