Nice lookin' rifle too! What load and what are particulars on the longrifle? Picture #2 looks good.
Ok Fellers since ya asked so nice I'll tell ya all about her. To start with there's a thread in the pic section "Flinters in Progress 21 pics" of her in the process of being built. It also explains why I tell people she's a Cadillac of guns. :crackup:
I traded a 91 Cadillac Seville for her and the matching pistol. Bob Walden of Poca, WV built her custom for me she fits my short pull length perfect. We are both still tickled to death with our trade. I consider him more than a friend he's my mentor and I respect him as a father figure.
She's a copy of the gun presented to George Washington when he became President by the Committee of Safety, a JP Beck rifle. She and her sister the pistol both handle the same ball and patch equally as well.
The rifle I call "Ole Number 7, or sometimes "Ole Heartbreaker" cause the 1st 4 deer I tagged with her had a hole in their heart. I call her "Ole Number 7" cause she and her sis have one inlay it's an oval silver thumb plate with a 7 engraved on it. I was born 7-7 53 and 7 seems to be God's perfect number. That's the only personal thing on them!
I load her with a .490 ball 15 thousandths ticking patch over approximately 65 grains of Swiss FFFg measured by volume. I prime with FFFFg Goex.
She'll hold em in one ragged hole off the bench at 50 yards if'n you do your part. She has a 44" tapered Douglas barrel fitting as I live within 7 miles of Douglas Barrels. Her sis has an Ed Rayl barrel, also fitting because when Douglas quit making ML barrels they sold their equipment to Ed Rayl up in Braxton CO. WV! The wood for both guns came from a maple tree cut and cured near Elkins WV. She wears a Chambers Improved Siler lock and I love her maybe you could tell! :redthumb:
I made the bag, my wife finger wove the strap. Bob made the horn and scrimshawed it there's a matching priming horn inside the bag. Bob also made me the knife for Christmas last year. The handle's made out of some antlers I had given him earlier. It was to replace the one lost during deer season last year. A friend dropped it and we looked for 2 days for it. It was the first knife I ever made.
Bob Walden was with me yesterday he saw the doe and another deer but couldn't get a clear shot. I took a shot at about 70 yards or so through a small 4" hole in the screen of brush. That's one thing that I've found round balls don't buck the brush very well at all. One little twig the size of a pencil will send them way off course. :imo: :results:
Back by unanimous vote.
I also use a walking/shooting stick. It helps to negociate the steep hills here in WV and to steady the shot.
YMH&OS, :redthumb:
Chuck