First Rifles

[tallbear]

There was a lot of talk in another thread about pics of everyones first rifle.Didn't see a mad rush to post so I thought I would start it off.This is my first made in 2004.It's a New England Rifle in the style of Silas Allen.I still have it and let a friend hunt with it most every year.







Mitch

[Mike Brooks]

I don't have any pictures of my early guns (thank God), but that is easily 1000X better than anything in my first one dozen attempts.

[rich pierce]

Great looking rifle- show us more pictures!  I love it when someone dares to do something like that on their first build and nails it.

[Tom Currie]

2  pics of my first. Brass screws, cheekpiece is convex instead of concave, lots of rounded corners,
took me 10 years, yes 10 years, to complete. Still my hunting rifle.

[exTNer]

Well, so far this is just disgusting.   Wonder if a moderator could close this thread to spare some of us 'hacks' all the embarassment?  Just kidding, but the title is gonna be pretty misleading unless someone gets brave enuff to put in real 'ugly sister'.  Not me tho', I'm still hiding mine!!

[Dave B]

I have mine and drag it out to encourage those who are just getting started who need a good laugh. I tell you what though I was so proud of it when I had it finished. I built it mostly at the high school metal shop. I kept it in my hall Locker when I wasnt working on it. At the time I was told that I was building a Hawken rifle. It wasnt for a few years yet that I figured it out that it was a stretch calling it a Hawken. The half stock plains rifle was the correct style The other thing that I wish I had advice on early out was to leave it alone once complete. I came back and change to double set triggers from a Berks Co trigger guard with single trigger to the Brass scroll guard and L&R long bar set. Oh yeah and I slimmed her up a bit at that time and almost broke through the ram rod channel when I decided to try to drill out the ramrod hole to allow for a metal tip for the ramrod.  THe wood was so thin that when I heated the aquafortise the stocked cracked along the ramrod channel for a couple inches. The rifle is amazingly accurate and I have won lots of prizes with it.

[Acer Saccharum]

I don't have this rifle anymore, which I am glad of. This all you will see of it. I'd never seen any real longrifles up to this point. Just the little grainy pictures in the Dixie catalog. Dixie's where I got all my parts, and a plank from the local sawmill.

I must have been 17 at the time this woodchuck gave up his shadow. I think that may be a pound of powder in the little barrel. 1970 this was. 

Tom

[tallbear]

Glad to see there are a few more brave souls out there.To those that are intimidated to show don't be.It's not a contest!!We all have different skill sets.When I built this rifle I had 21 years of full time woodworking experience and 15 years of part time blacksmithing.The most important thing to remember is to enjoy it   As long as each rifle you build is better than the last you are headed in the right direction!!!!!!!!!
Some more pics for Rich






Keep them coming!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Mitch

[LURCHWV@BJS]

YES PLEASE, I'm enjoying this.


                 Rich

[Dphariss]

Like Tom I was building rifles before I ever met another ML shooter and had no good guns to look at living in NE Iowa.  So I learned rifle building from Muzzle Blasts and some of the guns featured there were pretty grim.
Fortunately only 2 of my early guns, so far as I can recall, are outside my control and still survive.
One is a "poor boy" and the other is a 1/2 stock as I recall.

The rest no longer exist, 3 rifles and a pistol. There is one other I just thought of. But I have control of it and its disassembled. The guns from the 1970s have a higher survival rate but most are unsigned.

Dan

[northmn]

My first was a kit gun CVA with the 2 piece stock and brass band.  Its is now gone as is a couple of others I salvaged for parts later until I got better.  Built from pictures.  Rather glad I cannot show them.

DP

[eagle24]

No wonder the woodchuck gave up his shadow.  He didn't expect a guy wearing a tank top to be carrying a longrifle.

[elk killer]

ill play,,
54 cal built from a blank with a routed barrel channel,
XX Douglas barrel,heavy and ungainly,,
killed several elk with it,,daughter dubbed it,,elk killer,,
built in 1974, Siler flintlock..

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[D. Taylor Sapergia]

I don't have any photos of the first five rifles that I built.  All I had then was a Kodak instamatic camera, so they wouldn't have been much for pictures anyway.  But I got married in '72, bought a Pentax SPII a few years later, and started documenting my efforts.  So, here's some pictures of #6, my own personal rifle, a .62 cal Hawken with Cherry Corner's parts, and a superlative piece of Western Maple from Ian Dingwall in Vancouver, BC.  I wish I still owned it.  I can't remember who made the barrel...it was 1 1/16" AF straight octagonal, and I cut it to 32".  I shot 120 grains of FFg, a .615" ball, and a .020" patch.  It was deadly!  This is 1975.

[bluenoser]

Gentlemen,

I commend each and every one of you.  Two thumbs up!!  I see nothing a person could possibly be ashamed of.  What I do see is a lot of very good and careful craftsmanship - and some surprisingly nice guns.

To those experienced builders still sitting on the fence, I say jump in.  If you don't have your first, post an early example.  You have nothing to fear.  We all know the quality of the guns you are building today.

Think what a wonderful confidence booster it would be if a first-time builder were to look at one of these early examples and think "my gun is every bit as nice as that".  You should be proud.  Chances are, your mentorship put them in a position to think that.

Although I started building in the mid 80s, I have built less than a handful of guns and am nowhere near the level of sophistication you exhibit.  However, this thread has inspired me to reveal my first.  First, I have to take some pix.


Thanks for revealing all

Laurie

[JTR]

Well I’m disappointed!
Because all these so far look pretty decent and well done!

I guess you could comment about the lock and side plate moldings and the cheek pieces’ not being quite right on a few, but that seems to be a common issue today as well.

So other than Acer wearing that funny shirt and looking about 12 years old, and Taylor with a different haircut (if that’s you firing that cannon), and Eric getting confused and putting the lock and patchbox on the wrong side, I’m duly impressed!
And also impressed that some of you started off with a bang with wire inlay, engraving and carving to boot. I guess that no one told you that you couldn’t, or shouldn’t do it, so ya just didn’t know any better!

So how about so more?
Dan, put those pieces back together!
exTNer, time to come out of the closet!
Laurie, put some new batteries in the camera and let’s see some pics!

John

[bluenoser]

Well, it was the mid 80s, and I was relatively new to reenacting.  I wanted to be a mountain man and had to have a Hawken.  Redford probably had something to do with that.  I wanted it to be flint (they must have been produced) and I wanted a full stock.  Armed with Baird’s book as a reference, a broadsheet I got from Dixie or Mountain State and Ravenshear’s booklet, if I recall correctly, I took on my first building project.  It’s a .54, Green River bbl, L&R lock as I recall (Liston was probably building them then) Davis triggers, two-piece buttplate and it is built from the plank.  It is far from perfect but I was proud as p---.  Someday, I must trim that ramrod.

After building it, I decided I would rather have a golden age Lancaster, so my second project was born.  I am still carrying that gun.  Since this was my first, it will likely go to my new grandson.  He’s only 8 months, so it will be a while!  My current project, an early Lancaster, is my fourth.








Laurie

[bluenoser]

Is that fast enough for you John? 

[JTR]

Haha! I'm impressed with your speed,,, and the rifle too! Nice job!
John

[Meteorman]

first build. 
completed last year from a PR pre-carve - supposed to be in the fashion of Dickert, but I don't want to dis-honor him, so lets just call it an approximation.

[ptk1126]

Here is my first, a Tennessee style using Bean parts from Myron Carlson and an original late flintlock by Hopkins. Bought the parts around 1980 and finally assembled the rifle in 2006. Pretty rough !! Only on my 4th now.











All the best
Paul

[Larry Luck]

Ok, I'll bite, too.
Squared red maple blank.  7/8" x .45 Dixie barrel, hand inlet.


Larry Luck

[bluenoser]

Holy cow Larry!

Were you born fully grown too?? 

[California Kid]

Ok, here's a blast from the past. Sort of Hawken rifle circa 1970 stocked from a blank with Bill Large .54 barrel. Hasn't been shot in at least 25yrs. I guess I ought to shoot it again. Used to shoot real good with that BL barrel.



JTR don't see yours yet! HA!

[eagle24]

I'm impressed with the rifles some of you built way back when.  Mostly because I know you didn't have the resources that us newcomers have now.  Heck!  Al Gore hadn't even invented the internet when some of these rifles were built.   Kudos to you all!