Indian Torador Barrel Investigation

rickystl · 9th August 2015, 11:27 PM

Hello all.
Here is a Torador I plan on making into a safe shooting gun. It is in very good overall condition, with the exception of a break in the upper end of the stock's forearm. But nothing is missing, so it will be an easy fix.
So the real issue is the barrel. My preliminay investigation shows me that the inside of the breech area is a larger diameter than the bore size (.59 caliber/15mm). It seems the breech end of the barrel was closed using a plug and forge welding. That method of sealing the breech must have worked since the guns were used for some 300+ years virtually unchanged. But I simply don't trust shooting a muzzle loading gun without a threaded breech plug. So I will need to drill out the breech end starting with a small drill bit, and slowly working my way up with larger bits enlarging the hole till it meets with the walls of the barrel. This will also answer a question I've had for many years as to how the inside of the breech of these barrels was designed. There is much speculation. But we will finally solve this mystery in due course.
Here are pics of the dis-assembled gun. It was easy enough. Just remove the barrel bands and the breech retaining pin.
Rick.

9th August 2015, 11:27 PM	#1
rickystl Member Join Date: Jul 2010 Location: St. Louis, MO area. Posts: 1,623	Indian Torador Barrel Investigation Hello all. Here is a Torador I plan on making into a safe shooting gun. It is in very good overall condition, with the exception of a break in the upper end of the stock's forearm. But nothing is missing, so it will be an easy fix. So the real issue is the barrel. My preliminay investigation shows me that the inside of the breech area is a larger diameter than the bore size (.59 caliber/15mm). It seems the breech end of the barrel was closed using a plug and forge welding. That method of sealing the breech must have worked since the guns were used for some 300+ years virtually unchanged. But I simply don't trust shooting a muzzle loading gun without a threaded breech plug. So I will need to drill out the breech end starting with a small drill bit, and slowly working my way up with larger bits enlarging the hole till it meets with the walls of the barrel. This will also answer a question I've had for many years as to how the inside of the breech of these barrels was designed. There is much speculation. But we will finally solve this mystery in due course. Here are pics of the dis-assembled gun. It was easy enough. Just remove the barrel bands and the breech retaining pin. Rick. Attached Images