What a difference the patch makes.

[Ovenpaa]

My own patched ball rifle is 25 gauge and was made in the 1840s. The bore is absolutely mint and the breech block is made to screw out with little effort for cleaning. It does not leak gas. First shots were on a par with your patched holes, but examination of the spent patches recovered from the range floor revealed that they were torn up badly. I changed from cotton to linen patches and now the performance is as your three shot group. It is percussion and has the old style nipple with the cone running top to bottom, I normally make my own nipples, but this one has defeated me: the thread is unlike any modern one.
Fred

What a superb looking rifle Fred

[legs748]

On the subject of the 95th I still cannot understand the lack of a good repro of the Baker rifle.

Pedersoli have been prevailed upon several times by shooters to make one but the reply has always been around sufficient popularity for such a firearm, when you look at the Pedersoli line up surely a Baker would be far more popular, even both sides of the pond, than say the Mortimer of which there were not that many rifles made.

Sharpes stories and especially the TV series has made the rifle very well known and popular even although the the hero was played by that lipsucking, tongue pointing failure of an actor Sean Bean.

Peter Dyson makes them, I've heard he made the ones for the sharpe series. Budget around £3.5k to have one hand made for you, good value if you have the money.
http://www.peterdyson.co.uk/acatalog/RE ... _GUNS.html

[dromia]

I know about the Dyson ones but I would far sooner pay less than a £1000 for a factory one, if I was going into the thousands league then pay the extra and I'd look for an original.

[1066]

Here's some food for thought:

http://www.loyalistarms.freeservers.com/bakerifle.html

http://www.armae.com/Zenglish/napoleoni ... uskets.htm

http://britishmilitariaforums.yuku.com/ ... s8dhXmtPcs

http://www.militaryheritage.com/baker.htm

[dromia]

Aye Allan I've seen those before and they are not functional having no touch hole drilled some are smooth bored with rifled barrels an option at extra cost to get them to fire they would need some more gunsmithing works then proofing.

Derbyshire arms do them for just over £1000 but what I've seen of their work doesn't impress me, maybe suitable for a not very discriminating re-enactor type but not what I would call a quality shooter especially for the price.

Kit guns, I know my limitations.

[1066]

That's disappointing although I thought it was too good to be true. I'm sure I've seen reproduction Bakers in the past. There was an outfit, about 30 years ago, called "Coach and Harness". They produced a full catalogue of repro BP stuff, would they have listed one?

[dromia]

I seem to recall that the Coach and Harness ones were Indian smooth bores, no doubt good enough for a wannabe Sharpe re-enactor. I have their old catalogues somewhere and a few tins of primer caps with the Coach and Harness label on them.

Krankies sell Indian Baker smoothbores.