Ottoman Tufek Rifle - Restored

[rickystl]

Hello again. Well, here goes with another gun.
This is a typical Ottoman Tufek Rifle. Probably early to mid 19th Century. The gun originally had a lock that was slightly larger, but was changed out sometime during the period. Probably to replace a broken or worn lock. But it was professionally done. Again, the goal of this project was to return the gun to safe firing condition. Here is what was done:
LOCK: The lock worked fine as-is. Just needed cleaned and tuned.
STOCK: The stock was basically solid. Just a couple of small cracks that were glued (without showing) for reinforcement. But the original trigger plate that was made of horn was broke in two, with one piece missing. So we took a genuine camel bone knife handle slab and made a new trigger plate inlay, and aged to match the other inlays on top of the stock. Looks much better now.
BARREL: This is where all the work came in. The barrel tang was broke in half. And someone just drilled a hole in the front part of the tang and installed a modern wood screw. Amazingly, the original tang screw that installs from the bottom of the stock was still there, attached to nothing. LOL. So the new hole was filled, and a new piece of tang was welded on with a new hole and threads to accommodate the original breech plug screw position and stock mortise. Next the breech plug and breech were inspected, which were found to be in good shape with good plug to breech integrity. But the original 8 groove rifling in the barrel was too rough to clean up for shooting. So a new steel .54 caliber liner was installed with 7 groove rifling. As well, a new taller front sight. So the gun is complete and turned out to be a real nice light weight shooter. Hope you enjoy the pics and thanks for looking. Rick.