Phillip Creamer for William Clark

[Buffaload]

It looks like the pistol has a hooked breech. Can you give me the length from the joint of the hooked breech to the muzzle of the barrel?  Much appreciated.
That’s a superb rendition of a very fine rifle by the way. I like everything about it!

[Bob Roller]

Hi Louie: the 16 lines per inch is so well done it looked finer. Every thing about your rifle is very well done. IIRC Creamer made a pistol that Andrew Jackson had.

Smylee and Louie,
The lock I made for Bob Browner was for the copy of the Andrew Jackson pistol.
I should have mentioned that.
The Creamer flint locks are more art work.
The J&S Hawken that's barrel stamped Hoffman&Campbell was another upscale
St.Louis rifle but it was not in the class of this fullstock.The H&C was nice walnut
with silver bands around the breech and checkering on the grip.It was a bit worse
for wear when I looked at it at Tom Dawson's home back in 1968(I think).

Bob Roller

[louieparker]

Buffaload.

The barrel is 12 15/16 inches long, 1 inch at the breech  and 59/64 at the muzzle..LP

[WestBranchSusquehanna]

What a fantastic thread.  A beautiful rifle as well.
Now, how about another thread concerning and pictures of a Lewis Airgun? 
As beautiful as the Clark's gun was/is, I am fascinated by the descriptions and use that Lewis made of his airgun in the travels to the Northwest and back.
He described using it to kill several "goats" antelope.  And was readied for a possible attack by natives.  So it was a formidable gun.

[J. Talbert]

Louie,

Thanks so much for that great info.
I'll have to see if I can find those previous threads.

Jeff

[J. Talbert]

Great high resolution pix of the original here.

http://americanlongrifles.org/forum/index.php?topic=39426.0

Jeff

[Buffaload]

Thank you Louie.
Ed

[Craig Wilcox]

Louie, that rifle you made is superb!  And Creamer's locks are things of great beauty.  I always thought of the lock as a mechanical device, but you have shown me that they can be, and are, beautiful.

Having checkered a great many guns, I did take a close look at the rifling.  The only old rifle that I have was made in 1873, and it also had that flat checkering in the wrist area.  What type of checkering tools did you use?  Something modified from the normal vee-toothed cutters and spacers?

I do not think I am going to checker the Rupp replica that I am building, but ya never know!

Craig

[louieparker]

Craig you are looking at my first attempt at using a checkering tool.  I borrowed it from Howard.  On a couple of pistols that I have made (Kunz and Mills ) I did the flat top checkering. I did those one line at a time with a tool I made from a piece of hacksaw blade. I cut the first line then made a double pointed sctibe to lay out the second line and then cut with single line home made cutter..  It worked. But too someone who knows what they are doing probably sounds horrible. But on this rifle I borrowed the 16 line double cut tool and used it. I just didn't cut it all the way to a point.. Attaching a photo of the Mills copy checkering . Louie

[JTR]

The 'problem' with Louie is just that he's so good, he makes everything look easy!
John

[Mark Elliott]

Superb job Louie!   You have set a high bar for the rest of us. 

[Bill Paton]

What a fantastic rifle, Louie. Making it in its original flint form was perfect. On my round-the-country trip with my wife and kids in 2013-14 when I visited you, one goal was to see that original rifle in the museum, but it was locked up and unavailable to us. That disappointment is significantly assuaged by seeing your rifle now. I sense that you have the same adoration for William Clark that I have. Thank you for building and presenting your wonder for us to enjoy.

Bill Paton

[Longknife]

Louie, I knew you could do it, the 14 1/4 inch pull will be just fine, Is it just a coincidence that you unveiled this fine piece just two week before my birthday?...

[Jim Kibler]

Magnificent, Louie!

[Curtis]

That is some very convincing work, Louie!!!!  Fantastic!  This is one rifle I have wanted to build for some time.

Curtis

[louieparker]

Curtis,     There is always room for one more copy. 
 It takes more than it once did to wind me up. But seeing this rifle sure did the job. 
My dad would say "Now that job will try you out !"  This rifle tried me out.. Looking at photos and trying  get the parts made as  close as possible .   Looking at another photo and it having a different look. I threw more than one part in the can and started over.  But I did enjoyed watching it take shape and glad I did it..
Thanks to everyone for your comments.
Louie