.62 Underhammer Smoothbore Project

[gmww]

In my quest to learn more about gun building as a relative Newbie I purchased yet another Underhammer. This time it was not in a complete kit form. Thanks to FW who had an H&A Underhammer frame, trigger, hammer, and spring I obtained the hardest parts. He alerted me a month or two ago that he had a line on a couple of .62 cal. smoothbores. I was able to order one with the frame through him.

Since he was having them made, I asked that he have the rear sight dove tail be moved back for my eye sight. I happen to like longer plain on my gun sights. My eye sight seems to like it better. It was moved so it would be a couple of inches in front of the breach.

 

[gmww]

So I have basically all the parts. The front stock and rear stock which I just got in the mail are from Numrich Arms. Problem with Numrich Arms is the rear stock and stock screw are for an older version. :cursing: Some modifications will need to be done. The Stock screw is going back as it is the wrong length and thread size.

Other issues that will need to be addressed is the nipple hole is a smidge too far forward. As a result the hammer does not strike it properly. The frame has some tooling marks that will also need to be addressed.

The barrel does not seat completely against the frame. It is a couple of thousands forward. This will be dealt with with the nipple hole issue.

 

[faw3]

Just wait till you shoot it, did you do a cut for the hammer on the breach plug? Mine slid right in after that,but I used my old "Kick Around" very well used frame. FRED :hatsoff:

 

[gmww]

A couple of other issues that I will need to address is the barrel is thin walled and will probably not be suitable for drilling a pin hole to mount the front stock. I'll have to find a longer 1/4 x 28 screw as my hardware store doesn't have them that long. Also the rear stock does not seat all the way to the back of the frame. Some wood will need to be trimmed off.

My total sum of tools consists of two files, and a dremil. Of course I've got a hand drill, and portable sander. My building skills is even less than the sum of my tools. What I will be needing is proffessional help. Enter John Taylor.

I've been in contacted with John for a couple of months since I noticed he live's in my home state. After some emailing and waiting for the new kit to arrive I made arrangements to pay him a visit. He was gracious enough to put some time aside for me to come down with my project.

I told him of my nipple problem and that I would also need to figure out how to mount the front stock and some thimbles.

Here is a photo of how thin the barrel wall is.

 

[gmww]

Yesterday at O-dark thirty, I climb bleary eyed into my car and take the drive south to John's place. It's a four hour drive which included driving through Seattle, Tacoma, and Olympia before, during, and just after rush hour! :youcrazy:

I finally get to John's shop and we introduce ourselve. Inside I show him my project. After some brief discussion we decide to shave off a little from the back of the barrel and breach plug to get the nipple closer. Here are the results of that process. John also took a little metal off the hole as the nipple was not sitting right.

This second photo shows the shaved area of the breach plug and the area of the nipple hole.

Really once John got started it didn't take all that long.

 

[gmww]

John has now taken care of two of my dilemas. While discussing thimbles I figured he has some laying around that I could solder on. He had other ideas. He incorporated thimbles and attaching the front grip. Of course he made them from scratch.

Check these out.

He started out with an old barrel. He drills out a hole the size just larger than my ram rod. Then he does his creating.

 

[gmww]

Thimbles in progress.

As you can see from the progression they come out looking pretty sweet. The base of the thimble matched the width of the flat on my barrel.

 

[gmww]

Four thimbles are made and now he solders them onto my barrel. Two will be under the stock while the other two will be in front.

After they are cooled, John takes a drill and drills holes in the thimbles under the stock for pins.

 

[spitfire]

Great Photos and I like a Docudrama :haha: !Thanks for posting and John's work :thumbsup: !Keep us posted on further progress!

 

[walruskid1]

looking forward to seeing the finished rifle. looks like nice work. WK1

 

[faw3]

Wal 1 Happy to see ya back. Great photo shoot GMWW and he do dose great work. FRED :hatsoff:

 

[John Taylor]

You were supposed to show a close up so no one could see my messy work bench.
A clean bench is a sign of a sick mind.
I noticed that you got that fancy stainless barrel in the picture.
I had a great time on this project, make sure to bring it by and see if you can out shoot my 62 when it's finished.
You forgot to mention that we put a shorter nipple in also.

 

[faw3]

John , I'll send you the twin to that one to do for me also... "if" Ican get it away from my kid, he loves those 120 to 150 gr 2fs and rbs near dark , he's rattling the trees around here with it. :rotf: Great work! FRED :hatsoff:

 

[BS]

You were supposed to show a close up so no one could see my messy work bench.A clean bench is a sign of a sick mind.
I noticed that you got that fancy stainless barrel in the picture.
I had a great time on this project, make sure to bring it by and see if you can out shoot my 62 when it's finished.
You forgot to mention that we put a shorter nipple in also.

Your bench reminded me of home!

Nice work, bye the way! :thumbsup: :thumbsup:

 

[gmww]

Well as John mentioned. The nipple I had was a little to long and the hammer struck at an angle. John intalled a shorter T/C nipple and now it strikes like it should. Continuing on with the project we needed to fit the stock over the thimbles.

The stock was provided by Numrich arms. They are walnut and not maple like the ones provided by Deer Creek. The front stock is also terribly thin so taking off wood to fit the thimbles was nerve racking.

I started it but was too worried about punching through. John being the experienced gunsmith took the stock from me and went to town. Here is the result.

With the stock now able to fit correctly onto the barrel it was time to put the pin holes in. The stock had been finished prior to the drilling of the thimbles. When each thimble was drilled the stock was place and drilled prior to drilling the next thimble.

 

[gmww]

Now in between this time John is working on a couple of projects. He was working on stainless steel barrel with a rib that was part of the barrel. You can see it in the top right corner of the picture of my barrel in a vice with the soldered thimbles.

Also much to my amazement, John has a machine he made to cut rifled barrels. Yes, he can cut rifling into a barel if you should want that done. I'm thinking maybe my next barrel will be made by him. Here is a photo of his machine.

 

[gmww]

He also had another project going for a customer. In his other machine he had this .62 Cal. rifled barrel. It started out as a 2nd from
Zepher rifle company that makes those $2000. underhammers. Here is the front end of the barrel sticking out of his machine.

Here is the breach end about to get worked on.

 

[gmww]

Continuing on with this barrel it is about to be tapped for a breach plug.

This next photo is John tapping the breach. And the final photo is the end result. Get it end....breach, end... :rotf: :shocked2:

In case your wondering Fred this is your barrel I was taking photos of. :v

 

[gmww]

Lastly John has a couple of barrels he showed me that peaked my interest. He has two 48" barrels. One is .45 cal that would need to be cleaned up and bored probably to a .50 cal. The other is a barrel he custom bored. The bore is also in .45. What makes it unique is he bored it with a hex bore. Yes, hex bore. I'm giving that one a lot of thought.

He tells me a sizer or mould would need to be made for a bulet to fit the hex. I was thinking you could make a sizer and push already made soft cast pistol bullets through.

He also had a really big bore that I have no idea the size. He says with 600 grains of BP it will send a projectile out of sight. :shocked2: Here is a photo.

What do you think? Will it fit my underhammer? :rotf:

 

[gmww]

Currently John is working on an Underhammer which looks like one that would have been made by Hilliard. John says he tries to get to it when work slows down. It sure looked to be a good start to me. He also showed me a hammer he obtained. It has a dogs head. I wouldn't mind something like that made for one or more of my guns.