Barrel change question.

[WestKentucky]

I know that history repeats itself, and with easily swapped calibers in several platforms it makes me wonder if/how this was done historically. I know on flinters and caplock guns it was easy enough to pull a wedge and swap barrels for whatever reason, but were there ever any guns where the breach plug was hard mounted and the barrel tightened onto the beach plug? May not be plausible with sidelock guns but anything remotely inline would be a candidate.

 

[Loyalist Dave]

I know on flinters and caplock guns it was easy enough to pull a wedge and swap barrels for whatever reason,

It's not as easy as one would think, even in our present day with precision machining. On a hooked breech rifle, where one can remove the barrel keys, and lift the barrel upwards, and there is a metal projection from the breech plug that fits into the metal that holds the barrel tang..., they were fitted back in the day. They were mostly hand made, so one simply didn't go to the smith and buy a drop-in barrel..., the extra barrel had to be fitted as well. The rear edge of the barrel breech has to fit flush with the front edge of the tang where the barrel inserts. Otherwise recoil will force the tang piece out of the stock. The sides of the barrel must also fit the sides of the stock, not too tightly or with humidity the stock may swell and might actually crack if the barrel isn't fit right.

Now as for a breech plug that is "hard mounted" and the barrel tightened onto it...YES, there are at least four types of caplock actions that do this. Two are underhammer rifles. The Hopkins and Allen style of under-hammer, caplock action, and the Allen underhammer action. There is also the the Allen Box lock action, all have the barrel screw into a sort of receiver that holds the lock and the trigger assembly. http://www.longrifles-pr.com/actions.shtml The fourth that I know of is the Mowrey action. https://thefiringline.com/forums/showthread.php?t=376701

LD

 

[Erwan]

I think about the interesting "mule ear" too...

Spoiler: Mule ear