forsyth rifle

[cable]

i should know or remember but dont: what is a forsyth style muzzleloader? any pictures?

 

[Blizzard of '93]

Forsyth was an underhammer shooter. notably an Africa-India hunter, used an 8 bore.
there are some recent posts about u-hammers. I'm interested in one myself.

 

[faw3]

Dont belive he shot that many underhammers, all the pics I'vs seen are with big bore side hammers. Somehow or other his name got hooked up with the big bore slow twist as in 120 twist in my 610. Fred :hatsoff:

 

[dave_person]

Hi Cable,
I don't know whether you are referring to the guns described above (probably connected to James Forsyth?) or Alexander Forsyth's scent bottle gun. A. Forsyth basically invented the prototype percussion lock in the early 1800's. It had an hour glass shaped container attached to the side of the lock that tipped over to deposit a small quantity of detonating powder (fulminate of mercury I think) on an anvil that was then struck by the cock. He patented the system and actually started his own Forsyth brand gunmaking business. It went out of business in the 1830's.

dave

 

[Dave]

Hi, James Forsyth developed the slow twist rifling based on the fact that it takes very little spin to stabilize a perfect sphere in this case Round Ball. in believed that narrow lands and wide shallow grooves to work the best. the lands are 1/4 the width of the grooves. Depth of the grooves are between .005-.008. I for one am a beliver,cause my.62 Underhammer has a 1:144 twistand is very accurate. I hope this helps some.

 

[cable]

actually the reference i was trying to recall was about a large bore, slow twist percussion gun; sounds like this is the right track. did he just write about them and use them or design the shallow rifling? were any rifles made the were described as forsyth type large bores? thanks!

 

[Dave]

Cable, actually he did all of the above. the man who made my rifle is still in the business of making underhammers with Forsyth Rifling, Mine is about 6yrs. old and a tack driver at 100 yds. 130 gr. of 2F. max load is 200 gr, I don't have the kahunas for that load. He used to own Pacific Rifle Co.(they still make the kind of rifle I have .62 cal and larger up to a 4 bore). He has a blog that another member GregJohn put on a post I think a couple days ago. which will tell you pretty much all you need to know about Forsyth,
it is a blog[url] www.underhammers.blogspot.com[/url]
undahamma

 

[cable]

that's it, thanks so much!