Hey, time to show your first build!!

[ZUG]

Did you make the lock and breech plug too? Nice work!

Yes - I made EVERYTHING except for the barrel. The hammer was the most time consuming. The butt plate was brazed together from two pices of steel as was the trigger guard.

 

[HighUintas]

Yes - I made EVERYTHING except for the barrel. The hammer was the most time consuming. The butt plate was brazed together from two pices of steel as was the trigger guard.

Wow. Hat's off to you!

 

[frankie]

I made this back in 1969 my first "non-kit" rifle. All of the parts were made by me except for the barrel which is a .54 caliber Douglass. I still have it today.
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very nice. I love the one of a kind rifles

 

[frankie]

I had built two kits, a T/C Hawken and a CVA mountain rifle. Those were assemble the parts and stain. My first true build in about 1976 started off as a 1 1/8" 45 caliber barrel about 32" long that was rescued from a pile of barrels. There was a special sale on Hawken blanks, so I decided it was time to build a Hawken rifle. A Cherry Corner's lock followed and the rest of the rest of the parts. The rifle is special as I needed help from my father (tool maker) to do all the threading of the breech plug and lock bolts. Made more than a couple of beginner mistakes, but the rifle turned out to be quite a performer. Back then wrestling that 12 pound rifle was doable and shooting metallic silhouettes at up to 200 yards was fun. Yes, my 45 caliber ball being pushed by 90 grains of Gearhardt-Owen powder was more than capable of knocking over the bear silhouettes.

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Still accurate on target although I find I need to use a rest.

I was doing load testing. The slow twist 1 in 56 likes 70 grains of GOEX.

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I see so many of these first builds that are just so nice.

very nice,

 

[frankie]

My first “build” was a Chambers smooth rifle kit that I built with my father, who made a left handed PA Fowler. He’s 82 and has built many rifles, but built his kit alongside me during COVID to pass along some of his knowledge. We are making several more guns together now, what a great experience. I’ve always made leather goods and shot muzzleloaders, so I’m not sure why it took me 50+ years to start making guns! Now for a plank build…View attachment 119474View attachment 119475

very nice

 

[frankie]

my .32 smr with Douglas barrel, Davis triggers, and siler lock, i think. guy sold it to me as that!
made the back sight out of a broken piece of brass trigger guard. works so well i kept it.
stock was purchased at Friendship 30-40 years ago. the guy that bought it forgot when. hauled it around for years and i found it in his shop. had a real wow in the forearm that took some straightening.

The eagle is a great touch to a really nice rifle

 

[frankie]

I sold my first build but this is my second build. Boys Lancaster rifle. I built it for my Son when he was able to hunt. 13 or 14 years old. I forget. Anyway he killed two deer with it and asked me to never sell it so it goes to him. Built from a plank.13" LOP and and a .50 caliber Green Mountain barrel. I cut three inches off the swamped barrel which saved a full 1lb of weight. 35" barrel. Toe plate, side plate, and patchbox I made from sheet brass.
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very very nice, Professionally done

 

[nchawkeye]

I built this in the late '80s, took me 2 years, bought the parts from a fellow named Bob Hunt, owned Salem Riflesmith in Winston Salem...It's his best rendition of what an early Salem Rifle could have been...It's .54 caliber, Ed Rayle 38 inch barrel...

 

[frankie]

I built this in the late '80s, took me 2 years, bought the parts from a fellow named Bob Hunt, owned Salem Riflesmith in Winston Salem...It's his best rendition of what an early Salem Rifle could have been...It's .54 caliber, Ed Rayle 38 inch barrel...

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that is really nice

 

[Patched]

My first build and from a blank way back in the Hawken craze of the 1970s. I had a mentor who helped me along with this attempt at a full stock flint Hawken. I killed the deer with this gun on Thanksgiving Day of 1978.

There was a Hawken craze in the 70s…..???
As I recall, in the 70s there was a guy named John D.
who obsessed about J&S Hawken rifles ….so much so that he printed books and periodicals that put a St Louis Hawken in the hands of every rondevoiusing white boy west of the Mississippi in the 1830s…the rocklock guys at that time, gave him a bad time about snapping caps…

There was that silly movie at the time too…

Seems all that led to the in-line craze….now that’s an honest to goodness-off-the-rails CRAZE.
Here‘s my

last 2 builds…very Hawkenish

 

[Cherrybow]

Here is my first 3 builds together. I just finished up the maple flintlock this week. I had purchased the wood at a very cheap price off the broker for something like 60 bucks for all three blanks, one each of walnut, cherry and maple to learn to carve on the different types of wood. As it turned out, the man I bought them from was making some nice half stock rifles from them. This got me kicked off in the adventure of building. I was able to get a lot of old CVA parts to get started and 2 years later they are finished. The flinter has some finer parts like LR hawken trigger and a Chambers late Ketland lock but still has a CVA 28” barrel. It was a lot of fun learning on these. Now its time for a Longrifle build!

 

[frankie]

Here is my first 3 builds together. I just finished up the maple flintlock this week. I had purchased the wood at a very cheap price off the broker for something like 60 bucks for all three blanks, one each of walnut, cherry and maple to learn to carve on the different types of wood. As it turned out, the man I bought them from was making some nice half stock rifles from them. This got me kicked off in the adventure of building. I was able to get a lot of old CVA parts to get started and 2 years later they are finished. The flinter has some finer parts like LR hawken trigger and a Chambers late Ketland lock but still has a CVA 28” barrel. It was a lot of fun learning on these. Now its time for a Longrifle build!View attachment 119829

very nice

 

[Cherrybow]

I made this back in 1969 my first "non-kit" rifle. All of the parts were made by me except for the barrel which is a .54 caliber Douglass. I still have it today.
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Very impressive/inspiring ! Thanks for sharing, not many scratch builders out there.

 

[Patched]

Very impressive/inspiring ! Thanks for sharing, not many scratch builders out there.

Lots of talented guys out there…it takes about 2 or 3 scratch gun builds to finally eliminate those minor layout mistakes, tackle inletting with confidence and slim things down to dimensions more in keeping with guns of the period…Good wood and quality barrels and parts prices are absurdly high almost making pre-inletted kits a bargain…keep them coming.

 

[martin9]

Here's my first. Built from a blank I got off ebay. I didn't know how big a blank I needed so I had to cut the barrel back to 32" and still wound up with a short LOP. 12&7/8" It's a 20 ga smoothbore, chambers lock. Everything inlet by hand. I just used Mike Brooks step by step tutorial to build it. Turned out pretty good if I say so myself

 

[Cherrybow]

Here's my first. Built from a blank I got off ebay. I didn't know how big a blank I needed so I had to cut the barrel back to 32" and still wound up with a short LOP. 12&7/8" It's a 20 ga smoothbore, chambers lock. Everything inlet by hand. I just used Mike Brooks step by step tutorial to build it. Turned out pretty good if I say so myself

Looks great! I bet its a fun shooter too.

 

[frankie]

Here's my first. Built from a blank I got off ebay. I didn't know how big a blank I needed so I had to cut the barrel back to 32" and still wound up with a short LOP. 12&7/8" It's a 20 ga smoothbore, chambers lock. Everything inlet by hand. I just used Mike Brooks step by step tutorial to build it. Turned out pretty good if I say so myself

real nice Martin

 

[Patched]

Here's my first. Built from a blank I got off ebay. I didn't know how big a blank I needed so I had to cut the barrel back to 32" and still wound up with a short LOP. 12&7/8" It's a 20 ga smoothbore, chambers lock. Everything inlet by hand. I just used Mike Brooks step by step tutorial to build it. Turned out pretty good if I say so myself

I’m impressed….nice

 

[Loja man]

Here's my first. Built from a blank I got off ebay. I didn't know how big a blank I needed so I had to cut the barrel back to 32" and still wound up with a short LOP. 12&7/8" It's a 20 ga smoothbore, chambers lock. Everything inlet by hand. I just used Mike Brooks step by step tutorial to build it. Turned out pretty good if I say so myself

That looks great!!