Hey All...Here is a 12 ga smoothbore I finished a few weeks back. I name all my guns and this one is Achilles after the legendary greek warrior. I built him to turkey and deer hunt with in the thickets. He has a 32 inch oct to round 12 ga colerain barrel that has been jug choked by danny Caywood. The lock is a Chambers round faced english. The trigger is a simple single made by Davis. The furniture is brass and it came from TOTW. The sideplate I made myself as you can see. The stock is a plain maple from pecatonica. They inlet the barrel channel and drilled the ramrod for me and I did the rest. I installed a rear sight and it really improves the ball groups. The barrel and other metal is browned with lmf. I stained with 2 coats of ferric nitrate then sealed it with 3 coates of lmf sealer. I put 6 coates of Chambers oil finish. I installed a sling on it also. Im happy with the roundball groups out to about 50-60 yrds and what few shot loads I've had a chance to shoot has been very good. Im also happy with the gun except for the buttplate that I messed up badly on but it is what it is now so I will just have to live with it. Here is yall a few pics. [conf]
(http://i1087.photobucket.com/albums/j466/wattlebuster/Achilles/Achilles001_zpsd6c6746a.jpg)
(http://i1087.photobucket.com/albums/j466/wattlebuster/Achilles/Achilles003_zps0a991afd.jpg)
(http://i1087.photobucket.com/albums/j466/wattlebuster/Achilles/Achilles002_zps45848151.jpg)
(http://i1087.photobucket.com/albums/j466/wattlebuster/Achilles/Achilles006_zps00fbd154.jpg)
(http://i1087.photobucket.com/albums/j466/wattlebuster/Achilles/Achilles004_zpsfb2bfe91.jpg)
(http://i1087.photobucket.com/albums/j466/wattlebuster/Achilles/Achilles007_zps2a8bfa77.jpg)
very nice thmbsup and that plain map
le stock aint all that plain ! hows it shhot ?
Dang nice gun, IMHO. I just don't see the butt plate problem, though.
I tried quiet a few different roundball loads and have settled on a 100 grn of Fg puching a self molded 690 ball patched with a 018 pillowtick patch lubed with mink or bear oil. At 30 yrds or less its as accurate as any rifle and on out to around 60 yrds I can get softball sized groups. Now thats with a prop of course. I have not shot beyond 60 cause I did'nt build it to be a rifle. I just want it for a short range deer getter in these thickets on the land I hunt. I have'nt had a chance to do much shot load testing. I'll do that after deer season is over which is jan 31 for my neck of the woods [conf]
Hanshi thats cause I didnt show it. I had never inlet one of those long top english fowler buttplates and will never do another. It was a pain in the buttplate. I got it some off center and there is some gap where I took off too much wood as I inlet in and down hdslp. Its not that big a deal but I should have done better
Those buttplates are a challenge. Too many dimensions to work with all at the same time. The fancier French and jaeger plates are by far the worst, to the point I won't build a gun that requires either. Better to do a plainer thing well, than to bugger up something fancier, IMHO.
Mongrel its a good thing I build for myself and not trying to sell Achilles cause it would have been a piece of firewood. Luckily the only ones to suffer over this boo boo is me and then my grandsons when I go under [conf]
Well if you are really concerned with the way it turned out i can PM you may address and i would love to take care of it for you. blah As for me i think it is right nice looking fire lock. thmbsup
I like it very much. Pecatonica always seems to furnish better than expected wood. Not sure how they manage that.