Author Topic: Berks county rifle finished! (Read 12215 times)

Hemo · « **on:** June 18, 2015, 08:22:50 PM »

I thought I'd share my latest build, just completed earlier this month, not yet fired.

My last two guns were early European, circa 1690-1720. I thought for this one I'd come back to the golden age American longrifle that first made me fall in love with this stuff.

This is my interpretation of a Berks County rifle of about 1810. Patchbox, tang carving, and toe plate were taken fairly directly from Leonard Reedy. Butt carving and incised carving were based fairly closely on John Bonewitz. Other details by myself.

I used a rather old (1980's) Getz .54 caliber barrel, 38 inches long, 1/66 twist, with older flat-bottom riflng. Stock blank was one I have had sitting around untouched for about thirty-plus years. Lock is a new Chambers late Ketland. Sights and buttplate and triggerguard castings were from TOW. Triggerguard was fairly heavily modified. Trigger, triggerplate, all other brass hardware and engraving were by myself.

Critiques welcome!

Gregg

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smylee grouch · « **Reply #1 on:** June 18, 2015, 08:27:49 PM »

Nice job on a nice rifle. I like the carving and engraving.

kaintuck · « **Reply #2 on:** June 18, 2015, 09:09:49 PM »

Prettier than a speckled pup under a red wagon!!!!

now go shoot her some and show us what the ol barrel talks like!!!

marc n tomtom

JTR · « **Reply #3 on:** June 18, 2015, 09:26:32 PM »

Wow! Excellent!

John

bob in the woods · « **Reply #4 on:** June 18, 2015, 10:01:20 PM »

Now that is a really nice rifle ! I think the colour really compliments the carving [ and v.v. ]

B Shipman · « **Reply #5 on:** June 18, 2015, 10:10:20 PM »

Nice Womelsdorf. I especially like the carving.

PPatch · « **Reply #6 on:** June 18, 2015, 10:22:42 PM »

Very nice shoot'n iron Gregg. The metal engraving is just enough and well done, the relief carving pleasing to the eye. Bet she'll provide some fun at the range.

dave

okieboy · « **Reply #7 on:** June 18, 2015, 10:30:08 PM »

Really like the restrained engraving. Is that a feather hole below the cheekpiece?

Joe S. · « **Reply #8 on:** June 19, 2015, 01:52:56 AM »

very nice,like the color looks great along side the brass

jdm · « **Reply #9 on:** June 19, 2015, 02:55:21 AM »

Very nice!!!! Almost makes me want to dump the antiques . Beautiful work.

Curtis · « **Reply #10 on:** June 19, 2015, 05:14:38 AM »

Greg, great work! Quite a departure from your most recent builds. Very nice job on both the carving and the engraving.

It was great to see you at the NMLRA gun building seminar earlier this month!

Curtis

wattlebuster · « **Reply #11 on:** June 19, 2015, 12:02:35 PM »

Very nice work

Tony N · « **Reply #12 on:** June 19, 2015, 01:58:17 PM »

I like the finish on the metal and brass. Like someone said before it goes very nice with the wood!

~Tony

Tom Currie · « **Reply #13 on:** June 19, 2015, 02:40:37 PM »

Very nicely done. It's clear you put in a lot effort and attention to detail.

alex e. · « **Reply #14 on:** June 19, 2015, 03:22:41 PM »

Whats not to like!

Daryl · « **Reply #15 on:** June 19, 2015, 05:26:24 PM »

Nicely, done, Greg.

Ed Wenger · « **Reply #16 on:** June 19, 2015, 05:37:53 PM »

I think you did a great job in blending the styles. Nice work, Gregg! Like Bill said, very nice Womelsdorf rifle. Thanks for posting the photos!

Ed

tallbear · « **Reply #17 on:** June 19, 2015, 09:11:30 PM »

Very Nice Greg!!!!

bama · « **Reply #18 on:** June 20, 2015, 03:19:25 AM »

A very nice rifle indeed. Thanks for sharing, very good job on the carving and pretty much the whole gun. Some very nice guns have been put on the forum lately.

cmac · « **Reply #19 on:** June 20, 2015, 03:05:37 PM »

Beauty! Love the carvings. Great work!!

Buck · « **Reply #20 on:** June 20, 2015, 06:30:48 PM »

Beautiful.
Buck

Hemo · « **Reply #21 on:** June 20, 2015, 06:53:24 PM »

Thanks for all your kind replies. "Cuter than a speckled puppy", eh? I like it! Okieboy, that's not a feather hole under the cheekpiece, just a decorative dot. Curtis, it was good to see you back at the WKU workshop!

Cheers,

Gregg

KLMoors · « **Reply #22 on:** June 20, 2015, 08:08:31 PM »

I'm with the rest of the crowd - nice! Love the carving - very authentic look to it all.

hanshi · « **Reply #23 on:** June 20, 2015, 09:13:09 PM »

That's what I call a beautiful rifle; wish I could do that kind of work. An interesting thing is apparent with your fine rifle and the last rifle I had built. We both seem to have used the same, or similar, lock. In both our rifles the lock panel shows lots of wood around the lock, identical, it appears. When I posted a pic of mine and finally confessed it was a TVM, one poster could think of nothing good to say. So his only comment was "the lock panel is too big". DUH!? I just hope that poster isn't as weird as his comment. Only the TVM admission pulled it out of him and that would have been your fate had you joked it was a TVM.

Seeing your beautiful - mine is a plain poor boy - rifle makes me feel much, much better about mine. That is, if an obviously beautiful rifle shares a feature with my rifle then mine ain't so bad after all. Your carving and engraving are something else, by the way.

Majorjoel · « **Reply #24 on:** June 20, 2015, 10:03:20 PM »

Very fine work Hemo! A credit to Berks County for sure!

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Author Topic: Berks county rifle finished! (Read 12215 times)

Hemo

kaintuck

Hemo