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Unknown Break Action

3K views 35 replies 7 participants last post by  CTRJR 
#1 ·
Hey all,
Just recently received a rifle from my grandfather with the request that I research it and find out what the history of it is. It's a single shot break action and it's stamped on the side and bottom of the receiver with "F Copeland Stirling Mass." Doing a little digging, I learn that a Frank Copeland used to work for Allen and Wheelock and afterward, began to make his own guns in Worcester county, Massachusetts.

"Mr. Frank Copeland, 17 Hermon Street, established a manufactory for fire-arms in 1863 ; he was formerly in the employ of Allen & Wheelock, at their old shop at the Junction. He first manufactured revolvers, and in 1876 devised a single-shot breech-
loading sporting gun, called "The Champion."

Mr. Copeland's second gun is a single-barreled sporting gun, called the " F. Copeland Gun," which is more strongly constructed, better in action and capable of standing heavier charges, and altogether more durable."
From a book on the history of Worcester county. Starts me in the right direction but doesn't give me all the details I'm looking for.

I've also seen that he is more well known for his pocket revolvers and have found mention of them in a couple books but nothing about his rifles. The gun has no other markings so I can't determine patent dates, model names, caliber, etc. I've ordered a book that supposedly has information on Mr. Copeland but in the mean time, anybody have any information on this guy and his guns at all?
Pictures to follow in the next post.

Thanks,
Corey
 
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#29 ·
As I understand it the false muzzles were made by drilling the locating holes first, indexing the false muzzle to the barrel then cutting off that section of the barrel. Cut the three or four troughs for the paper patch, install the pins and it was done.
Not quite, but fairly close, first step is drilling the bore and turning the blank between centers to remove any run out, next it is centered in a 4 jaw and the pin circle is described with a shallow groove cut and the false muzzle portion is turned to it's desired diameter, pin locations are spotted and punched. Then the fun begins, you dial each pin location to center using the four jaw chuck and drill the pin holes. After the pins are drilled it gets dialed back to center on the bore and just like chambering you have to dial in the front and rear of the barrel using a spider on the breech. After it's dialed in you part off the false muzzle, install the pins and then it gets reamed to caliber and rifled with the false muzzle in place.

If I've done it right the crown is perfectly centered on the bore and has perfect a 90 degree angle and the crown will not need to be polished as there is no burr to polish out. Any chamfer needed to ease loading is done on the false muzzle.
 
#33 · (Edited)
4 jaw chucks and fun do not belong in the same thought...at least not for this very, very, very amateur hobby machinist!!!!

The barrel and false muzzle aren't rifled first? That seems to make the most sense. Well....maybe not. A part of the rifling would be removed as it was cut and that would throw off the false muzzle alignment?
Dammit Jim, I'm a doctor, not a machinist!
 
#30 ·
4 jaw chucks and fun do not belong in the same thought...at least not for this very, very, very amateur hobby machinist!!!!

The barrel and false muzzle aren't rifled first? That seems to make the most sense. Well....maybe not. A part of the rifling would be removed as it was cut and that would throw off the false muzzle alignment?
 
#31 ·
Yep, move the muzzle backwards by the distance of the cut off tool and the lands and grooves no longer line up.

The trick to doing a pre rifled blank, and I've never done this, is to turn the outside as described above, cast a long Cerrosafe plug inside of the bore and slide it down bore far enough to be out of the way of creating the new false muzzle. Part off the muzzle, drill the pin holes with it mounted vertically in a mill. You slide that cerrosafe plug half way out of the barrel and into the false muzzle to align the lands and grooves, Now you can use the pin holes on the false muzzle as a guide. Same procedure as above, dial each pin hole to center and lathe drill.

It won't be 100% perfect alignment but it will be very, very close to it. You'd also have to set up and cut and polish the new crown, and this might need to be done before you try to slide the cerrosafe forward, because parting it off after it's been reamed and rifled will leave that nasty burr on the edges of the new "true" and false muzzles.
 
#34 ·
I received my magazine that has some information about the mysterious Frank Copeland (The Gun Report, an issue from 1972). It had a very blurry, out of focus picture of a shotgun with almost an identical action as this gun. Copeland never filed any patents so we can't look up any technical details on any of his guns. But apparently, his pocket revolvers were very good quality guns, there's just no information on his long guns.
 
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