What Muzzleloading Stuff Did You Do Today?

[Dale Allen Raby]

55 and partly sunny in Ohio today. Strange weather for February but I'll take it. Had a chance to play at the forge. I forged out a period turnscrew and 4 nice hooks. Turnscrew is made from the finest spring steel so it will never deform, bend or break in a persons lifetime. I also made a couple of bending jigs not pictured.
Ohio Rusty ><>

I like to forge hooks more than anything else, but that turnscrew looks interesting as well. Think I got some spring steel around the smithy somewhere and spring is comin'...

 

[pacanis]

The loading port space is too shallow

Mike Beliveau (?) had a video on this. I did this to all my Josey guns (in my avatar) except the 1849 Pocket.

One done. One to go.

 

[nick_1]

TDM Looks like it shoots really well. I shot the trapper and packed out my snow shoe trail. Rummaged through the barn that a lot of my stuff is still stored in. Found my smelting pot and brought it to the new house. Also found 220 .490 round balls that I didn't know I had so didn't need to find the smelting pot just yet anyway.

 

[SciAggie]

@TDM Very nice!

 

[brushyspoons]

Got the rear sight 90% of the way done, I want to polish the light well, spend a little more time shaping up the ears of the leaf, and just clean up the surfaces overall.

 

[nick_1]

I have been shooting just my cast round balls. I had some swaged balls that I saved for matches but then got used to my cast balls and used them for the race and shot the store bought stuff for practice.

 

[64Springer]

Got the rear sight 90% of the way done, I want to polish the light well, spend a little more time shaping up the ears of the leaf, and just clean up the surfaces overall.
View attachment 195935

Very nice.

Did you drill into the sight and cut away the wall to create the hollowed out area?

Will the notch be cut at the range when sighting in?

 

[brushyspoons]

Very nice.

Did you drill into the sight and cut away the wall to create the hollowed out area?

Will the notch be cut at the range when sighting in?

I got the slant cut in and then went at it with a corn-cob shaped carbide burr in my power drill. I plan to get a tiny notch started on the bench when I have a better chance of starting it in the center of the sight, but will fine tune it at the range. I haven't read that far into the rifle building books though

 

[Hatchet-Jack]

Spent some time in the woods with the Fowler hiking and hunting for squirrels. No luck today but it was great to be in the woods. I unloaded the gun with a ball puller saved the powder and shot. Swabbed out the remaining powder with a worm and Tow. Better luck next hunt.

 

[dcrummett]

Ordered a Mag-Spark for .54 Traditions White Tail. Found an "untold" number of 209s in my stuff ... figured... "Yeah, that's the ticket."

 

[dcrummett]

Spent some time in the woods with the Fowler hiking and hunting for squirrels. No luck today but it was great to be in the woods. I unloaded the gun with a ball puller saved the powder and shot. Swabbed out the remaining powder with a worm and Tow. Better luck next hunt.
View attachment 195960

 

[dcrummett]

Looks like a well-spent day. Great photo!!!

 

[Ohio Rusty]

The birth of a tomahawk !! That is a billet of 4140 tool steel that I heated and buried in vermiculite to cool overnight. That will anneal the billet to cool very slowly and make it as soft as it can get. In that soft state, I can then easily drill the pilot holes. The webbing between the holes will be split with a splitting chisel, then drifted open to create the eye for the future handle. All the forging to form the hammer poll tomahawk begins after that step.
Ohio Rusty ><>

 

[Ohio Rusty]

Got the rear sight 90% of the way done, I want to polish the light well, spend a little more time shaping up the ears of the leaf, and just clean up the surfaces overall.
View attachment 195935

Is the light well necessary since that well is away from you ??

 

[TDM]

@TDM Very nice!

I don’t think I’ve ever shot a better ML group before. And to do it with a new rifle and an untested load is amazing to me. That Green Mountain barrel has a 1-70 twist and it appears to like the .440 balls and the 45 grains. I will try some .020 patches next time. The .015 were not tight at all and I had done the thumb polish on the barrel, was able to almost fully seat the ball with thumb pressure with the .015s. And maybe bumping the powder to 50 gr will raise the group a little. But I’m not complaining.

 

[Ed C.]

My daughter came over today so we took the RH Hawken out to the range for some exercise. A young boy showed some interest in the gun so he got to shoot it also. I've generated enough good will at the range letting people shoot my BP guns that they waive the guest fee for me when I bring a guest. A nice reward for doing something that I enjoy as much as shooting myself.

 

[wganz]

FINALLY! FINALLY! Finally got that unicorn 1842 part delivered!!
Front band. Here it is!

Since I now have to make this a rifled musket vs. a smoothbore , I do need to get a rear sight. The difference between a reproduction and an original is $221 vs. $299. At this point, I'm going to just bite the bullet and commit to getting the original. I'm not so rich that $78 is meaningless but might as well just finish it right. Here is a layout of what I've got so far except the barrel that is still in a Kroil oil bath:

The sharp eyed will note that I'm missing a mid/lower band spring. That already has been ordered.

Yes, I made a mistake ordering band springs and need yet another mid/lower barrel band spring but got it ordered tonight. At this point, all the metal parts are needed is the 1) rear sight, 2) that one barrel band spring which is ordered, and the 3) 2 pins to attach the sling swivels. That rear sight is next. After that, the stock from Dunlap Woodcraft will be ordered to start assembling it into a coherent whole.


ETA: added the missing word "spring", put red arrow to show which spring I missed, and covered up 2 duplicate screws.

 

[Retired18Z]

Preparing accuracy loads. I have patch material at: .010, .015, .018, and .020 to go with my .490 round ball in my .50 cal. Starting with 50 grains of powder and working my way up. Gotta have the right load to shoot the Cabin Fever Challenge!

 

[mpigott271]

Finally finished my self build. About 210 hrs. Now to go and shoot it.

 

[TDM]

Just Beautiful @mpigott271!