Craftsmanship > Gun Building and Repair

Buyers BEWARE!!

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rollingb:
An old friend in Wyoming, called and asked if I could fix the percussion smoothbore he got from Jackie Brown 2 or 3 years ago. The smoothbore has been sitting in his closet "in the white" all this time. He said there was a big gap between the drum and the cut-out in the percussion lock.
I said sure, send it to me and I'll see what I can do.

Well I received the smoothie, tore it down, and started to unscrew the drum from the barrel, and this is what I found.  :scared:

Now Jackie must have been drunk, (or, he didn't care) when he drilled and tapped the breech for the drum.



I called the owner and told him the "proper fix" would be,.... to start over with a new barrel, he didn't like the sound of that.
So I told him another option would be,.... I could "plug the hole", take off the soldered lugs and front sight, rotate the barrel and re-solder them so the "plug" would be hidden in the barrel channel. He wasn't particularly fond of that idea either.

So we decided on a third option,.... which will be to solder some brass shim stock in the lock's cut-out, and I'll file it to conform to the angle of the screwed-up drum. The brass shim stock will support the drum properly, and fill the gap between the drum and lock.
He liked that idea, and asked if I'd go ahead and completely finish the smoothie for him,  :).... so now I've got a "winter project".  :laffing :bl th up

Since I'm out of brass shim stock, I've got it on order and the wait goes on.

I'm posting this as an example of what you might get when dealing with Jackie Brown,.... and he should know better, 'cause he's been building guns since the 1980's. :(

Fyrstyk:
I thing your option #2 was the best solution for a fix.  If it were my gun I would send it back and ask for a new barrel or my money back.

Ohio Joe:
Wow!!!  :o

Winter Hawk:
Another idea: de-breech the barrel, cut it ahead of the drum hole, reinstall the breech plug and drill another hole for the drum.  This will also mean cutting new dovetails for the under lugs but gives you a good, solid fix.  It would be way cheaper than a new barrel....

~Kees~

Bigsmoke:
Some times these small manufacturers can be a surly bunch.

I recollect back about 1981, I got a beautiful SMR from my wife (she's a keeper, for sure).  A friend of mine was so impressed with the rifle that he bought a Doc Haddaway flintlock from me and sent it back to the maker and ordered a rifle the same as mine, only using the lock he sent.  When he got the new rifle, it included a plastic bag with the mainspring in it.  The bad news was the spring was in two parts, and overall, the gun looked like a 6th grade shop project from a special needs school.  The inletting was ragged, the browning was splotchy and of course, the lock was not functional.  It seemed like everything that could have been done wrong - was.

When my friend sent a letter to the maker, he got a reply.  It went kind of like this:  F%#* you, you got what you got.  I will not do business with you again and I don't want to hear from you, ever!!!!!  Signed, Jack Garner.

I don't know what ever happened to that rifle.  Seems like it would have taken a lot of filler to make the fit and finish look even halfway right.  Sadly, that was the last Haddaway lock I ever got.  I don't know if he ever got that fixed or not.

John (Bigsmoke)

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