Free handspike

[rob love]

I was preparing the tractor, limber and 25 pdr from the museum and when I looked at the welded up breech, and noticed what looked like a round object in the chamber. This was a gun we received from Bill Gregg back in the 80s along with most of his collection, and was likely a monument somewhere as it had the usual repaired cut in the barrel and cuts on the breech-ring along with some welds. I freed up the elevation and traverse a year or two ago (covid project) so I depressed the gun and looked down the barrel. I could see the usual things you find in a monument gun like the mandatory birds nest and the rocks that kids toss in, but there also appeared to be a brass circle. It took me a minute to figure out what it was, and another two hours to fish it out. It was really jammed in there with the dirt and rocks. I expected it to be rusted through, but all in all it looks pretty good. A little pitted, but I have since sandblasted it and will give it a coat of POR15 and some khaki paint. I also managed to pull the breechring off yesterday and will start the process of freeing up the breech. The 75 ton press comes in very handy for that kind of work.
Some photos for your viewing pleasure.