Handling, Care and Repair: Original Guns and Working Reproductions

6.1 Two different objects

A Puckle gun in the care of a museum or a collector is a 300-year-old artefact of brass, bronze or iron. Nothing about it should be fired, dismantled beyond what its curators allow, or “restored”. A working reproduction built today (Volume 7) is a black-powder muzzle-loading gun with nine or so chambers, each its own small breech, all screwed against one barrel. The two need opposite treatment, and this volume keeps them apart.

6.2 What documents exist

No manual, drill book or maker’s instruction for the Puckle gun is known. The patent specification declares materials only and refers to the print (Volume 1).¹ The print shows the parts that come apart in normal use and two ways the gun folds; it says nothing about cleaning or repair. Nothing in the sources read for this dive records how the Montagu guns were maintained, and no Ordnance or naval instruction for them exists, because neither service adopted them.

Everything below is therefore built from three things: what the print and the surviving guns show; established conservation guidance for brass and iron; and the hub’s existing black-powder material, which is linked rather than repeated. No step sequence is presented as historical.

6.3 Original guns: handle, do not restore

The Canadian Conservation Institute’s note on brass and copper sets the baseline for the brass Boughton gun and any other copper-alloy original:²

• Wear “clean cotton gloves to avoid transferring the moisture, corrosive salts, and oils” from the hands to the metal.
• On whether to polish: “If uncertainty exists on this point, it is safest to clean without polishing.” The right appearance “must be determined by curatorial research and consultation.” Polishing is abrasive and removes metal and surface detail every time.
• Original finishes, waxes, paints and lacquers that are part of an object’s history are for a conservator, not the owner.
• A wax coating “will provide some protection against both the environment and handling”, provided it “contains no synthetic components, such as polyethylene”.
• “For objects in storage, always limit treatment to cleaning.”

For an iron original such as the Buckler’s Hard gun, the same principles apply: stabilise, do not strip. Its black finish may be paint applied at any time in three centuries; whether it is original is a question for a conservator, and taking it off would destroy the evidence.

Specific to the Puckle:

• Do not force the screw. A chamber set that has sat on its axis for a century may be seized. Forcing the crank can strip a thread that is the only one of its kind.
• Do not lift by the crane or the barrel. The St Petersburg gun weighs 52.9 kg.³ Lift the gun and the tripod separately, two people to the gun.
• Leave chamber sets as found. The Boughton set’s hinged pan covers and toothed centre are the best evidence for how the gun worked (Volume 4). Cleaning that removes residue from vents and pans also removes evidence.
• Never load an original. There is no proof record for any surviving gun, the chamber tubes are thin, and the guns are irreplaceable.

6.4 Field breakdown: what the print shows

The print shows the gun coming apart in two ways in normal use.⁴

1. The chamber set comes off the axis. Key 4: “A Sett of Chambers ready charg’d to be screw’d on when the first Sett are pulled off to be recharg’d.” The 1859 abridgment: a spent set “is unscrewed from the fixed pin or axis on which it revolves, and another chamber-piece, ready charged, is put in its place”.⁵ So the set is unscrewed from the axis with the crank.
2. The gun and tripod fold for carrying. Key 8 refers to a screw used “when the Gun with the Tripod is to be folded up”, and key 11 to “the Screw to fix the Tripod … when the same is folded up in order to be carried with the Gun upon a Mans Shoulder.”

From the photographs, the gun lifts off the tripod at the crane’s pin in the centre tube (key 12), and the Beijing museum gun is described as three parts, barrel, turntable and tripod, “assembled for use”.⁶

A field breakdown for cleaning a reproduction therefore has four steps, in this order: unload and clear every chamber (below), unscrew the chamber set, lift the gun off the crane, and fold or dismantle the tripod.

Clearing a loaded set is the step that matters for safety. Every chamber of a set that has been on the gun must be treated as loaded until shown empty. A chamber that failed to fire is a loaded gun pointing out of the front of the set. Close all pan covers before the set is handled, keep its front pointed in a safe direction, and clear unfired chambers as for any muzzleloader whose charge will not fire (the Traditions blunderbuss dive, Volume 10, covers hang-fires, misfires and clearing a load that will not fire). A short chamber off the gun has no barrel to aim down range; it should be cleared with its front toward a backstop, and the safest tool is one that works from the vent end, such as a CO2 discharger, not one that puts a hand in front of the mouth.

6.5 Detail strip: what a correct procedure must account for

No detail-strip procedure exists for any Puckle gun, original or reproduction. A reproduction’s builder will write his own. It has to account for:

• The lock. Removed from the breech as a unit, then stripped as any flintlock: mainspring compressed and lifted out first, then the cock and tumbler, sear and springs. The hub’s Stonewall Creek blunderbuss, Volume 3 covers flintlock lock work in detail.
• The axis and its thread. Whether the axis is fixed to the barrel or removable depends on the build. If fixed, its thread is cleaned in place.
• The chamber set. On the Boughton set the chambers are fixed to the centre and the back plate; there is no evidence the original sets were meant to be taken apart. A reproduction’s set should be built so that it does not need to be.
• The pan covers. Each hinges on a small pin. Pins and covers are the smallest parts on the gun and the easiest to lose.
• The crane and elevating arc. A pivot pin in the centre tube; the arc and its catch.
• The tripod. Legs, chain, stretchers and the screws that lock them.

Mark the chamber set and the axis so that the same set always goes back with the same index position, and number the chambers. A Puckle with several sets has several sets of slightly different chamber-to-bore alignments, and each should be checked against the barrel separately (below).

6.6 Cleaning a reproduction after firing

Black-powder fouling is hygroscopic and corrosive, and every muzzle-loading gun must be cleaned the day it is fired. The general method, and the reasons for it, are in the hub’s muzzleloader material; the LeMat revolver dive, Volume 6 gives a full routine for a revolver with separate chambers, from the reproduction maker’s manual, which is the closest modern parallel.

For a Puckle, in summary:

1. Clear every chamber of every set fired (above).
2. Unscrew each set; take the gun off the tripod.
3. Wash the barrel with hot water, swab dry, oil.
4. Wash each chamber set: every chamber bore, every vent, every pan. Hot water, a bore brush sized to each chamber, pipe cleaners through the vents, a small brush in each pan.
5. Clean the axis thread and the internal thread of each set’s centre with a brush and hot water; dry and oil.
6. Wipe the breech face and the chamber noses, which take the gas cutting at the joint.
7. Clean the lock: the flint, the face of the steel, and anything the flash reaches.
8. Dry everything thoroughly before oiling. Brass and bronze do not rust but black-powder residue still stains and pits them.

6.7 Where fouling hides on a Puckle

• The joint between chamber nose and breech. Every shot vents some gas there; fouling builds on the nose and in the breech seat and stops the next chamber seating fully.
• The screw thread. Fouling blown back along the axis gets into the thread. A thread that binds is the first sign.
• Under the pan covers and in their hinges, which see the flash of every priming.
• The vents. A vent half-blocked with fouling is the commonest cause of a hang-fire on any flintlock.
• The front faces of the chamber set, where flash from the firing chamber reaches the mouths of its neighbours.

6.8 Lubrication and storage

• Thread and crane pivot: a light film of oil after cleaning. Heavy grease on the thread holds fouling and grit.
• Chamber mouths: if a lubricant or wad is used at the chamber mouths when loading (Volume 7), clean it out after firing.
• Lock: light oil on the tumbler, sear and the cock’s pivot; a dry, clean steel face.
• Store the chamber sets unloaded, with pan covers closed, in a dry place; the gun off the tripod; flints out of the cock or padded.
• Never store a set loaded. Pre-loading for a demonstration is the one thing the design invites, and loaded sets left overnight are the one thing that has to be avoided.

6.9 Inspection: before every firing day

Table 1 — Inspection: before every firing day

Check	How	Why
Chamber-to-bore alignment, every chamber of every set	A close-fitting rod pushed from the muzzle into each chamber in turn, set screwed home	A misaligned chamber shaves the ball at the breech and throws lead and gas sideways
Chamber nose and breech seat	Look for gas cutting, erosion, cracks	The seal is the gun’s pressure boundary at the joint
Thread	Run the set on and off by hand; feel for binding and play	A stripped or worn thread lets the set back off under firing
Index stop	Each chamber stops in line without being held	A set that can be fired between positions will be
Vents	A pin through each	Hang-fires
Pan covers	Each closes fully and stays closed	Chain fire from an open pan next to a firing chamber
Lock	Half-cock holds; full cock holds; flint sharp and tight; steel sparks	Standard flintlock checks
Tripod and crane	Legs locked, chain taut, crane pin tight	A 50 kg gun on a loose tripod

6.10 Malfunctions and their causes

No contemporary record of a Puckle gun’s faults exists. The table sets out the faults any gun of this layout will have, with the causes a builder should look for.

Table 2 — Malfunctions and their causes

Symptom	Likely cause	Check or remedy
Flash in the pan, no shot	Blocked vent; damp or caked main charge	Clear vent with a pick; keep sets covered and dry
Hang-fire	Partly blocked vent; too little priming; damp powder	Hold on target for several seconds before moving; clean vent
No spark	Dull flint; soft or glazed steel; weak mainspring	Re-knap or replace flint; check steel hardness; lock work
Two chambers fire at once (chain fire)	Open pan beside the firing chamber; ball not sealing the chamber mouth; loose powder on the front face	Keep pan covers closed until each chamber’s turn; size ball or wad to seal; wipe faces when loading
Gas and fouling spray at the joint	Chamber not screwed fully home; fouled or eroded nose or seat	Clean nose and seat; check the thread; repair the seat
Set binds on the axis	Fouling in the thread	Clean; never force
Lead shaved at the breech; poor accuracy	Chamber out of line with the bore	Alignment check above; fit or re-cut the index stop
Cube or ball stops in the bore entrance	Projectile larger than the bore across its corners or in diameter	Projectiles must pass the barrel freely (Volume 7)
Projectile slides forward in a chamber before firing	Ball too small; no wad	Size to the chamber; use a wad (Volume 7)

The chain-fire risk is the most serious, and it is built into the layout: nine charges sit side by side with their mouths in one plane, each with its own exposed priming. The hub’s LeMat dive, Volume 5 gives the reproduction maker’s rules against chain fire in a percussion revolver; on a flintlock with open pans the risk is greater, because loose priming powder sits on the outside of the set.

6.11 Parts that wear, and who repairs them

Table 3 — Parts that wear, and who repairs them

Part	Wear	Bench repair (reproduction)	Gunsmith or conservator
Flint	Dulls and chips with use	Knap or replace	—
Steel face	Grooved and softened	Re-harden or replace	Re-facing a steel
Chamber noses	Gas cutting, peening	Light dressing	Re-making a chamber
Breech seat	Erosion	—	Re-cut the seat; bush it
Thread on axis and set	Wear, galling	Clean, lubricate	Re-cut or replace; a new set is a new thread
Pan covers and pins	Bent, lost pins	Replace pins	—
Index stop	Wear lets the set float	—	Re-make
Tripod	Bent legs, loose fittings	Straighten, tighten	—

Originals: any repair to an original is a conservator’s job, recorded and reversible. Reproductions: there are no commercial parts for a Puckle gun; every part is made by the builder. Flints, mainsprings and lock components are the only things that can be bought, from the suppliers of flintlock locks named in Volume 7.

6.12 What could not be verified

• How the original guns were maintained, by Montagu’s household or anyone else.
• Any failure of an original gun in use: none recorded.
• The construction of the original chamber sets (brazed, riveted or screwed): not described in any source read.

References

Footnotes

1. James Puckle, declaration of 25 July 1718, specification of Patent No. 418, reproduced in George M. Chinn, The Machine Gun, vol. I (Bureau of Ordnance, 1951), p. 18. https://archive.org/details/TheMachineGunVolume1ByGeorgeMChinn, accessed 19 October 2026. ↩

2. Bob Barclay and Charles Hett, “The Cleaning, Polishing and Protective Waxing of Brass and Copper”, Canadian Conservation Institute Notes 9/3 (1983, revised 1988 and 2007), https://www.canada.ca/en/conservation-institute/services/conservation-preservation-publications/canadian-conservation-institute-notes/care—brass-copper.html, accessed 19 October 2026. ↩

3. S. V. Yefimov, Voenno-istoricheskii zhurnal, 2019, no. 2 (in Russian), https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/skorostrelnye-artilleriyskie-orudiya-pervoy-poloviny-xviii-veka-v-sobranii-voenno-istoricheskogo-muzeya-artillerii-inzhenernyh, accessed 19 October 2026. ↩

4. Patent Office, “A.D. 1718. May 15. No 418. Puckle’s Specification (3rd Edition)”, via Recreation vol. 4 (1896); Wikimedia Commons, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Puckle_gun_advertisement.jpg, accessed 19 October 2026. ↩

5. Patents for Inventions. Abridgments of Specifications relating to Fire-arms and other Weapons, Ammunition, and Accoutrements (Great Seal Patent Office, 1859), p. 26. https://archive.org/details/patentsforinven04offigoog, accessed 19 October 2026. ↩

6. Wang Zilin, 《从前膛炮、子母炮到轮子炮》, Palace Museum, Beijing, https://img.dpm.org.cn/Uploads/pdf/2237/T00016_00.pdf, accessed 19 October 2026. ↩