Fusil De Chasse Style Rifle

[Leadball loader]

Shooting my FDC smoothbore has been my shooting fun for six years. Three years in I decided I wanted a rifle and figured it should have the same form as my smoothbore to make it easy use both.
I bought Tracks of the Wolfs FDC stock and hardware but they did not have the Colrain C weight barrel rifled in .58. I got a walnut precarved stock to get a stock with wrist grain less likely to breakage.
I then called Colrain and got a order in for the barrel to fit the stock. I waited several months until they could fill the order. Then I dragged my feet getting going and by this year I had metal parts filed and smoothed up, the buttplate installed, barrel and tang filed and fitted to the stock, lock mostly fitted.
When it came to getting the barrel lugs soldered on I struggled and decided to ask a friend if he could finish the rifle for me so I could shoot it before I expired!
I now have a shooting rifle and I am very pleased how it turned out. It is accurate and weighs 8 and a half pounds. It is not a fancy looking gun but fits the image of a working gun of the mid 18th century though not HC.
I shoot .562, ball from a Lee double cavity mold , with 60 - 65 gr of 2F Sheutzen and a greased cotton patch cut at the muzzle from my old work shirts..
This combination loads with only my knife handle pressing it into the muzzle before I cut the patch and easily seats with the ramrod.
LBL

 

[2 shots]

nice

 

[ArtyGunner]

Beautiful rifle.

 

[Cayman like]

I have Mark A. Baker's book and if I remember correctly in it there's a record of a Illinois Frenchman who was a trader and hunter (he even hired a few longhunters ) who sent his fusil to Ft Pitt to have it rifled. It was a rare event I'm sure but your rifled fusil would fit right in. This was in the 1760's after the English took control of the Illinois country.

 

[Notchy Bob]

Great post, @Leadball loader , and a terrific rifle! Maybe not typical of what you might have found on the frontier, but @Cayman like 's comments suggest it would have been feasible.

I like this comment, too...

I shoot .562, ball from a Lee double cavity mold , with 60 - 65 gr of 2F Sheutzen and a greased cotton patch cut at the muzzle from my old work shirts..

We read the posts about going to JoAnn's with micrometer in hand, after debating whether to compress the measurement or just go with the caliper reading, whether to get the red-striped ticking or the blue, since there is .001" difference in the thickness, or maybe the pocket drill would be better...

There is absolutely nothing wrong with any of that, but I just find it refreshing to hear from another shooter with a more pragmatic approach.

Best regards,

Notchy Bob

 

[oldwood]

What a fine rifle you built. ........... Couple years ago , I built a .58 long rifle for a fellow to use in the Pa. late season flint deer hunt. Put a modified Johnson tang peep sight on it 'fer him , as he requested. Sighted it in at the range , and was very impressed how it grouped beyond 100 yds.. Think the prb size was .562 , and powder charge was 85 gr. ffg. /Colerain barrel. The fellow , was pleased as well..........Again , your rifle is very fine. I like utilitarian things that work well...........oldwood

 

[Flint62Smoothie]

Well, a FdC by definition would have been a 62-caliber, so while cool … it is in reality nothing but a fantasy piece …

 

[Leadball loader]

Well, a FdC by definition would have been a 62-caliber, so while cool … it is in reality nothing but a fantasy piece …

I did a bit of research on this forum back when deciding to do my rifle and also bought a copy Russel Bouchard's The Fusil de Tulle In New France.
A thread on the bore size of the Tulle hunting guns mid July of 2019 stated 28 balls to the Livre =.563ball size with the bore size .577 -.623.
It does not seem to me to be quite so much fantasy other than being rifled. Bouchard states in his book that the hunting guns were lighter than the military guns and of 28 balls to the pound caliber thus .58 is in the ballpark
Not HC but I like to think closer.
LBL

 

[PathfinderNC]

It’s commendable that you built something you wanted to have, irrespective of what’s “historically accurate”.

 

[godutch]

It’s commendable that you built something you wanted to have, irrespective of what’s “historically accurate”.

Amen.

 

[Sooty Scot]

Beautiful rifle. In my biased opinion, you chose an excellent base for your rifle. I have a FdC and love it. It balances, carries & shoots effortlessly.

As noted by a previous comment, it only misses being HC until the documentation is discovered. Shoot it with well deserved pride!

 

[longcruise]

Well, a FdC by definition would have been a 62-caliber, so while cool … it is in reality nothing but a fantasy piece …

I read long ago that an archeological excavation at Ft. Michilimackinac that the majority of the balls found were around 54 caliber.