I have one of these copies of a French, rather than American, Napoleon, from before they started plating them. It has always been a fun gun. I use 85 gr. BP topped off with a 14-ga. muzzleloading shotgun wad from Dixie Gun Works. I have never fired a projectile from it, but it appears to be a pretty strong (forged?) barrel. The miniature fittings are superbly made.
Last New Year's Eve I loaded and fused the gun, leaving it in my front yard while I went inside to kill the ten minutes remaining until midnight. When I came out to fire it, it was gone. I went "ballistic", to coin a phrase. I had had that gun for years and it was like a friend of mine. I drove around the neighborhood for an hour trying to catch the slimy bastard who took it, to no avail. Once the anger subsided a little, there came the sobering thought that this numbnuts was probably going to blow off his own or someone else's head, and, California law being what it is, I would probably get sued and do time.
As luck would have it, the next day while canvassing the neighborhood and putting up "Lost Cannon" posters, I found it, unfired, stuffed into some bushes about sixty feet from my house. Needless to say, I was overjoyed. I can only guess the guy lost his nerve, or maybe thought he would come back for it later. In case the latter was true, I left him a note saying that I was watching him right now.
I love happy endings.
I found an exploded view of this gun at:
http://www.mek-schuetzen.de/Blueprints/Napoleon_Muzzle_Cannon_Spanish_bp.gifOld Faithful is the medium-sized one in the middle.
