Guns & Ammo – October 2019

rifle of the future| october 2019 G&A 77

While the external condition

of this particular piece is quite

good, as are the mechanics,

the bore has seen better days.

Rifling is discernable though

rough and a bit thin in spots.

I have to admit that I was not

particularly confident that

we’d see the old girl at her best

when we touched her off, but

I thought I’d give it a go. To add to this, the only bullet mold I

was able to locate cast the tapered-style bullet, and I could not

conjure up an adequate culotte, thus it had to be fired without

one. Bullets weighed 740 grains — a tad on the hefty side and

about 60 grains heavier than the initial bullet specs. The diameter

was .690. Patches were greased with a beeswax/tallow concoction

to approximate the original cartridge conditions. Powder charge

was 2½ drams of Goex FFg black powder.

I fired the P51 from a bench at 50 yards to get an initial idea

of where bullets would be hitting, planning to extend the range

in the Crimea, the Model 1843 luttich rifle was the principal longarm of its

type used by the russians. A copy of the British first Model Brunswick, it

was not general issue and was used only by rifle troops.

stores for a time and then sold
surplus, many going to belliger-
ents during the American Civil
War. Examples of P51-style
Minié bullets have been recov-
ered from Civil War battlefields.
Some ’51s were also sold pri-
vately to individuals and com-
mercial firms. The P51 we’re
looking at on these pages has some sort of commercial designation
stamped deeply into the left side of its buttstock. To date, the author
has been unable to identify it, and if a reader has any insight into its
origin, we would greatly appreciate learning about it.
Our evaluation arm was manufactured in 1852 and is so marked
on the lock. Only some 35,000 P51s were manufactured between
1852 and 1855, with all but 1,000 of them being issued. Produc-
tion numbers were low to begin with and attrition rate in British
service, coupled with surplus arms being scattered throughout the
globe, make it a hard arm to come by nowadays, in any condition.

While the P51 proved to be reliable and discharged every time, a com-

bination of rough bore and conoidal bullets provided tepid results.