Charlie Caywood Southern Mountain Rifle

[bpd303]

As promised here is my C. Caywood SMR (I think it's a Poor Boy style) that I acquired from one of my officers on Thursday 2/29/24 Leap year gun. In my eye it is gorgeous in it's simplicity. I know the history on this rifle so that is a plus. Charlie made it in the late '60s or early '70s and donated it to one of the Arkansas State Championship Muzzle Shoots at Berryville to be auctioned off. It was owned by a local gentleman that I know and he sold it to Berryville Pawn Shop recently and my officers bought it and I traded him out of it.
It hasn't been shot much, probably by Charlie, testing it after he finished the build. The owner who sold it to the pawn shop never shot it and it sat in his gun rack all those years. When I got it I began cleaning it up. The bore looked OK just some dirt/dust etc. While I was cleaning the bore got a little concerned that the patches were coming out with a brown residue that looked like rust. I finally figured out it was something like RIG with years of dirt stuck in it.

The bore is 50 caliber with a coned muzzle barrel length is 37 1/2 inches long with a 1:60 twist rate. The bore cleaned up and it looks new/un-fired perfect. The lock & barrel in letting is some of the best I have ever seen. I pulled the lock and it was spotless just needed oiling to move as smooth as glass. The original flint sparks like an arc welder. The rifle weighs 8 pounds and has a set trigger, so I think Charlie built it as a target rifle. I can't wait to show it to him at the spring muzzle shoot in May. Next thing up is to shoot it.
What do y'all think a value would be.


Some pictures my little camera doesn't take the best, I'll try some outside in sunlight later.


I was told this is Charlie's signature scroll work.

Heel & toe plates but no butt plate all the metal is browned.

A shot of the bore with my bore scope while I was cleaning it. The breech face & flash channel, with some of the crud around the outer edge, that is now gone.

 

[Rifleman1776]

Own that rifle and you wouldn't ever need anything else. Glad to hear Charlie is still topside. Can't answer your question. But, I have noticed, rifles over $1.500.00 are hard to sell. Money is tight these days.

 

[TDM]

It's really sweet @bpd303, very nice indeed.

 

[Cayman like]

As promised here is my C. Caywood SMR (I think it's a Poor Boy style) that I acquired from one of my officers on Thursday 2/29/24 Leap year gun. In my eye it is gorgeous in it's simplicity. I know the history on this rifle so that is a plus. Charlie made it in the late '60s or early '70s and donated it to one of the Arkansas State Championship Muzzle Shoots at Berryville to be auctioned off. It was owned by a local gentleman that I know and he sold it to Berryville Pawn Shop recently and my officers bought it and I traded him out of it.
It hasn't been shot much, probably by Charlie, testing it after he finished the build. The owner who sold it to the pawn shop never shot it and it sat in his gun rack all those years. When I got it I began cleaning it up. The bore looked OK just some dirt/dust etc. While I was cleaning the bore got a little concerned that the patches were coming out with a brown residue that looked like rust. I finally figured out it was something like RIG with years of dirt stuck in it.

The bore is 50 caliber with a coned muzzle barrel length is 37 1/2 inches long with a 1:60 twist rate. The bore cleaned up and it looks new/un-fired perfect. The lock & barrel in letting is some of the best I have ever seen. I pulled the lock and it was spotless just needed oiling to move as smooth as glass. The original flint sparks like an arc welder. The rifle weighs 8 pounds and has a set trigger, so I think Charlie built it as a target rifle. I can't wait to show it to him at the spring muzzle shoot in May. Next thing up is to shoot it.
What do y'all think a value would be.


Some pictures my little camera doesn't take the best, I'll try some outside in sunlight later.
View attachment 301029
View attachment 301030
I was told this is Charlie's signature scroll work.
View attachment 301032
Heel & toe plates but no butt plate all the metal is browned.
View attachment 301033
A shot of the bore with my bore scope while I was cleaning it. The breech face & flash channel, with some of the crud around the outer edge, that is now gone.
View attachment 301041

Back in those days he used a Siler lock before they came out with the proper English style locks ..nice gun regardless.

 

[Muley Gil]

I like that one! I'll bet it balances well.

 

[Muley Gil]

For some reason, whenever I post, I get a double post.

 

[bpd303]

I think you are right, the other locks he used that were made by Mike Rowe were marked CC&R (Caywood Caywood & Rowe) on the inside and this one isn't marked at all. In my opinion the Siler locks hold their own against the best of them.
I took it out today for a test run, shooting from my front deck at 32 yards. A total of 11 rounds fired. The first round was a fouling shot at the berm to check the locks function. That first round fired as fast as any percussion gun I own, wow kboom instead of k-boom.
The starting load was a .490 RB with some old Wonder Lube .010 patches (which disintegrated) and 70gr FFG Goex. I then fired 5 rounds at the target off hand. I wasn't impressed with the group which was high and to the left. I will definitely have to look through my range boxes for some .010 or .011 linen patch material.
The next group of 5 was .490 RB with the same Wonder Lube .010 patches and 65gr of FFFG Goex but I used my loading stand as a make shift rest. All 5 shots were a little low and to the right but the group improved considerably. Now the embarrassing part, on the 4th shot I got a flash in the pan. I re-primed and used a flash hole pick, another flash in the pan. I would have bet money that I had followed my routine powder, patch, ball & ram home. I would have lost, a dry ball.
I went inside and got my Co2 ball dis-charger and poof the ball came out and traveled about 20 yards, almost hitting my old beater truck. Because the balls were getting a little hard to ram home, I wiped the bore with Hopes #9 Black powder solvent & Patch lube and the next 2 shots went off without any problems and just as fast as the first. By then it was beginning to get dark and I needed to clean it. A couple of pictures.
Loading stand.

Pitiful target. The little holes are from a unmentionable.

 

[bpd303]

I like that one! I'll bet it balances well.

The balance point is right at the rear sight, carries well.

 

[bpd303]

I endoscoped the bore again after running a clean patch with Barricade a couple of times and it is spotless. I figured out why I had to wipe the bore due to fouling several times. It confirmed my suspicion that RIG was used long ago to protect from rust. RIG is a petroleum based grease and even though I cleaned the bore thoroughly petroleum residue remained in the groves/pores and when I shot it the residue produced the excess polymerized carbon, along with the old Wonder Lube patches. Have I said that I really dislike Wonder Lube before.
It's been raining on & off all day and the weather guessers predict it for the next several days so no shooting for a while.

EDIT: This from Caywood Guns about fouling, if anyone has doubt about petroleum products & black powder.
"We commonly hear of fouling problems encountered by black powder shooters and have researched the problem in depth. The use of any petroleum product (oil) in your bore will cause undue fouling. The reason petroleum/oil doesn't work is that it scorches at about 450 degress and black powder burns at about 900 degrees; the result is scorching! Oil and other petroleum products are introduced into the bore during machining and will invade the pores of steel. Black powder and scorched oil are incompatible and create large amounts of hard-to-remove fouling."

 

[Rifleman1776]

My experience is that RIG is an excellent long term storage preservative. However, it must be THOUROUGHLY cleaned out before the rifle is shot.

 

[bpd303]

I thought I had it really clean, however I was using BP solvent and the barrel wasn't broken in yet so some dried up RIG was still in the metals pores/machining marks when the barrel was made. I should have cleaned it with acetone or some other strong solvent but did not want to remove the barrel from the stock or ruin the finish.

 

[bpd303]

The Arkansas Muzzle Loading Association spring shoot was held May 16th-20th at Luther Owens Park. I took the rifle on Saturday and met with Charlie Caywood who was resting in his & Zoe's RV.

Charlie looked it over very carefully and said yes it is one of my rifles. He said that back then he did cone a lot of muzzles and used that scroll work on the stock but had never donated one to the club to be auctioned off or put in the raffle. However he did say someone who bought it could have donated it.

Danny Caywood was there and is always one of the RSO's (Range Safety Officers) for as long as I have been attending the matches. When there was a lull on the firing line Danny found my wife and I at one of the vendors sites.

Danny looked the rifle over and said I don't think it is one of Charlies rifles. He pointed out the butt stock with just the heel & toe plates and said it looks like one of either Mike Brooks or Jackie Browns rifles.
Now over the years I have seen a lot of both of their works and can say they are excellent master gun makers and I would be proud to own one from either or both. However I have never seen one that looks like mine. Most I have seen had full butt plates, patch boxes and a lot of very nice scroll work.

Maybe other forum members will chime in about who they think made this flintlock. Unless proven other wise I'm staying with it's one of Charlies, as he should know if he built it or not.