First handmade nose cap

[Juniata]

I am building a 36 caliber rifle for my kids.
I will be posting sometime about it in more detail once it's completed.
Anyhow it's my first plank build and I'm making a few of the parts myself.
The thimbles, butt plate, side plate and nose cap I wanted to make with sheet brass.
My first attempt I anealled the brass and on a preshaped piece of hickory tried to beat it to form. Wow it was rough. It maybe could have worked but I realized it wasn't the right approach, at least not yet.
So I took a piece of .032 and rolled it to shape carefully with pliers and my fingers to the right contour then scribed it to a piece that would fit the front of the cap.
I then shaped it closely and fluxed it and soldered it, filed and sanded.
Measured the barrel muzzle diameter and filed in the round so it would match the barrel.
I'm very pleased with how it turned out.
Anyone else use this method?

 

[Juniata]

 

[hawkenhunter50]

It looks good to me, although I've never made one by any method. Rifle is looking good too. What thickness brass did you use to swage the buttplate from?

 

[TDM]

Very nicely done, I think it turned out great. I’ve never made one myself either.

 

[Tumbledown]

I cut sheet brass and bent it by hand to fit. I shaped the front part to fit the barrel, leaving it a bit oversized, then soldered it to the curved part. I've made 2 of these.

Hand-forming is definitely the way to go. Hammering work-hardens brass, requiring frequent annealing.

 

[IanH]

That butt plate looks like a John Bivens casting, good job hammering it out. The only one I made from brass was a flat one with one bend at the return on a trade gun.

The book Recreating the American Longrifle describes making the muzzle cap with the end inside the curve instead of soldered to the end of the wrapped piece. I haven't seen many guns but have never seen one done that way, including an original I have. All are soldered to the end like you did. I'm about to make one myself for an Isaac Haines kit build that has an awful, chunky casting included.

 

[Juniata]

It looks good to me, although I've never made one by any method. Rifle is looking good too. What thickness brass did you use to swage the buttplate from?

.064

Thank you

 

[Juniata]

I cut sheet brass and bent it by hand to fit. I shaped the front part to fit the barrel, leaving it a bit oversized, then soldered it to the curved part. I've made 2 of these.

Hand-forming is definitely the way to go. Hammering work-hardens brass, requiring frequent annealing.
View attachment 288518

That's a good idea

 

[Juniata]

That butt plate looks like a John Bivens casting, good job hammering it out. The only one I made from brass was a flat one with one bend at the return on a trade gun.

The book Recreating the American Longrifle describes making the muzzle cap with the end inside the curve instead of soldered to the end of the wrapped piece. I haven't seen many guns but have never seen one done that way, including an original I have. All are soldered to the end like you did. I'm about to make one myself for an Isaac Haines kit build that has an awful, chunky casting included.

Very nice.

As far as a bivens butt plate I got one I was going to use but didn't, it was too big for this little gun and frankly I didn't like the shape. I'll put a couple pics of the one I made next to a bivens.

 

[45man]

Looks like very good work to me, nice job.

 

[Dutch7]

Nice Juniata, time and energy well spent

 

[IanH]

 

[Antelope Pete]

I know it's not saying much but that's a lot more skill than I have. Who made the barrel?

 

[Col. Batguano]

The proof in the pudding is always in how it fits. Do the top and bottom lines of the fore stock continue straight through the muzzle cap, or, do they take something of a bend at the junction? On my most recent build I wound up making 3 muzzle caps before I was satisfied with the results.

Are you planning on putting a copper rivet through it to join it to the wood? There are some tricks to doing that so you get a good result.

 

[tenngun]

I’ve assembled several guns, but never made brass or steel parts. Then I built a Lancaster smooth rifle some years ago. It had a half round barrel. I had to build a nose cap for it

 

[IanH]

Of those questions were directed at me, barrel is a Colerain 38" "Isaac Haines" swamped B-weight in .45 caliber. I will drill and countersink for copper rivets and inlet small rectangular rivet plates on the angled flats of the barrel channel (thickest part of the wood under the cap). My plan, if it works out, is to peen the rivets to a dome shape and leave them slightly proud rather than filing flush, just because I like that look.

 

[Col. Batguano]

I've never done a domed rivet before. Mine have always been flush. Domed sounds a lot harder. to get good results. I would think you have to pre=shape the head to match the convex surface of the muzzle cap for one thing. If you try to bend the edges over while in place you risk denting in the MC in the places it makes contact

Speculating now;
To do that you'll need to make a concave domed punch to drive them.The barrel on the other side is your anvil / bucking bar. I suggest using fairly thick copper wire (like 8 gauge) to make them from. That will give you a nice thick stem to mushroom.

Don't leave a lot of extra length sticking through there, or else they will have a tendency to bend over rather than mushroom outwards. I suggest you make a slight countersink on the wood side so that side can mushroom outwards to fill it. A small hole in the rivet on the barrel side with a very small drill (like a #72) can help too. Once it's solidly in place, a couple of drops of thin super glue on the wood will help hold it in place.

 

[Juniata]

It's a 28" 36 caliber, Mark Weader has in his shop, I think it's from Bobby Hoyt.

I'm not following any school. Just having fun building a gun similar to a Lancaster profile.
I've looked at a Jacob dickert rifle in the Shumway book through the build.

 

[srspicer]

Yours turned out just fine IMHO. I created one the same way and pinned it in place.