English Rifle Completed

[Artificer]

Dave,

I have seen that Turkish gun before, but I still enjoyed looking at it again.

Since I spent a career shooting, repairing and building rifles with aperture sights; I wondered if there was any documentation on them from European guns/rifles outside the "lollipop" sights or some on German/Swiss Target rifles.

Oh, forgot to ask something else. Was it common on English rifles not to have a nose cap on the stock?

Thank you for this additional information and the great pictures.

Gus

 

[rusty]

beautiful wonderful workmanship....

 

[Onojutta]

As others have said, very nice! :applause:

 

[Cowboy]

That is one of the most beautiful muzzleloaders I have ever seen! IM SPEECHLESS! Respectfully, Cowboy :bow:

 

[Cowboy]

Out of curiosity, What is the barrel length of your rifle? Respectfully, Cowboy

 

[DOUBLEDEUCE 1]

WOW! :thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup:

 

[davec2]

Jerry,

Thanks.....coming from you that is quite a compliment. I would quit the rocket science biz if I wasn't still addicted to eating....

Artificer,

I'm not sure about how common it was not to have a muzzle cap, but I have seen a few pictures of originals without them.

Cowboy,

The barrel on this rifle is 31 inches long. It's really a handy rifle.

Thank you to all the rest for your kind compliments.

 

[dave_person]

Hi Dave,
Wonderful job as always! Jerry's right you know, except he left out the vow to a life of poverty that you must also take. These little English rifles are superb hunting guns. Again, a fantastic job, Dave.

Gus, Chambers' English rifle was inspired by rifles made during the 1740s and 1750s. During that period and, indeed, throughout most of the 18th century, English makers rarely mounted nose caps on any civilian sporting guns. That changed during the 19th century. Aperture sights of a sort go all the way back to 16th century matchlock days. English rifles were uncommon during the 18th century because few people had access to the large estates where there was big game to hunt. However, when makers like Turvey, Griffin, Clark, and Twigg were commissioned to make rifles, they made good ones.

dave

 

[Scota4570]

Hi davec2,

Inspirational work!

Is the rear sight dovetailed into the barrel or a patent type breech? Hard to tell if I see a shadow or two pieces of steel that browned a little different.

The second rifle appears to be dovetailed right into the barrel. Are there any safety concerns about cutting a dovetail over the breech plug threads?

 

[ZUG]

As always -- VERY NICE Dave :hatsoff: . I like your touch on the ram rod :thumbsup: Your attention to details shows in this rifle as with your other projects :bow: .

 

[olsen49]

Very beautiful English Sporting Rifle. I was looking at this same rifle on the Jim Chambers web site. Being a complete newbie at building a muzzleloader I asked him about building this rifle. His response: "I would not recommend starting with the English Sporting Rifle as your first build. Installing the buttplate on that gun will make you want to kick your dog and slap your mother, it is a real bear to inlet". That pretty much scared me off!

Joe

 

[davec2]

Scota4570 ,

Sorry, missed your question about the rear sight. Yes, the sight is dove tailed directly into the barrel about 0.050 " deep. I have absolutely no concern about safety......1) this is the very thickest part of a swamped barrel (compared to bore size) and 2) if there is any internal pressure at all in this area during firing, the breech plug is leaking and you would have a very noticeable problem immediately. If the breech plug is sealing the bore properly, there will be no internal pressure where the sight dove tail is located.

 

[coloradoclyde]

You sure know how to make me smile Dave..... :thumbsup:

Thanks....

 

[jerrywh]

Dang that's pretty. Dave is the best thing about California.

 

[TGJaeger]

DaveC,

Well, I hope you are happy. My Chamber's Turvey is sitting in the safe and crying her eyes out. Seems she saw me drooling and cooing over your little beauty and now she thinks she's not "pretty enough"...way to go...

All joking aside, that is simply a stunning rifle. I know how much time and effort I've got into mine and I can't imagine your total - that is a fabulous rifle

 

[Col. Batguano]

Dave,

You make all sorts of wonderful guns, and many of your own parts. Have you ever thought about trying to incorporate Purdey's grip safety patent feature in to any of them? That would of course be HC / PC on an English sporter.

 

[James Stella]

Wow that is an awesome rifle.