Building a Schuetzen-esque rifle?

[chawk]

Hi everyone.

I have been interested in building a muzzleloader since I attended Friendship this past summer and Jethro was kind enough to let me shoot his rifle on the woodswalk with him.

What I would like is to build a flintlock, round ball, target rifle in the schuetzen style. It could be full or half stock. I have never built a rifle before so I would definitely need some form of inletting done for me already. Pecatonica sells a schuetzen but it does not appeal to me and it is for conical bullets.
Since no one sells a kit like I am asking for I would have to modify an existing kit in some way.

Pecatonica sells a shotgun stock that I think I could turn in to what I want. They would inlet for the barrel, lock, and trigger. I would buy the barrel elsewhere and add a schuetzen (aka swiss, aka pronged) buttplate and a schuetzen triggergaurd. My question is, could I turn this



into this



And if I can't do that is there any other pre-inletted stock that would lend itself to these modifications?

Here are some other pictures of schuetzen style guns I would love to try and build.





I know I might be looking for something that doesn't exist and that this may not be historically accurate but I was hoping that maybe you guys would have some better insight and could at least point me in the right direction.

Thanks for your time,

Colin

 

[gunmaker43]

www.gunstocksplus.com has a 1/2 stock English "Manton" pistol grip one on their page, would make a good shoot-zen-er. I've used it for a "Whitworth" target rifle. Good guy to know, Virg Ott....Tom

 

[Flint62Smoothie]

Hmmmmmm :hmm: , a Whitworth design might just work when modified.

My biggest concern, when I first saw your post and that you were looking for a kit ... was that less the Whitworth, no stock has the drop needed for a 'traditional' offhand Schuetzen-type stock with vernier sights, to me anyway. And yes I do shoot BP Schuetzen rifles, e.g., Ballard, Stevens, High Walls, Maynards, etc., but not MZL'drs ... yet

One other option, I've seen more than a few BP German Schuetzen muzzleloaders at gun stores in the past. Most had barrels that were not cleaned or stored properly. But perhaps a used stock with a new replacement barrel would work for you? You'd still have the fun of assembling the parts et al and would have a traditional styled stock.

Note most German arms didn't typically have the top prong that you'll see on a US Schuetzen rifle Swiss-style buttplate, just the bottom one, with a rounded knob at the top.

 

[chawk]

Thanks for pointing out the gunstockplus website. I have never heard of them and I thought that I had seen everyone that sells kits. I find their website to be less than ideal though, and I cant see any pictures of anything with a pistol grip and the pictures fly by so fast it is tricky for me to imagine what they look like with more carving and finished.

The reason I chose that shotgun stock from Pecatonica is because they claim that it has 4 inches of drop at the heel, the same amount as their shuetzen. And when I look at their shotgun vs. the first rifle I showed they look very, very close to me, so I think it might be able to work. In my mind that first rifle looks like muzzle loading lever rifle with a schuetzen butt plate and trigger guard.

Ideally this would be an offhand target rifle with a few schuetzen touches. A mild schuetzen if you will. And I probably wouldn't use vernier rear sights. I'm leaning towards a peep/diopter rear sight arrangement. If I ever get there.

 

[Bill Knapp]

Also check with Dave Keck at Knob Mountain Muzzleloading, besides the hundred or so patterns on his site, there are probably 150 to 200 more he hasn't listed yet from Fred miller's collection of original patterns. The site is www.knobmountainmuzzleloading.com

Bill