I picked this rifle up at auction, it appears to have been an unfinished project. From the records: 1849 2ft 8in barrels 'thin patch' sold to J. Drummond

The rifle is 18 bore, .632" and is cased, the only tool remaining was the original mould. I completed the unfinished work, built a ramrod, had my engraver complete the hammer repair and prepared to test the old gal out.

The mould drops a pure lead bullet at .624" and the thinnest cloth patch material I could find was .005", too thick to be able to load a patched bullet. I started considering my options and what else may have been originally included in the case. Did the rifle come with a sizer? Maybe a cross patch cutter? all possible. I'm almost certain the rifle was not designed to shoot paper patch but just maybe it would work? I ordered up some paper patch material and dug out a bottle of Rooster Jacket a friend had sent me. When the paper arrived I made a template for patches, wet them, rolled them on the bullets carefully going over the "Wings" giving me two wraps of paper, the bullets were then left to dry. The bullets were now coated with Rooster Jacket with a small brush and again left to dry. Once the bullets were ready they were measured, right at bore diameter of .632". The bullets went down the bore nicely, not loose but no need to force them.

Off to the range yesterday morning, it was blazing hot and I just parked the truck and shot off the hood because the range was crowded. I set the target at 25yds. The rifle was loaded with 2&1/2 drams(70 grains) of 1&1/2F Swiss, a lubed felt wad of bore diameter was seated over the powder and finally a paper patched bullet was seated. I shot the rifle 3 times and never really settled in due to the heat, all 3 shots in the bull, 1&1/2" group and the third shot loaded as easily as the first. I need to shoot the rifle more in the next few weeks but I may have my load.

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Glad for the details. I'd always assumed that because of the wings these were shot with a bare bullet.

JMH, The rifle is basically a smoothbore with the exception of 2 large spiral grooves that make it a rifle. The wings ride the grooves down on loading and provide the spin to the bullet. Steve has a picture of the muzzle on another site and maybe he will post it here. Just slightly later and on up into centerfire times, Lancaster made rifles with an oval bore where a round bullet obturated into the oval shape that followed the spiral. I once had a chance to purchase a Lancaster hammerless double with oval bores that had been made for an Indian Maharajah in 280 Ross of all things.

This is a very nice and most interesting rifle and I am quite happy Steve is sharing.
The question I have been noodling on since first Steve posted, is the process that was used to manufacture the bullet mold? You certainly could not cut it with the standard mold cherry cutter. There are lines in the mold that transfer to the bullet when cast which seem to indicate a turning process, of some kind, was used at some point. In todays world we have EDMs but those weren't available then of course. Maybe a "cherry" (I will call it) was made and it was forged into the mold blocks. Of course that would be no easy process as you would need to  make matching left and right halves and alignment alignment would be a bugger. Maybe the halves were cast themselves. Maybe Steve can offer his thoughts.

The mould was made by William Davis, it is his "Improved #13" pattern. The mould was made in two separate operations, the wings were cut perpendicular to the way the body of the bullet was cut.