breech plug

[pohill]

I want to have this barrel relined (150+ years old) but I can't tell if it has a breech plug. Last year someone told me that the last few inches of the barrel are the breech plug, and there should be a visible seam. I can't see it.
When I ram a cleaning rod down the barrel, it's uniform in width until the very bottom, where it widens out slightly like a bulb.
Any ideas? Could it have been made without a breech plug?

 

[arcticap]

I have a modern barrel that was made by Pedersoli that doesn't have a breech plug. It has a mule ear lock. The hook for the hooked tang is very rectangular and within the overall external dimension of the barrel. Mine looks to be drilled from a solid barrel blank. The main difference from yours is that my powder chamber is narrower than the bore down in the breech where the nipple enters directly into it horizontally.
If your barrel was made from one piece of metal then they would have needed to use a special cutting technique to create the bulb shaped cavern in the breech which seems to be easy enough.
Otherwise they would have needed to forge two or more pieces to "weld" your barrel together which seems much more difficult and less desirable than simply making it from a larger single piece of metal to begin with. That would result in a weaker barrel that was not as conducive to being rebored when it would eventually become necessary.
I think that your barrel is made from a solid piece of metal because you've been looking closely for evidence of a breech plug seam for a long time and still haven't found one.

 

[BHP FAN]

That slight ''bulb'' could be just erosion from many cleanings over the years,and the effects of a slurry of black powder residue standing at the bottom of the barrel from being stored standing,like behind a door,or in a closet.

 

[arcticap]

I agree that could be due to age/erosion, plus wasn't it rebored?
That reboring process could have begun with an offset, hasty or imperfect reboring method which resulted in the bulb due to wobble or such.

Or could it have been there from the beginning due to design or the manufacturing technology of the day?

 

[Chawbaccer]

Blind boring would of been a difficult task. I suspect welding and then ground down. I notice the sharp corner of the bolster, that looks like it is added on, most likely welded too.
Who made the gun?

 

[pohill]

It's a Belgian rifle/musket that I've had about a year (I probably posted the same question before). I don't think it can be relined without a breech plug.
It's a smoothbore now. I shot the other day for almost 3 hrs - great gun (.535 patched roundball, 60 grs of Goex FFFG. It doesn't like Pyrodex RS). Accuracy isn't great but not bad, either. I might just leave it alone and have fun with it.
I got this info from a Belgian rifle website:

"It is a military or rather, it WAS a military piece before a clever gunsmith merged it with a Dutch M1841 breech. It started as a M1853 rifled musket, was then converted by the Belgian Army into an 1853/67 ( an Albini breechloader). All the markings are Belgian military markings. The 59 on the lock indicates the original gun was made in 1859. My first reaction was to identify it as a M1853; but a close picture of the breech showed my first guess to be incorrect. The rifling has also been removed. M1853/67 guns are fairly common, but M1853s are rarities...because the conversion work was done so thoroughly, there are only a handful left.
I hope this makes it clearer...
André"

I wonder if the bulb at the bottom was formed when they welded a breech plug section to the barrel, and it wasn't a perfect size match.

What about a replacement barrel?