Full length iron sun shade

[hawkeye1755]

Here are two pics from an unsigned ,attributed to George Eister, rifle, cal.48, 43-1/2" barrel.It is shown with original full length iron sun shade.
First time i saw something.Was the sun shade removable and can you put it on either side of the barrel?Was it only for target shooting or was it on the gun when you were hunting?

:hatsoff:

 

[Bob Riegl]

:bow: Quite frankly I have only seen such sight full length shades on Chunk Guns and during late 60-70's used by .22 smallbore rifle shooters with micrometer adjustable rear sight tubes and quite long front sight tubes---called "tube sights". These disappeared in the mid 70's never to be seen again, due to a combination of rules changes and disuse. :hmm:

 

[hawkeye1755]

:shocked2: Is that sun shade a tube?
:hatsoff:

 

[paulvallandigham]

The chunk gun shooters make theirs out of PVC pipe, slit, of course, and then taped to the barrel and/or stock with duct tape! They are removable. Some shooters use a short tube to shade the front sight, including the globe style Olympic sights, and another short tube over the rear sight, but no tube the whole length of the barrel. If you look at those expensive Olympic style aperature sights, the the front sight is shaded by a tube, and the rear aperature sight also is at the end of a rubber tube, usually designed so that the eye or shooting glasses are pressed against the soft rubber extension to eliminate sun light from reducing the pupils of your eye, and making the front sight " fuzzy ". Without light shining on that rear aperature, that sight is also better defined, although you should always be focused on your front sight, and not either the target or the rear sight when the gun goes off. The expensive front sights have interchangeable inserts to provide you with an aperture FRONT SIGHT that is just a little larger than the size of the bullseye target you are aiming to hit. You learn to fire when all you see is an even ring around the bullseye through that front sight.

 

Paul,
With all due respect. The shaders must be 6" in front of the breach to be legal to shoot with. You do not put your eye against it. The front sight can have a hood but it is to be a post only, or a post and bead, not an aperture insert. A lot of the fellows do make their shaders out of PVC, either 1 piece or 2 short pieces. I prefer to use seamless copper tubing. I make a 1 piece tube with cut outs in the bottom for the sights to project through and then solder half tubes to the bottom that have been annealed so they can be formed to the barrel. Once they are formed to the barrel you can crimp them down a little more and get a good snug fit. They will come off and on easily. I have also mounted this type of tube shader with 1" scope bases and rings. If you attend some of the bigger chunk shoots you will see things that will amaze you. Let your imagination be your guide, as well as the match rules.
Mark

 

[paulvallandigham]

I was discussing shaders in general, and not just those used on Chunk guns, Papa. I have seen all that both of us have described, and like you, go a little nuts trying to figure out what comforms to some rules, and what doesn't. I have seen full length shaders on chunk guns made of copper, aluminum, steel, cardboard, and PVC. I probably have seen other materials used, but have since forgotten them. When you talk to the shooters, you find out that all the shaders in the world aren't going to be much help unless you can put your ball through that "x". My brother won one of the ten targets at the Sgt. York Memorial Chunk Gun Match this Spring, and actually shot a respectable group, considering his limited time shooting the gun in practice. He is getting his form back, and solving a lot of those little problems that interfere with shooting small strings. I expect him to do better next year. He's got to be more consistent for 10 consecutive shots to begin to really move up, but I see that is coming. He has built a couple of .40 cal. underhammer guns in the past 6 months, and I think he is considering changing the gun he shoots at the match for next year. So far, the shader he made out of PVC tubing has worked well. We have talked about him using aluminum or copper plate to make a new shader.

 

[shortstring]

In the past few years there's been a tinsmith at Friendship that will make you a shade pretty much like the one on the Eister rifle. I can't give you a name of the top of my head but could find out if anybody's interested.

It is true that the shade has to stop at the breech of the gun, at least on a chunk gun. Anyway at the York match this is true. One of the more interesting rules as I'm not convinced that it makes any difference one way or another.

 

[George Holton]

Paul; Who says so ?

 

[faw3]

As can be read here rules change over a 100 years or more, you go back thru 20 yrs of Muz Blast and you'll see all kinds long,past breech,short. Fred :thumbsup:

 

Undertaker,
I hope that from the responses that have been posted you realize that there are as many opinions as there are shooters trying the game. The best bet is to probably get out to as many shoots as you can, ask a lot of questions and kep your eyes open. We have a new chunk shooter at our club who went to the York this year and finished in the top 15. Then went to Friendship and shot a .75" group. All in his first year out. I guess you don't always have to try for years to do it right. Any way you do it, have fun.
Mark

 

[hawkeye1755]

Thanks for all the replies. :bow:

Papa, i didn't want a sun shade for my guns.I was only surprised to see such a thing on a Flintlock.
And IMO, that gun on the pics were for target shooting when it had the sun shade on the barrel.
:hatsoff:

 

[Wes/Tex]

In the Book Of Rifles, there's another rifle that's very similar but the shade is only about 8 to 10 inches long. This one has a couple small holes drilled in it at about where the rear sight would be. Interesting gun though.

 

[Okwaho]

Kindig illustrates a rifle with a sliding tin cover extending from just foward of the lock to the muzzle with some kind of lever{?} at the rear.The cover is on a rifle signed "A K "{Andrew Klinedinst ?}See No.139@ PP.318-19 and 320.The gun also has a very early simple peep sight.
Tom Patton

 

[romeoh]

Gotta pic for ya.
Here it is:

Both of these gentlemen use sun shades...

 

[Wehrmacht]

How did you get a pitcure of my Grandpa :shocked2: . He ain't never been to Bavaria :rotf: .

I say this in jest,but remember-I'm gonna be 70 years old one of these days before long, and when I was a kid growing up in the Southern Appalachian Mountains not far from Soddy,Tennessee where these photos probably came out of, some of these old characters (including my Grandpa who reared me :thumbsup were still around!

 

[romeoh]

I´m sorry, I don´t remember where I´ve got that picture from.
Can´t find it anymore no matter what search engine I use.

I found it somewhere on the internet and I just thought it´s great, so I saved it on my harddisk.
Those two characterful guys could have also lived in the area where I´m at home - exept the longrifles of course.
People were poor here in my area, but they weren´t afraid of working and they had their pride. And when I look at these two guys then I would say they are "made of the same wood".

No doubt that´s one of my favorite pictures, I even printed it out and now it´s hanging on the wall at my reloading bench...

Who knows, maybe those guys knew your grandpa? The world can be so small sometimes.

 

[Wehrmacht]

:grin: the two characters in the photo are on the front of Jerry Noble's volume 1 of 4 volumes of books titled "Notes on Southern Mountain Rifles". Jerry says that the two are most probably Bird Fann on the left and Daddy Kress on the right.I'm sure that it is Daddy Kress since I've seen several other photos of him.These fellows were from around the Soddy,Tennessee area where muzzleloading rifle matches were still being held up to the outbreak of WWII. Soddy is about 100-125 miles from my home in the Southern Mountains in North Georgia :wink: .(Undertaker should take a look at the sight shaders on these two rifles since these are typical of what was used in the 1920's-30's and earlier, and are still used in this configuration today. These are identical to what I have on my "over the log" chunkgun).

The people who settled the Southern Appalachian Mountain area were mostly Carolina Backcountry Scot-Irish Presbyterian kinda folks with a few roguesh English types who thumbed their noses at the Crown, The Bishop of Canterbury and the Pope in Rome :wink: .There were a few Germanic people also, but what region of Germany they came from I don't know for sure-the Palatine Region,I think.We had a few German family names in my home county. The Setzers and Plotts come to mind since I grew up with these families close by.My own GGrandmother was a Zollicoffer, and I think this is a German name?? The settlers in the Southern Mountains were an independent "don't mess with me or I'll whip you" kinda folks :rotf: .

Since you have a copy of this photo pinned up in your work area indicating that you have an interest in this kinda thing, I'm sending you a private message with a deal that you CAN'T refuse so "heads-up" :rotf: .