Defarbed Loyalist Arms Lorenz

[maillemaker]

I'm actually not terribly surprised to find out that the India springs are hand-made out of actual steel. As long as they are using carbon steel for their efforts, they should be very good. Sintered metal and castings have high tooling costs but make up for it in volume manufacturing. The Indians have cheap skilled labor so they do not need to move to the more efficient manufacturing techniques. As a result they are producing a more accurate, and higher quality product in that regard.

Steve

[Smoothbore62]

I concur, they're not as bad as people make them out to be. I have an India made Long Land Pattern 1730 Brown Bess that I fire routinely with 100 grains ot GOEX FFg and a .730 ball. It shoots fairly well for a smoothbore, but I'll admit the finish leaves alot to be desired. Maybe Mr. Watts would like a sideline in making these ugly ducklings a little more presentable....

[Craig L Barry]

Todd and I looked into doing a decent Model 1854 Austrian Rifle (Lorenz)...we even bought a good original
to copy. Interestingly, it did not have the middle and double strap top band as close together as usual.
Getting the parts made was prohibitively expensive and the final product would not have been less than an
original in shooting condition.

I know the M-1854 has a legion of fans, but frankly compared to the US 1861 and Enfield they are quite
crude in both design and finish. This is true of both the originals and the "third world" reproductions.

[Smoothbore62]

I know it's obvious, but did you try The Rifle Shoppe?

[Craig L Barry]

Yes, the parts often take months to get. They are very rough castings still on the tree that require a lot of finishing work
to be usable. In the final analysis the cost of making one out of Rifle Shoppe parts is still more than the cost of an original
in shooting condition.

Greg Edington (d/b/a 'Bridesburg' ironically) was selling "kits" back in 1998 for $749 and $849, with an upcharge to build it
along with a 12-18 week wait. It never got off the ground, I think one (1) was actually made. He ran into the same problem competing against the cost of originals in shooting condition. Too bad because I have the Austrian officers manual, “Osterrichische Infanterie - Feurgewehr, Wien, 1857,” translated from German to English and ready to publish. "All dressed up with no place to go," as the old saying goes.

[Nighthawk]

Craig,
I fell in love with the Lorenz when I first started in the N-SSA. I had just finished up a Fayetteville rifle, and traded my Navy Arms P-56 naval rifle for a solid, shootable Lorenz with bayonet. Everyone thought I was nuts, as nobody was interested in those old Austrian "clunkers". Now they think I was foresighted. I wouldn't give up that Lorenz for anything. I remember in the early 80's a guy came to our campsite (34th Bn. Va. Cav.) at the nationals with four or five Austrians in his trunk. He wanted $250. a piece for them and no one was interested. Who knew?
Regards,

[Todd Watts]

My interest in the Lorenz is only to put more variety into the field. There were scores of gun makes/models in the CW and we do a poor job today of representing the variety. When I sit looking down the stacks and see 40 Enfields, 10 1861s, 5 1842s, and maybe 1 1855 or 1816 it makes me see the need to add Lorenz, Liege, Potsdam, Halls, 1841s, 1820s, British 1840s, etc. My initial attempt to get a good repro model built was the Liege. I went so far as to have a local bronze worker duplicast the smaller parts in bronze that I could file and shape to send off to be turned into molds. Staring to prie the various muldings and toolings required however I realized it will be close to $100,000 to set up the project followed by having to buy parts in large runs to make the price per part viable. In short, I'd never get my money out of it and can't figure out how to convince the wife that I need to take out a loan that big. So, we are stuck with what we now have.

[31stWisconsin]

Todd;

I am looking at restamping my Armi Sport 1861 lockplate and make it into a contractor plate. The existing eagle is pretty faint and I want to file it off and restamp. Do you know of anyone that could make me the eagle stamping?

Thanks!

[Todd Watts]

Not off-hand. I intend to one day set up to do the eagle as well as some other '61 contractor marks but there is very little interest in the hobby for these so I have not gotten around to it nor seen the need to make that expenditure yet.