.50 Cal. Underhammer Build Completed!

[Hawken50]

  Man great work.Yur doin so good with sharp tools might have to change your handle to straightrazor  

[Razor62]

Thank you Hawken.

Gunmaker, a resume huh? Well lets see.... Dad bought me a CVA Kentucky rifle kit when I was 15 yrs old. I rushed like any kid will do to get it together and it showed. Shot it for a few years and then I bought myself a CVA Squirrel rifle kit which I did a much better job of assembling. I sold that Kentucky rifle a long time ago but I've still got my left handed squirrel rifle. I put allot of kits together through my teens and shot 'em often then one day when I was 20, I stupidly shot a 36  or was it 32 cal. hole through my hand when my thumb slipped off while trying to lower the hammer on one of those cheap over / under twist barrel  percussion pistols that they used to sell in Kmart. It wasn't completely my fault though. The top barrel missed my hand and the ball struck the ground at my feet. It was the bottom barrel that caused the damage and it never should have gone off. The darned thing chain fired!
I lost interest in muzzleloading after that for awhile and started messing around with high end pellet guns (They make much smaller holes which don't hurt nearly as much. ). Started my own business in my twenties repairing airguns and eventually got into firearm restoration. Did lots and lots of hot salts and slow rust bluing and quite a bit of stock work too. I am no longer doing outside work but I still have all of the tools, my trusty bluing tanks and at least some of the knowledge.

Being a lefty myself I completely understand your learning to build your own guns rather than shooting right handed guns left handed. I've resorted to that as well. Just last year I bought my first ever left handed bolt action rifle. A CZ 452 .22 rimfire. I can't believe that I waited this long to do that. What a joy it is to shoot that rifle.

I love building muzzleloaders but I've only done a few complete builds thus far. Something tells me I'm gonna do allot more of 'em. I don't have much time for it in the summer months and I'm in the woods all through the fall so I usually take on these projects in the dead of winter. Next years project is a .50 cal, swamped barrel flint lock. Haven't decided as to what type yet?

And here I am now in the middle of building my hunting rifle for next season and hopefully many more after that.

[gunmaker]

Keep up the good work & post those pic's....Tom

[Razor62]

A little more done on the forend last night. Made a brass escussion for the forend screw out of a plumbing fitting that I had in one of my junk drawers. Got the ebony diamond with brass escussion inlet and did a small amount of slimming things down. Now you can see the nose piece and how it contrasts with the walnut. I'm a little disappointed because that brass escussion isn't quite centered in the diamond. It's a mistake that'll haunt me forever. 

Forend progress:











Waiting on a new router bit so that I can run the ramrod channel. I can't begin rounding of the forend until after that's done because I need the straight edges to guide the router.


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[mongrel]

That's the beauty of working with squared-off blanks, isn't it? I'm asked sometimes why I don't start with precarved stocks. Because -- once an unshaped blank has been trued up so things are all square and parallel, routing barrel and ramrod channels, installing buttplates, and keeping things like triggers and tangs centered is a WHOLE lot easier. Plus on an unshaped blank you have complete control over the form the finished gun will take.

Interesting story about putting a hole through your hand. Made me cringe a little when I read that. Most people can't actually imagine -- but then most people also can't actually imagine sticking one of their hands into a running table saw blade, which is precisely what I did in August of year before last. Everything is still intact and (mostly) works, but it's the sort of experience that definitely stays with you forever....

[Razor62]

Got my ramrod thimbles dovetailed into the barrel today. First time doing that. Forward one is a little sloppy but I think a little solder will fix that. I tried to tighten it up with a punch but it's still not perfect.

Thimbles installed:



Loose dovetail:



Another realization presented itself to me today. With the forend designed the way I had originally planned the process of loading / unloading a #11 cap will be cumbersom at best and in all likelihood it'll border on an impossibility. There's simply no way to get my fat fingers down into that little recess in order to accomplish this task the way that I have things laid out now. As much as I don't like the idea of reshaping the forend at the nipple area into something simillar to what we see on virtually all underhammers, it seems as though I have very few options.


Here's an example of a typical underhammer forend and how it's shape is adapted to the placement of the nipple:



I'm thinking of removing the wood shown in the shaded area or at least simillar to the shaded area in the next photo. I'm open to ideas which may create a more graceful flow to the forend. I'm having trouble coming up with an option that I like.

Wood to be removed:




Did some more detail work on the buttstock too:






I like it allot so far. Looking forward to hunting with her next season.

.

[gunmaker]

Where'd you get those steel pipes?  Llooks like the dovetails are part of 'em, that right ? ....Tom

[Razor62]

Yes, their cast with dovetails. You need to give your friend Joe a call Tom. He's got 'em on the shelf at The Gun Works. http://www.thegunworks.com/custprodgun.cfm?ProductID=1009&do=detail&Cat2Option=yes
I purposely went with those to keep the weight down. No need for an under rib and the forend can slim down a little further. Plus there's the added benefit of not having to drill a ramrod hole but rather simply rout a channel.  Cuttin' dovetails is a little more involved than it appears to be though.  

[Papa]

Raxor,
I have a couple of UH's that have the nipple within a forearm recess similar to what you have done. I use an egg shaped capper and it works just fine. What you have started is beautful and it seems a shame to resort to a common feature. It may help if you create a slightly larger and shallower cavity for the nipple. Mine actually have brass liners in the cavity. I can't post but if you would like to see what I have, as an example, I would be glad to send you some pictures.
Mark

[gunmaker]

Thanks Razor62, I'll be using those pipes on the .54 underhammer 1:36 ROT for a client. A hunting rifle--so every ounce counts....Tom

[Razor62]

Well, lots of folks seemed to be as reluctant as I was to change the profile of the forend when polled for advice. I've decided to put up with having to resort to using a capper or some other method of capping the rifle in favor of leaving the forend as originally planned. I did open up the recess some and I may in fact open it up some more but today I finally routed the ramrod channel and began contouring the forend. Have a look. Let me know what ya' think....


Forend progress:

Ramrod channel routed:





Shaping up!:

[William]

I think it's looking great so far. 

[Papa]

There you go, that looks good and should work fine.
Mark

[Razor62]

Got some more done today. I was gonna' drill & tap for the scope mounts today but I realized after laying everything out that I don't have the proper 6-48 taps. What I thought was the right size turned out to be 6-40   I did layout the mounting hole position for the scope mounts and used a center drill to just dimple the location of the four holes. Once the taps arrive I'll drill and tap, mount the scope and adjust the cheek rest accordingly.

So, I installed a flash guard to the forearm recess and opened it up a little. Did some work on the ramrod channel so that the ramrod will fit neatly into its groove. Sanded & shaped the forend. From there it's pretty much finish work.

I took some pics of the rifle all assembled and I'm posting them up cuz' she sure looks purdy!


Assembled rifle. Almost there!:









Flash guard and recess:







.

[beowulf]

looks good ! but then I`m rather partial to under hammers !