- Joined
- Nov 26, 2005
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Hi Folks,
I made this gun for Morgan's Rifle Corps to be used as a loaner for new members. That way they can get started without the huge outlay for an historically correct rifle. I made it from a stock blank started by Malcolm Dick, who died in 2013 and was Morgan's commander for many years. It may have been the last gun he worked on. Malcolm clearly had a Berks County gun in mind and I continued in that school. Unfortunately, the stock blank was already cut out and would not permit me to make the gun as robust as a typical early Reading or Berks gun. Consequently, I scaled it down a little. I wanted it to be a credible product by an early Reading maker and one obviously made by a man doing the work as a living, not a hobby. To that end, I did not fuss and try to make everything perfect. I made and shaped things "good enough" and moved on. I also gave myself a time limit of 2 hours on each carved section. That time limit included drawing on the wood, cutting, and finishing the design. At the end of 2 hours, I was done with the section. The stock was chiseled, rasped, filed, scraped, and burnished. I did not remove every scratch, smooth every background, correct every curve, or fix every little dimple or chip. I think the end result looks pretty good, but then perhaps I am biased. The barrel is a 44 inch "C" weight 50 cal swamped Colerain cut down to 39 1/2". The lock is a small Siler, which allowed me to keep the LOP greater than 13". The trigger guard is David Dodd's early Berks guard made by Reeves Goehring. I made the muzzle cap, thimbles, trigger, triggerplate, sights, sideplate, patchbox, and patchbox release mechanism. The stock is stained with ferric nitrate and water (aqua fortis) and finished with polymerized tung oil, which was slowly built up to give a harder looking finish. The rifle has low sights but it shoots really well, until heat waves obscure the front sight. I hope you enjoy the photos and comments and criticisms are welcome.
dave
I made this gun for Morgan's Rifle Corps to be used as a loaner for new members. That way they can get started without the huge outlay for an historically correct rifle. I made it from a stock blank started by Malcolm Dick, who died in 2013 and was Morgan's commander for many years. It may have been the last gun he worked on. Malcolm clearly had a Berks County gun in mind and I continued in that school. Unfortunately, the stock blank was already cut out and would not permit me to make the gun as robust as a typical early Reading or Berks gun. Consequently, I scaled it down a little. I wanted it to be a credible product by an early Reading maker and one obviously made by a man doing the work as a living, not a hobby. To that end, I did not fuss and try to make everything perfect. I made and shaped things "good enough" and moved on. I also gave myself a time limit of 2 hours on each carved section. That time limit included drawing on the wood, cutting, and finishing the design. At the end of 2 hours, I was done with the section. The stock was chiseled, rasped, filed, scraped, and burnished. I did not remove every scratch, smooth every background, correct every curve, or fix every little dimple or chip. I think the end result looks pretty good, but then perhaps I am biased. The barrel is a 44 inch "C" weight 50 cal swamped Colerain cut down to 39 1/2". The lock is a small Siler, which allowed me to keep the LOP greater than 13". The trigger guard is David Dodd's early Berks guard made by Reeves Goehring. I made the muzzle cap, thimbles, trigger, triggerplate, sights, sideplate, patchbox, and patchbox release mechanism. The stock is stained with ferric nitrate and water (aqua fortis) and finished with polymerized tung oil, which was slowly built up to give a harder looking finish. The rifle has low sights but it shoots really well, until heat waves obscure the front sight. I hope you enjoy the photos and comments and criticisms are welcome.
dave
