Ferguson Rife Made by my bro

These pictures are of a .65 cal. Ferguson, Breech Loading, Flintlock Rifle my Brother made for a chap living in Belgium, working in Germany. It turned out quite nicely as you can see. The pictures are excellent quality, much better than I take. - HA!. There are 613 silver nails in the checkering pattern alone & all engraving was done by Taylor.
Daryl
:http://rjwatt.com/TaylorMade/TaylorMade.html

 

[musketman]

The Ferguson Rife: develpoed by Captain Patrick Ferguson during his six years with the British Army service in the west Indies, about 1770...

Ferguson perfected a breech screw that functioned at right angles to the axis of the bore by rotating the trigger guard one revolution, this cleared the breech for loading...

Fergusons were also known for their speed in loading...

Those are some nice pictures of a fine firearm...

Thank for showing all of us...

 

Pleasure indeed. We shot the rifle a bit of course, to proof and test for accuracy of the naked .650balls from the Rapine mould. Very high quality mould, too. .650 is the grouve dia of the barrel. The balls were rolled in lube, about 60% vasleline/40% beeswax(good stuff). The rifle shot amazingly well to 100yds with Taylor holding about a 5" offhand group at that range. Ignition was very good considering we were using 2F for priming the first day. The second day, 4F was used in the pan with quicker ignition, of course. The chamber held only about 55gr. 2F with the ball up front. Indeed, loading was very fast. The "Breech Screw" has 11 threads. Apparently Sporting Ferguson Rifles had 10 threads on the screw. This threaded plug, is tapered bottom to top with one complete revolution of the guard dropping the plug approx 1 3/4" to expose the 'chamber' of the barrel. Gas leakage was evident,but with a low cap on, it wasn't noticable. Otherwise, granules of powder did hit the forehead & mine goes back a long way. - HA! I can't imagine what sort of problems cutting those threads would have been prior to 1800, let alone today. Ingenious system, but with our present day powder, the screw fouled quite quickly.
Daryl

 

[crackerboy]

I read some where that the original ferguson's had a problem with the stock's splitting in the lock and trigger guard area's. :shocking:

 

[swquiro]

Judging by the pictures, that gun is a real work of art. Just maybe your brother has made a gun or two before.

 

Yes- he's been a riflesmith since about 1973.
:While we were out shooting this mrnaing, I did mention he should put more pictures on the site, of several rifle's he has posession of, especially his Steutzen, .60. Even with a light 100gr. load, it SLAMS deer. Beautiful, highly figured walnut stock as well. I think it's the 31" bl. but may only be 28", whatever Getz makes.
: A GREAT pistol he made for a fellow is an ebony stocked Wheellock, 16th century, .40 cal. Taylor made the lock for that one as the ones available weren't "up to snuff". MAN!- you talk about fast ignition! That thing's no different than shooting a caplock, for sure & just as accurate.The lock was copied from an original, complete with inner chain drive on the Wheel.
Daryl

 

[Zonie]

"...an ebony stocked Wheellock, 16th century, .40 cal."

Now there is something you don't see every day!!

Years ago when "Johnny" could have such things, Revell made plastic kits of old firearms. On my bedroom wall I have a Italian? Wheellock, a Middle Eastern Miqulet, two Flintlocks (One of which is the Ivory stocked gun with the helmeted head which has been shown in several publications), and a not too accurate 1861 Colt.

I have always thought it would be interesting to build a Wheellock Pistol similar to this model.

Maybe someday.

Your brothers craftsmanship is superb by the way.

 

[musketman]

A GREAT pistol he made for a fellow is an ebony stocked Wheellock, 16th century, .40 cal.

Daryl, do you think your brother might have a few pictures of said wheel-lock?

I for one, would like to see it... :winking:

 

Yes- he's a bunch of them - prints, tho. I may be able to scan them - I will try that as I don't think the owner will be in P.G. until sometime in the spring. If memory serves, the barrel is round or oct/round, tapered & about 14" long. You wouldn't believe how difficult it is, working on ebony as a stock wood. Tools as in chizels, etc, have to be sharper than razor blades or the wood chips, and basically, you get dust, not shavings. All the tools including mould(I think) in the "case"- green velvet lined) have handles made from the same block of ebony.- quite beautiful, actually. - Does that 'whet' the appitite?-HA!
Daryl