My Ferguson Rifle in action

[Grizzled Roberts]

Here is my first contempt in posting a picture!

 

[renovato]

And a startlingly clear picture it is too! Good job.

 

[Grizzled Roberts]

OK Thanks Jethro!!!!! Now the story of the picture.
This was early in my research about 3 years ago.
The backwards hat is not a fashion statement! You will notice the hat has a solid back no open space for the snap. This is to keep the heat off my fore head! I later found out that the only usefull purpose for a tri corn hat it to deflect the heat off your head! You do not want a wide brim hat to reflect the heat pouring out of the breach in a clockwise motion! I have since learned that a wide brim can be used if it is pulled down close to your eyebrows! The heat will not burn you but it is HOT!
You will also notice the orange cone of fire pouring out of the muzzle. The Ferguson shoots an undersized ball so the gas will pour out around the ball before it exits the barrel. The Ferguson had very deep groves. The ball just barely rides
in the deep groves. This gives a place for the fouling to gather. As a result I have shot my Ferguson up to 48 rounds without fouling up the bore. Round 48 is just as accurate as round 1.
Three times I have gone to the range with just 48 balls! One of these days I will try over 50 rounds! This fine picture was taken by my Friend
and Ferguson Rifle research cohort Bryan Brown.
You can also see most of the powder flask I made
for the rifle. Most of the time I am demonstrating the Ferguson Rifle I am in proper 18th century garb. None of the pictures I have in proper costume are near this good! This is me in my native costume. If I was not shooting the Ferguson my hat would not be on backwards!!!

You folks are in for it now, Jethro done showed this cave man how to post pictures!

:thumbsup:

 

[Flint62Smoothie]

Awesome photo and an even better story to go with it! Can't wait to see more :thumbsup: !

 

[jethro224]

Looks like you got it figgered out Grizz. :thumbsup:

That critter does throw a flame! I thought maybe you was loadin' heavy and the recoil was what spun yer hat around that way. :haha:

 

[Grizzled Roberts]

Jethro, Actually....the Ferguson Rifle has a tapered powder chamber so you can't overload it!
Mine is a low number Narraganssett ( # 085 ). The earlier rifles had shorter powder chambers than the later ones. All that flame you see is coming from a full chamber of 63 grains of Schutzen 3F!
The funny thing about the hat in the picture. It is a striped railroad hat. See how the digital camera "seen" the stripes. Bryan's camera has a lot more pixies than my little Kodak Easy Share!
The hat placement was for medicinal purposes!!

:bow: :bow: :bow:

 

[boondocker]

What a great shot, the pic turned out excellent. Please more pics,we would like to see the rifle up close. Boon :thumbsup:

 

[Leonredbeard]

Grzrob,
Great to see you shooting one of your specialty gonnes! Have fun!
volatpluvia

 

[MSW]

thanks, grzrob, for both the picture and for taking the time and effort to share it. by way of curiousity, how accurate (i.e. five inch group at 60 meters, or whatever metric you see fit to use)? why 48 shots, was that the point wher the barrel wouldn't let you reload?

thanks again!

 

[Grizzled Roberts]

If you can adjust to the hold under sight picture
of a rifle with the fixed sight at 200 yards, it is very accurate. To hit a small gong at 40 yards
I have to hold about 10 inches under the target.Of course this weapon was designed to hit man sized targets, not small gongs. Due to the short chamber of my rifle the fixed sight impacts at 160 yards. The leaf sight is pretty much dead on at 300 yards. It is perfect for 18th century open field warfare. Taking out soldiers at 200 yards sharpshooters taking out cannon crews at 300 yards. Ferguson placed his rifles in the British Light Infantry who did not fight in the open field.
On the 48 rounds the rifle was still cooking when I ran out of ball ( at 48 rounds )
Twice I have been to events where I did a 10 round live fire demonstration. I then loaded and
let 20 folks fire the rifle. After this I would take the rifle on an 18 round woods walk! No matter how I shuffle these numbers I always come up with 48! I hope to get my act together and break the 48 barrier this year. I can't load any of my muzzle loaders 48 times without cleaning
a couple of times during the span. 48 accurate shots without cleaning ain't bad for the 18th century! I will drag out my camera and Ferguson and take some close ups of the screw breach.
:thumbsup:

 

[Grizzled Roberts]

My Ferguson Rifle on the kitchen table!

1. Ferguson Rifle breach closed.

2. The screw breach is attached to the trigger guard. One full turn of the trigger guard opens the breach.

3. A close up of the screw breach showing Patricks Ferguson's 1776 patented anti fouling grooves.

4. The open breach, the view from the top. You can see the breach threads and also the start of the tappered chamber. The ball goes in first then the powder.

 

[boondocker]

I need one of them. Way cool and unique. :hatsoff: Boon

 

[Hawken12]

Wow thanx grizz,great shots and the narrative is even better,rite from the grizzes mouth.
Now I believe you said you had a lot of work to get to this point,care to expand on that??

 

[bucktales]

Cool pics! Ya done good! :thumbsup:

 

[Grizzled Roberts]

The big problem with operating the Ferguson Rifle,
We have some documentation on the uniforms color of Ferguson's Riflemen, we know Powder flasks were ordered but we do not know what they looked like. There is a painting showing a small group of Ferguson's riflemen and they are wearing powder horns. As far as shooting and loading information Ferguson left none!
All current information about the Ferguson rifle
does not list the correct ball size. Over an 8 month period I came to know Jeff Tanner very well.

If you just drop a ball in and pour powder in behind it and fire it you will have a one shot bayonet platform. There had to be some 18th century non petrolum product that was used to grease the threads. This took me some time to find out. Thick tallow will stick to the threads thin tallow will blow out of the threads after 4 or 5 shots. No man made 20th century grease or oil
will work. None trust me!
There is a statement about Patrick Ferguson scrounging the British camp( the night before the battle of Brandywine ) for all of the tallow he can get his hands on. He made a pest of himself and some Officer mentioned it in his reports ( by the way if you have this sourse I would like to have it!! ) My goal was to make my Ferguson operate just like it did in 1776. When you look at all of the loose and non existant ends, it just took me a while to reach my goal. It gave me an excuse to run to the range two and three time a week to test new ideas. Of course anything that makes you go to the range is great!!

:thumbsup:

 

[Hawken12]

Thanx Grizz,so lookin at the photo,...ya just drop a ball in ,muzzle down I assume an then the powder charge,behind it ,wind 'er up ,prime an boom???is that it?
Is there anyway ,you or someone can scan your article,to reprint here,most interested as to how you got to this point

 

[freeonthree]

Is posible to se a vidio of you loading it.
That would some thing to see.

Tom

 

[chapmans]

I think this may be you at the spring shoot.

Here are some others shooting it!

I fired it several times also SWEET!!!
Thanks for putting on the demonstration. Will you be there this spring??
Regards, Longball 58

 

[swedepie]

Ya'll look like some mad railroader shootin at a train thief. Nice pics thanks, Mac.

 

[Many Klatch]

We gonna have to get pictures of the new improved thinner Grizz posted. That three year old picture is the old heavy weight Grizz.

Many Klatch