E.Fletcher gloucester rifle

[grewal]

Hello all IFG fellow friends,
I am in a dire need for help. I have come accross ( or I should say have bought ) a rifle marked E.FLETCHER GLOUCESTER . The Gun House owner has billed me that gun saying that it is a .32 bore rifle . Although i have not taken the delivery of the gun as i have to get bore addition to my license but I have paid for it . It costed me 12000 rs, the condition is good with butt in very good condition .The trigger is an open type , It is an oldie model with vintage look . But the confusion starts here , i cannot find any mention of any such rifle on the net.Although there is a brief mention of a fletcher made pistol at an Australian auction site . Now I need you people to help me and tell me that weather ammunition for this rifle is available and weather anyone of you have ever come across any such rifle . The only reason I bought this rifle was that it was very cheap and being a .32 bore will enable me to have a bigger quota of bullets that can be used in my revolver . i will try to post some pictures of that rifle in the future as right now i don't have any of that. So do please help me . Waiting for your esteemed replies .

Thanks
Prabhdeep Singh Grewal

ludhiana, PB

[mundaire]

The only reason I bought this rifle was that it was very cheap and being a .32 bore will enable me to have a bigger quota of bullets that can be used in my revolver.

Grewal, it is HIGHLY unlikely that your rifle would be able to safely chamber and fire either the .32 S&W Long cartridge OR (unlikelier still) the .32 ACP cartridge. Just because 2 guns share the same nominal bore (.32 cal in this case) DOES NOT mean that they can use ammunition interchangeably! Many different cartridges share the same nominal bore, but they are in almost every case different enough to make using them interchangeably impossible and dangerous - due to size & loading pressure differences.

If the gun dealer misinformed you as to this, he is in my view guilty of a criminal act as this practice could cause serious injury and even death!

Cheers
Abhijeet

[Mark]

I would suggest making a cast of the rifle chamber as the only way to determine the caliber.

To do this, clean the chamber and lightly oil it, then push a ball of rolled up tissue into the chamber from the rear, make sure it goes past where the brass cartridge sites and into the rifling.

Now, cut an aluminum drink can into a little ladle and put some flowers of sulphur in it, for a small caliber use 3 tablespoons. Melt the sulphur over a heat source- hot pad, stove, or torch- and be careful not to get it too hot. If it is smoking it is too hot, just get it liquid and maybe a few bubbles. Pour it into the chamber up to where the rim of the cartridge seats and let set for a couple of minutes. Then knock it out with a wooden rod from the muzzle.

Now you have an exact cast of the chamber and you can find out what exact chambering it is.

[art_collector]

Hi,

There is a ammunition called 32 Winchester.....its much different from the 32 revolver cartridge .....its much bigger and I have seen many boxes of Kynoch ammo in this particular bore. It could be possible that the rifle is chambered for these cartridges...lemme just check up....may be I shud be able to find you some ammo ..

AC

[The Doc]

a rifle marked E.FLETCHER GLOUCESTER . it is a .32 bore

Is it a single shot or a repeater ? From the price that you have mentioned it seems like a single shot.

Pictures should help a lot here. I totally agree with Abhijeet regarding the usage of .32 S&W or .32ACP ammo being dangerous in this case.

best,
RP.

[R-Dhillon]

I saw a similar gun a single shot break barrel...it was for 3000-4000...though the dealer told me that it uses the same ammo as the .32 bore revolver...but I thought it was best to leave it with the dealer...
Regards,
R.Dhillon...

[The Doc]

I saw a similar gun a single shot break barrel.

Prabhdeep Grewal and R-Dhillon, I think we are in the same city or near abouts !!

best,
RP.

[R-Dhillon]

I'm from Ludhiana,so is Mr.Grewal...Where u from Doc saab??...

[TwoRivers]

If it's an "open" trigger hinged barrel rifle it is highly unlikely that it would be chambered for the .32 ACP/7.65mm Browning cartridge. More likely for something like a .32 S&W Short, or a .32 rimfire. As to the .32 caliber Winchester cartridges, there are two, the .32-40, with a straight taper case, which was chambered in some British guns; and the .32 Winchester Special, the same basic case as the .32-40, but bottle-necked and loaded to higher pressure. Also, while having the same nominal designation, the two Winchester rifle cartridges have .320" bullets, whereas the (misnamed) .32 caliber pistol cartridges are really .303s, running .311-.313". Would be interesting to see a picture of the rifle. My guess would be that's a cheap Belgian "Rook" rifle, unless it has lost its trigger guard. Cheers.

[The Doc]

I'm from Ludhiana,so is Mr.Grewal...Where u from Doc saab??...

Ludhiana too !! How about and some "gun chat" ?

best,

RP.

[grewal]

Hello everybody,
I am updating my query with the pictures of the rifle and few revelation made by the gun house owner who has sold me this rifle . He says that this rifle has to be re bored from Patiala to precisely match the size to fire a .32 magna cartridge. Which means that the gun is actually not a .32 bore but some unknown bore rifle . I was having this feeling from the starting but was not sure of the real facts. on Friday I became adamant and preasurised the gun shop owner to tell me that real size of the rifle and then he said that he bought the rifle with .32 bore bill and he did the same and gave me a .32 bore rifle bill. although I will not have any problem in getting this rifle added to my license but actually I am more interested in finding the real specification of this weapon, which are still unknown to me . there is no model name and no manufacturing year on this rifle except the name which says E.FLETCHER GLOUCESTER. now all my fellow IFG members please go through these pictures and tell me if you have ever come across any such weapon .. bye

http://picasaweb.google.com/prabhdeepgrewal/GunPictures#

[mundaire]

Hello everybody,
I am updating my query with the pictures of the rifle and few revelation made by the gun house owner who has sold me this rifle . He says that this rifle has to be re bored from Patiala to precisely match the size to fire a .32 magna cartridge. Which means that the gun is actually not a .32 bore but some unknown bore rifle . I was having this feeling from the starting but was not sure of the real facts. on Friday I became adamant and preasurised the gun shop owner to tell me that real size of the rifle and then he said that he bought the rifle with .32 bore bill and he did the same and gave me a .32 bore rifle bill. although I will not have any problem in getting this rifle added to my license but actually I am more interested in finding the real specification of this weapon, which are still unknown to me . there is no model name and no manufacturing year on this rifle except the name which says E.FLETCHER GLOUCESTER. now all my fellow IFG members please go through these pictures and tell me if you have ever come across any such weapon .. bye

http://picasaweb.google.com/prabhdeepgrewal/GunPictures#

As others have said above, the only way to be sure is to make a chamber cast... search the forum, one of the members (I think it was Mark) had made a detailed post on how to go about doing this.

The price you paid for an "unknown" bore single shot rifle is on the higher side, should not have cost you more than INR 5K to 6K (tops)... such rifles are basically bought by people only to "cover" their license purchase period while they hunt for a "proper" rifle. Once a good rifle is identified such rifles are then sold back to the dealer after deducting a pre-determined amount (which is basically the dealers fee).

I could be mistaken but the action seems to be a "trapdoor" type conversion which were around for a while during the transition from muzzle loaders to cartridge firearms. The conversion would have been done in England itself (maybe at the factory). Such actions are usually "weak" and cannot handle very high pressures. There is a distinct possibility that this gun would be chambered for a black powder cartridge.

Cheers!
Abhijeet

[danish21]

I think its a .30 rook rifle. Have seen similar rifle in my city and the dealer was asking 2k for the rifle.

[penpusher]

It's a Snider breech conversion of a percusion cap rifle to center fire. Definitely black powder. The only way to check the cartridge it is chambered for is by a chamber cast.

[art_collector]

Its a normal snider action ...in many places its sold as a 20 gauge gun also as it fires 20 bore ammunition.(How does that happen I have no clue)

Well one suggestion is just get rid of the rifle...its better to loose your money than to loose your life...dont even consider reboring it.

AC