Advice for Building an American Fowler

[taylorh]

Hello,
I would like advice concerning building an American fowler (percussion), 20 gauge, single trigger, halfstock, with flatter style butt plate. Barrel length about 32-34". Should I use an octogon-to-round barrel, or just octogon? Which sights would be most appropriate? Which butt plate would be best? Should I blue or brown it for this period of a Gun? Has anyone here built such a gun? Please let me know.
Thanks,
Taylor in Texas

 

[Erzulis boat]

I have never built such a gun, but one thing that I know for certain, a straight octagon is one heavy mother!
In my opinion, I would definitely have rapid pointability in mind.
The TOWT octagon to round smoothbore barrels feel pretty light.
This sounds like a build that I want to see, a caplock fowler would be sweet!

 

[rich pierce]

Lots of cheap percussion halfstock fowlers were made with octagon to round barrels. That's what i'd use. The single barrel fowler was the "everyman's gun".

some examples
one

two


three

best

 

[twobirds]

Hello,
I would like advice concerning building an American fowler (percussion), 20 gauge, single trigger, halfstock, with flatter style butt plate. Barrel length about 32-34". Should I use an octogon-to-round barrel, or just octogon? Which sights would be most appropriate? Which butt plate would be best? Should I blue or brown it for this period of a Gun? Has anyone here built such a gun? Please let me know.
Thanks,
Taylor in Texas

:hmm: I was planning to build just such a gun using a stock blank I found in an old log cabin, but the project got put on hold. Many such guns had full round barrels. Track of the Wolf carries such barrels, but they aren't in their catalog. Email them for availability. They're cheaper than oct/round, too A shotgun similar to the one you are describing resided at a local store until recently. It had a back-action percussion lock, half-stock, full round barrel, was originally blued, but rusted until brown. Don't remember the front sight. Good luck on your project.