.577cal Pritchett rifle comes home with me today!

[mel h]

Sounds nice. Does it have the Enfield style lock? I'm intrigued by the 'Hook breech' not usually seen with these locks.

[tacfoley]

Sounds nice. Does it have the Enfield style lock? I'm intrigued by the 'Hook breech' not usually seen with these locks.

Mel and Enfieldlock - to whom many thanks for the VERY informative email.

Yes, it does have a lock in no way different in appearance to the RSAF lock, except that it has a fly, being intended for the use of gentlemen shooters of the Volunteers and their precision shooting at targets, rather than the mass of common infantry oiks, who, in general, shoot at a mass of other infantry oiks.

The original Pritchett bullet came in two diameters - .550 and .575. As the bullets were smooth-sided, unlike the Minié that has cannelures, it was paper-patched to suit the bore, and loaded via a purpose-made cartridge of great complexity. To aid its expansion into the bore, Pritchett and pal Metford -hence the name Metford-Pritchett that you will oftbetimes encounter when reading about this style of bullet] it has a slightly dished bas - nothing like the conical cavity of the Minié, but enough to upset the bullet into the shallow rifling that was the trademark of both Metford, and Pritchett, who designed his own three-groove rifling.

The British Army of the day adopted both the Pritchett bullet AND the Minié bullet, and both were taken to the Crimea, where they cause utter carnage among the musket-shooting Russians, especially at the Battle of Inkerman, where the 54th Highland regiment held off 15000 Russians, causing the slaughter that was noted as looking like the 'passage of the Avenging angel' [of death]. Over 5000 Russians died, and many more again were wounded, perhaps as many as 7000 - the bullet would often pass through two or three at a time, and that has just GOT to sting. It's also the title of Brett Gibbon's excellent book, BTW.

The Minié bullet, which is about 1/5th to do with Captain C-E Minié, had a long pre-adoption history both in France and at the School of Musketry at Hythe with a variety of material being used for plugging the conical cavity in the base. It's hard to believe now, but the actual WEIGHT of the Minié bullet was 535gr, and to make it solid in the base would have made it heavier. That cost more... Anyhow, both the hollow base bullets initially were tried with iron cups - which had a habit of flying out as the bullet left the muzzle - and in any direction. Brett makes HIS cups out of brass, BTW. Being poor, I'll be using Isopon in a correctly fitting Minié bullet - sadly, not a single one of my four Minié moulds throws a large enough bullet - the muzzle bore measures .575"...

So wooden plugs were tried, as were fired-clay and there was little difference between the two. To get more detail you'd have to read Brett Gibbon's other book - 'The English cartridge', which uses well over a hundred pages in explanation.

However, your pal and his sawdust concoction might as well fill the base with Marmite, or the jam of his choice - neither will work any better that his present notion, which is, quite frankly, a waste of good sawdust.

As far history goes, any smooth-sided bullet of the genre tends to be called a Pritchett bullet, particularly by the Americans who used it and the Minié in their imported Enfield rifles - both sides, in fact. The Americans loved them both in equal measure, and were quick to take up the manufacturing of their own 'English cartridges'. In the North, they were made by machines, as were the 'pressed' - not cast - bullets of astounding similarity, one with another. In the south they were made by wimmin, girls and boys, and cast.

The end-results of that culminated at Appomatox Court House.

[tacfoley]

Now to the hook or hooked breech/breach. This image shows it better than I can explain with my rather inadequate grasp of English -

https://www.trackofthewolf.com/Categ...1/PLUG-FH-18-3

Basically, it is a means of quickly removing the barrel from the rest of the gun to enable thorough cleaning to be undertaken without endangering the lock or the woodwork. Often encountered on what the Americans call the 'plains rifle' - a usually heavy-barrelled and somewhat shorter than the usual long rifle that was handier to carry around on a horse - famed makers include the Hawken Bros of St Louis, but there were many others. The barrel is held in the stock by means of tenons and pins, either or both mixed. Simply drive them out, and carefully lift the barrel out of engagement.

Put it back in reverse, remembering to put the tenon pins or pins back the same way round - they are tapered to fit one way only.

[mel h]

Thanks for the quick reply, the reason I asked about the hook breech is that I have a Volunteer two band .455 Snider Enfield ( the jury's out on the question of whether it was converted, or made as a breech loader ) It has quite a few irregularities, including a hook breech, so I'm always interested when I hear of another example.

UPDATE.

After reading a couple of replies I re read this post and realise that I made a bit of a typo Where I typed .455 it should have been .577 I'll put it down to an age thing.

[tacfoley]

Thanks for the quick reply, the reason I asked about the hook breech is that I have a Volunteer two band .455 Snider Enfield ( the jury's out on the question of whether it was converted, or made as a breech loader ) It has quite a few irregularities, including a hook breech, so I'm always interested when I hear of another example.

As you know, the service Snider was only found in .577 Snider, and used either a conversion from the P53 Enfield service rifle, or, later on, were made as a Snider from the get-go.

I've never heard of a small-bore Snider, and certainly not a Snider with a hooked breech. No Enfields ever had a hooked breech.

So basically, you are saying that you have an Enfield converted to a small-bore Snider? Remember that using the word 'Enfield' you are saying that it was converted from an Enfield, and the only Enfields were .577cal.

Puzzling, to say the least.

So what cartridge does it shoot?

[mel h]

As you know, the service Snider was only found in .577 Snider, and used either a conversion from the P53 Enfield service rifle, or, later on, were made as a Snider from the get-go.

I've never heard of a small-bore Snider, and certainly not a Snider with a hooked breech. No Enfields ever had a hooked breech.

So basically, you are saying that you have an Enfield converted to a small-bore Snider? Remember that using the word 'Enfield' you are saying that it was converted from an Enfield, and the only Enfields were .577cal.

Puzzling, to say the least.

So what cartridge does it shoot?

On reading your post I realise that I seem to have suffered some sort of brainfart. I don't know where I conjured up the .455. It is indeed a .577
The Snider that I have is a Maloch and was mentioned by me in a post here in 2016. I'm please to see mention in this thread of another Maloch from 2013 which I had not seen.
I did in 2016 receive some very interesting and well researched information on the Maloch name from Enfield2band.

[grahamrob]

Good write ups tac, thank you, must get Brett Gibbons book.

[enfield2band]

Sounds nice. Does it have the Enfield style lock? I'm intrigued by the 'Hook breech' not usually seen with these locks.

The .41 A.Maloch rifle, made in Stirling, Scotland that we have discussed previously, has a hook breech.