Question on 1860 Army barrels

[Navy Six]

My first go-round with percussion pistols was back in the early eighties. At that time I had an opportunity to observe the interior barrel condition of a number of reproduction 60 Army models of various manufacturers. These guns had been shot moderately and none showed any particular sign of neglect or abuse.
Anyway, I found that a few showed a slight "bulge" in the lands & grooves directly above the milled area for the creeping loading lever. This was not very pronounced but definitely observable in a clean bore. At the time I chalked it up to either soft steel on the early reproductions or too much pressure applied with the loading lever.
I never saw this in any other design loading levers and I had a collection of Colts, Remingtons and Rogers & Spencer. My question would be has anyone observed this on the newer made 60 Armies? I am rebuilding my cap & ball collection for use in SASS matches and will mainly be acquiring Uberti copies. Thanks,   Navy Six

[rifle]

You know, I thought I'd seen it all but as has been the case before I would be wrong to assume that again.

I can't say I've ever seen that bulge in an Army Colt barrel that Navy Six mentioned. The bulge above the mill out fer the creeping loading lever.

Anywhoooo...... That would mean I ain't ever seen it in the newer manufacture guns.

I have seen "the bulge" in the area of the loading lever catch milled in the so called dovetail near the muzzle end of the barrel. It always seemed to correspond to the peening done to hold that piece in the dovetail.

I guess if Navy Six has seen that bulge in the barrel near the creeping part of the barrel then it must certainlty have been there.

Even though the bulge from over zealous levering would probably measure in the .0001's instead of the .001's it could still affect accuracy from the ball being swagged a little small passing thru. Sorta akin to the choke that gets at the breech end of a screwed in barrel from the threads  being tightened.

That choke measuring in the .0001's usually can mess up accuracy and cause leading problems.

Anywhooo....if a person noticed that "creeping loading lever bulge" in the barrel it would be best to lap it outta there.
Lapping barrels even in a short area is no fun. The lap made of lead needs to be tight so there isn't damage to the shape of the lands and grooves in that area. Like rounded over land corners and like that.

I make laps of lead from round balls put in and swagged (bumped up) with  rods hitting it (lead ball) on both sides and then screw a bullet puller for muzzleloaders into the lead ball swag and then take it out....get some diamond lapping compound on the barrel and the swag lap and re-insert and re-bump up and go to town...and go to town....and go to town...and go to town....forever.

Lapping....re-smearing on compound...re-bumping up the lead lap ect.ect.ect. It takes a good long while to lap out even a small bulge.

Lapping by hand and doing it the right way is really physically difficult. The tight lap is hard to move back and forth. Keeping a pilot at the opening of the barrel to keep the lap rod from rubbing the wrong stuff is a pain too.

A person can get away with a little bit of sloppy lapping and use a "not so tight lap" if the lapp area is at the breech end of the barrel.
That area gets bigger all around the inside of the barrel not just where the bulge is. So if the ball fits that bigger lapped area then it gets tighter when it passes that area. Like you made a choke at the begining of the barrel. That's why you'd want to lap from the beginning of the barrel to the bulge and back so you aren't just making a loose spot in the barrel. You'd want the choke affect with the lapped area from the breech to over the bulge and back. It's better to lap the right way and keep the lap tight as you work so the lands and grooves are left in good shape. Not all rounded off and sloppied up.

Then......you have extra work to do. Like ream the chambers to make a larger diameter ball that fills the lapped bigger area and swags down into the unlapped area so the gas seal is always there. Hopfully you weren't using .457 balls initally. If you were then you have another problem getting balls to fit the bigger reamed chambers. You may then start lapping your bullet/ball mould or finding a mould for a bigger ball. If yer ball size was already a few .001's bigger than the barrel grooves then no problem. The ball may still be tight in the lapped end of the barrel.

Actually you may end up realizing that by getting rid of the "bulge" in the barrel you made a target barrel that had the proverbial choke to it. The ball would get tighter as it traveled down the bore instead of looser from friction.

Harry Pope...the most accurate barrels in the world at the time..... put chokes to his barrels for rifles.

The moral of this story?  Don't go crazy with yer loading lever and...if you want an extra accurate barrel then lap a choke to it.
Just lap the choked part on the right end/side of the barrel.

[Navy Six]

Rifle, thanks for the response. I know you weren't questioning my observations, but just to add, I ran this question by a friend, Dixie Bill, about a year ago. He has been involved in Civil war reenacting and blackpowder shooting for at least four decades and has/had original 60 Armies. He also observed this "bulge" in the same location in the barrels, but only in reproductions. How many or how long ago he didn't say. However, Dixie Bill claims to never have seen it in an original. This problem would have been easy enough to miss if you weren't thoroughly cleaning and inspecting after shooting. I got in the habit of holding the barrel up to a strong overhead light source after cleaning and this is when I could detect the problem. But was only a few cases. I haven't observed this condition in any 61 Navies that use the same creeping loading lever and assumed the steel was thicker in that area due to a smaller bore size??
It made me wonder back then if any accuracy problems would be attributed to this situation without the owner realizing it. It would have to affect the ball as it traveled down the bore. Your comments about barrel lapping were much appreciated as I have no real experience in this area.  Thanks Again,   Navy Six

[Coffinmaker]

Well .........
Over the years I've worked on a lot of guns.  I don't remember ever seeing barrel damage as described.
I can, however, tell you what would cause it.  Trying to seat hard cast balls or hard cast bullets, using the loading lever with a "cheater" bar on it.
I once observed a fella seating bevel base smokeless pistol bullets (200Gr RNFP) with about 18 inches of steel pipe over his loading lever.  I asked what he was trying to accomplish and he replied he just wanted to use the same gullet for everything.  I tried to explain why he couldn't do that but he just said "hey, it works for me."
Some are just beyond help.

Coffinmaker

[rifle]

I seem to have looked into a lot of barrels myself fer one reason or the other over the years. Sometimes way too much. Maybe that is what drove me crazy?

I thunk maybe that bulge in some repo barrels may get there at the manufacturing point too. I wouldn't doubt that it could get therte by "over levering". That area could be thin in some guns.

The originals had iron barrels I bet and were stonger than the repos in that respect maybe. The cylinders of the Walkers were iron and then the Dragoons had that Silver Sheffield steel so they didn't blow like the Walkers but the barrels may have stayed iron and the cylinders and the barrels may have stayed iron with the smaller than the big Dragoons pistols like the Navy and the Army models.

Anyway it's something to watch for....the bulge where the loading lever pushes on the barrels.