A reet guid neet at the Castle

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dromia
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A reet guid neet at the Castle

Post by dromia » Wed Sep 27, 2006 2:39 pm

As you all have probably gathered those of us who inhabit that small corner of the globe called the North East of England have got our shooting interests really well organised.

A few of our regular contributors and moderators are members of our select group RAMSAB. The Research Association for Military Small Arms and Ballistics. Some of our international members namely 1886 Lebel (AKA Patrick) and Woftam (AKA Graeme) have been able to visit our neck of the woods and share our passion.

The North East region by the way is the best region in England as it has two very important natural assests that give its excellence.

1. It is the furthest region from London.

2. It is the closet region to Scotland.

As well as having really good shooting, for the UK that is, we also organise ourselves to undertake visits to places of interest to help feed our habit of engaging with all things old and military.

We have been to the Leeds Armouries, Kynoch 600 Nitro express ya bass! and we are going down to the proof house in Birmingham for a visit in November.

Tonight however we visited locally gaining access to the armoury collection in Durham Castle.

The collection actually came from Brancepeth Castle which has featured in previous posts, probably from the ez days, as Brancepeth Castle is the host to one of our clubs with a 15 yrd indoor range and section 7.3 pistol facilities. I keep and shoot my .455 Webley MkVI there.

There are two mainparts to the collection we saw tonight one is the armour for a troop of Cromwellian lobsters along with saddelry, holsters, pole arms and edged weapons.

The second part is 70 Baker rifles along with bayonets, scabbards, frogs, cartridge pouches, powder horns and leather equipments, cross belts,buckles and powder horn lanyards. All in exceptionally good condition especially the leather work.

The collection is part of an original 140 sets of rifles and equipments that were bought for a local militia company, I hope that we will be able to put more details of their procurement up soon.

The collection was unfortunately split up when the family that had them in Brancepeth castle fell upon hard times and started selling the collection off piece meal.

However even seeing and handling half a company strength rifles and equipments was an exciting and fulfilling experience.

Joe was the official photographer for the visit but as he is dicking of to the land of the Teutons for a biker wedding piss up you'll have to wait 'till his return to see some of what we've just seen.

Biker Wedding?

Why anyone would want to marry their motorbike is beyond me.

Weird or what?
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Woftam
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Post by Woftam » Wed Sep 27, 2006 5:02 pm

Those photo's will be worth the wait - of course it would be better if we didn't have to wait.

Yeah people are weird, my boss told me he was off to cricket training the other day. Why you would want to train crickets is beyond me.
The power of accurate observation is frequently called cynicism by those who don't have it.
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Niner
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Looking forward to Joe's pictures too

Post by Niner » Wed Sep 27, 2006 8:21 pm

Nothing like having such a contribution to the site for all of us who have an interest in weapons and history, no matter where we may be.
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stripperclip
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Post by stripperclip » Thu Sep 28, 2006 3:07 pm

worth the wait those are some nice looking rifles and gear.
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Niner
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Nothing like pictures of the real thing

Post by Niner » Thu Sep 28, 2006 9:45 pm

Went surfing for some information. This site is pretty interesting on how the fire commands went as well as a link to a non firing version of a reproduction of the rifle.

http://www.militaryheritage.com/bakerrifle.htm
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Post by Woftam » Fri Sep 29, 2006 6:22 pm

Joe,

you are too modest, excellent photo's. When can we expect the pictures of the other 68 rifles ? :D

What are the "slots" (for lack of a better word) at each end of the cartridge cases ? Woud that be for wads ?

You blokes keep this up and I'll be saving my pennies for a return visit.
The power of accurate observation is frequently called cynicism by those who don't have it.
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Post by Aughnanure » Sun Oct 01, 2006 12:41 am

Bakers by the Dozens... I shan't sleep tonight :mrgreen: :mrgreen:

Reminds me of a story that I heard from a friend who, as a child, was on one of the old men-of-war that were used as boys homes.

One day he was "Officer of the Watch" (Boy) and had to accompany the CO on the Inspection. The CO went everywhere this day and they eventually fetched up in the forepeak, where there was a locked door that hadn't been opened in years by the look of it.

My friend eventually found the key on the massive ring of keys that was his badge of office.

Opened the door and there was a hundred or so Besses, covered in grease and dust,. The number was only a quick estimate, but he said that they were in racks along both sides of the peak.

The CO told him to lock the door immediately.

About a year later he got the chance to open the peak again but it was empty. :?: :?: :?:
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Tom-May
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Post by Tom-May » Sun Oct 01, 2006 5:11 am

Opened the door and there was a hundred or so Besses, covered in grease and dust,. The number was only a quick estimate, but he said that they were in racks along both sides of the peak.
The CO told him to lock the door immediately.

About a year later he got the chance to open the peak again but it was empty.
Did he say if the CO was acting any richer?
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dromia
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Post by dromia » Tue Oct 03, 2006 9:45 am

The spaces at the end of the cartidge boxes were for flints.

The locks look like India Pattern with reinforced cocks.

There are no patch boxes on the buts.

The maker is obviously W Kelland and with the royal cypher for military use, the story of the acquisition of these rifles is quiet interesting and we have an account of the agent who got the rifles. We are in the process of having the documnet scanned for your information
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