Hi there Stu, thanks for the tipe! Mainspring vice ahoy with next month's pay packet, I should think (along with some fine files and a set of brass dentist's picks, amongst other things), and I shall be very careful indeed to avoid snapping the spring; I figure all I want to do is move it a fraction of an inch clear of the tumbler in the fired position, to allow re-assembly of the lock mechanism without having to fight (and lose to) the tension of the spring acting upon the machine. Am I correct in my thinking?
Regarding this barrel problem, such was indeed my intention. Since fouling is, as I understand it, quite hygroscopic, and since the barrel has rusted quite a bit already, I want to remove as much of the extant corrosion and fouling as I can in order to safeguard it for the future, before applying a fair bit of oil to keep it that way. This mysterious obstruction has been frustrating my attempts to get to the very bottom of the bore to clean it, hence my eagerness to remove it - not much point having a good, stable barrel if the first two inches of it are as thin as tissue paper.
While I'd dearly love, in time, to shoot a jezail, I do wonder about the wisdom of putting a piece of metalwork such as this next to one's face with a load of propellant within it. Not that I wish to cast aspersions on the fellow who made this weapon, by any means; it's simply that, without testing it at the Proofing House (which is necessary to make it legally shootable, as I understand it) there's no guarantee that the barrel will hold up - and the PH tests might well just destroy her altogether.
I think, much as I'd like to have a go with a jezail, that this one might be in for a well-earned retirement, to a place of honour on my wall
