After a very long time searching to find an original untampered with Hepburn I could afford I found one in Florida from a gentleman and purchased it. He stated the barrel was a "sewer pipe" but the mechanics and overall appearance was good and the pictures show that. I won't know how bad it is till I get it and check it out. He also didn't know what chamber it was only it was a 40 cal. and a straight case. I am going to clean the barrel as best I can and upon figuring out the chamber I will shoot it and hope for acceptable accuracy. If that isn't possible I will contemplate either a rebore to say 44 cal or a liner. I don't want to alter it but I might have to. My other Hepburns have all been modified so I would like to keep this one original if possible. Advise on similar situations welcome...



JMH

Quite likely it's a .40-70SS, but also could be a .40-50SS. Hope it's the .40-50 since it's cheap and easy to make brass for!
I've got the first Rolling Block Sporting rifle I ever bought and being desperate to own one I bought that rifle in .44-77SBN with a poor bore. I took it home and cleaned the heck out of it, but it still didn't look like a very good bore. Then a friend gave me a packet of Leadaway cloth bore cleaner and told me to try it. He said if the Leadaway didn't fit the bore tight enough to bump the cleaning rod in with a rubber mallet to put a patch under it  to make it fit tighter. I did as he said and the patch came out with shards of lead shaped like my lands! I ran a second through and got a little more lead. A 3rd patch got just some dark gray, and the 4th I just scrubbed back and forth maybe 10 times. When I got done I'd call the bore a 7 or 8 out of 10 and it shoots great!

The rifle will be shipped on Monday from Florida so it hopefully won't take but a few days to reach me. Sure hope I can keep it original. Guess we will find out. 




JMH