Too Good To Be True

The ad said, "‘43 Spanish RB, original in good shooting condition, 20 rounds of brass, $475 delivered." This seemed like a good deal and I said to myself it’s too good to be true. Nevertheless, I called but there was no answer. I left a message and asked for a call back. This went on for three more days with the no result, so I figured someone beat me to it and forgot about it.

About a week later my wife hands me the phone and says, "It’s something about a Rolling Block." A rather bored and nonchalant voice at the other end asked if I was still interested. I said yes but had several questions. The first was why he was calling me this late in the game. He said he thought he had it sold but the buyer suffered "buyer’s remorse" and changed his mind. I the gent to describe the gun.

He said it was all original including the ramrod, that the bore was dirty and pitting was typical for a gun its age. Believing I was getting nowhere, I asked why he was selling it. He said it was a gift from his son who thought it would make good hunting rifle. After loading and shooting twenty rounds of ammo, he didn’t like the gun wanted to sell it. I remained suspicious but ama confirmed Rolling Block buff, so I decided to take it.

After all, how bad could it be with other ads in the same publication having roughly the same description were on sale for upwards of $700. I say "upwards" depending on how proud the sellers were with their sale items. I sent the man a check and he called me upon receipt, letting me know when to expect my rifle. On the appointed day, a large package arrived and I eagerly took it into my shop to see what kind of damage I had wrought. It was a military #1 Rolling Block.

This was obvious from the size of the massive hammer spur. The rifle was as-described in the ad. Pitting showed some use of a rifle that was over 100 years old and the bore was filthy. Surprisingly though, the internal action works were rather clean with no pitting what-so-ever. I thought the rifle would make an excellent project rifle and began the process of cleaning the bore. I ran a bronze brush through the bore several times to loosen the accumulated crud, followed by a patch saturated with Hoppe’s #9.

It came out filthy. Another wet patch pushed through 20 times also came out filthy, but I was seeing progress. I then plugged the barrel at the muzzle, filled it with Hoppe’s #9 to the brim of the chamber and set it aside for an overnight soak. The following day I poured out the solvent expecting to be able to reuse it. No way. It was too dirty to be of further use. I wet another patch with fresh #9 and ran it through the bore several times. It came out dirty but not nearly as bad as the prior patches.

Plenty of gunk loosened by the Hoppe’s was evident but I was pleased after inspecting the barrel. It looked as if it might have some potential. I wiped the bore down with an oil soaked patch and set the barreled action aside. The next step would be to slug the bore to ascertain which size bullets to use. This was necessary as in the course of my reading I discovered that the .43 Spanish was listed as having a bore diameter of .423 upwards to .458 with a couple of sizes in between.

I had twenty rounds of brass which came with the rifle and intended to use these to determine whether the barrel has any potential or not. My gunsmith Don Bottoms, of Don’s Gun Shop, slugged the bore and loaded the twenty rounds for me. He also mounted a tang sight (which I had on hand) and a front globe sight. A few days later I took it to the range to see what the rifle would do.

Twenty rounds are really insufficient to determine if a barrel is any good but in this case it was enough to tell me I needed to replace the barrel. At 50 yards the shots made a group—if one could call it that—of nearly a foot in diameter, with several shots missing the paper altogether. I thought about my next step on the way home and considered what barrels I had on hand.

There were three that had potential: A .45 caliber straight octagon barrel, .50 caliber tapered octagon barrel with a threeleaf express sight, and around .375 Shilen #6 barrel. Each barrel had its merits. The .45 caliber would make an excellent .45-70 shooter but I already have several of these on hand. The .50 caliber barrel had a nifty express sight with folding leafs on it and could be chambered for the .50-70 cartridge. The round Shilen #6 barrel could be chambered for the 38-55 cartridge.

I took all three to my single shot gunsmith, Joe Sherrod of Llano, Texas, to ask him help me make a determination as to which one was the best. When I arrived, Joe immediately spotted the straight octagon barrel, probably because of its size. It measures 1 1/8 inch across the flats and is 35 inches long. It is truly massive. After pondering on it for awhile he

suggested that the barrel be made into part octagon, part round barrel. I agreed and he marked the barrel 10 inches from the receiver for this purpose. He said the barrel will look very classic with the gracefully tapered round portion offsetting the 10 inch octagon portion. He also noted that as large as the original barrel was, it would make the rifle unusually heavy and awkward. This is where we left it.

I couldn’t wait to see the end result and my next step was to select an appropriate piece of wood for the stock. My gunsmith called a few days later and said the barreled action was ready to be collected. Imagine my anticipation as I took the 200 mile round trip to Llano. As usual, he had cleaned the receiver (frame) and the new octagon/round barrel was fitted, cut down to a more manageable 30 inches, and chambered for the ubiquitous .45-70 cartridge. I thought the barreled action looked stunning.

I fitted the butt stock to the frame and fit the forend. Both were machined by George Peterson of Treebone Carving and he did his usual excellent work. Peterson specializes in single shot and lever gun stocks. There was very little to do as the butt and forend were essentially "slip" fits. I like it that way.

I then sanded and finished the stock using my tried and true recipe of a one-to-one mixture of Tru-Oil and mineral spirits, which I carefully wet sanded into the stock beginning with 220 grit and working up to 600 grit. The finished stock is a sight to behold.

The new barrel required front sights and that was my next to-do item. Back to Don’s Gun Shop. I decided on a Lyman 17A Target Sight as they are readily available, come in different heights and are reasonably priced. With that done, it was back to the range to see how it shoots. To tell you I was pleased is an understatement. I consistently shot less than one-inch groups at 50 yards.

I would love to try it out at 100 yards but unfortunately the day-glo orange targets I had at the range coupled with my eyes were not up to it. The last step was to have the barreled action polished and blued. For that I sent the barreled action to Tim Northcutt in Austin, Texas and asked him to apply whatever metal finish he thought best for the 100+ year old rifle.

This rifle turned out to be a very worthwhile project, which completely debunked the old adage "too good to be true." As the project completed my daughter-inlaw called and asked if I would donate another rifle to my grandson’s school fund raising auction. I immediately agreed as I had an excellent experience the previous year when the Rolling Block rifle I donated sold for $1500. This was a lot less than it was worth, but since it was for a good cause I was pleased with the result.

Another bonus accrued because I developed three new customers as a result of that auctioned rifle, with one of them becoming a repeat customer. I’m in the process of doing three projects for him as this is written and we are in the process of discussing a fourth project featuring a beautiful piece of Bastogne walnut. A win-win situation any way you look at it. AG Right and