AmericanLongRifles Forums
General discussion => Gun Building => Topic started by: KLMoors on September 15, 2013, 11:15:20 PM
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This gun is my first attempt to do a facsimile of a particular gun. Usually I pick a style/maker I like and go from there.
There are a pair of John Twigg's rifles pictured in one of the "Great British Gunmakers" books that were built by Twigg in 1779. Since there are only a few pictures and a pretty brief description of the rifles, I had to make some guesses in a few areas. But, I think that I am pretty close with the architecture and detailing. The original guns had 29 inch barrels.
The barrel is a D-weight, 31 inch, .54 cal, swamped barrel by Colerain. The lock is a Davis Twigg. The butt plate is lengthened to get the 5 1/2" tall butt as shown on the original. The trigger guard is two guards cut and welded together. The pipes are from Barbie at Chambers. The forward pipes have been cut shorter and re-filed to match the original pipes. The wood is American walnut.
The lock is held in place with one screw and a hook on the forward part of the lock that is trapped under a screw head hidden in the lock mortise. It's a pretty neat system.
The barrel is held in place by round pins with 1/2 moon heads as per the original.
The front sight is a modified Jaeger sight.
There is no cheek piece, as per the original.
I still haven't decided if I am going to age the steel some or not. The original shows very little signs of rust due to the good care it received all its life. The steel is greyed out some and I am thinking that one deer season in my acidic, sweaty hands should put some color on them.
A huge thanks to James and Dave and everyone else on here that helped answer my questions during the build.
Any and all comments and critiques are welcomed.
Thanks for looking.
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Very Nice!! .54 caliber! that should put some knockdown on some deer.
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A very nicely done bit of work. I like that a lot.
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Looks like she is done! Great job Ken.
P.S. like those thimbles :)
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Ken that is a very beautiful rifle and the craftsmanship just shines. Well done sir! Thanks for showing her.
dp
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Well done Ken!!
You got it right and it is a classic English gun. I hope others that aspire to make "British" guns look at it closely so they learn the details about English rifles from the 18th century.
dave
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Love everything about it! Only fault I can think of is that squirrel gun caliber, should be .60 or so. ;D
Bill
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Craftsmanship at its best sir. Great job :)
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Nice gun, well done. I have to make one of those next!
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I agree with every one else when they say great gun. Your workmanship looks great. How do you like that lock?
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Very nice-I do like the engraving
Thanks for posting the pictures
Sydney
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Thanks guys. It was a ton of work, and I am really glad that I didn't butcher it. These are kind of like Hawken guns, in that they are harder than they look (at least for me!).
The lock seems real nice. I shot the gun about 25 or 30 times today and she is quite fast. There are still some rough spots in the lock that I will polish out. It takes a huge flint, and throws a ton of sparks. It also has a big pan, that looks like it holds about 100 grains of powder, so wear your safety glasses. ;)
This gun really likes 90 grains of FFF :o. My groups really started to tighten up the higher I went. Recoil is fine though with that straight stock.
Mike, I made this pattern off of a full scale blow up of the photo, so I think it is real close. I would be glad to send you a copy of it if you'd like. It is the least I could do for all the help you've given new builders like myself.
Also - -A special thanks to Ed Dillon. I forgot to mention that he bailed me out with the forward thimbles. I thought I had the right ones, and by the time I realized my mistake, Barbie was out of the ones I should have gotten. Ed was kind enough to send me his. As soon as my new ones come in from Barbie Ed, I will ship them along to you with my notes etc. Thanks again!
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Ken,
Nice looking piece! Very nicely executed carving, engraving and stock architecture. It looks like the "dots" on the breach turned out nicely as well. Sweet rifle, and I wouldn't age the steel... Thanks for sharing!
Ed
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I absolutely agree with Ed Wenger. She is beautiful as she is. great work, ken.
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Ken,
Well done. I know the few pictures you had to work with. I can see you spent some time studying the subtle things. I like the whole package and want see it in person.
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Beautiful gun, top to bottom, end to end!!!! Nice job!
Robby
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Exquisite! Nice work, very crisp. A gun to be proud of for certain.
Curtis
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I really like it! This is the form I like for a great hunting rifle, and this rifle is very well done. Thanks to you for creating it and showing us, and thanks to Mr. Twigg for the inspiration.
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K L Moors, can you tell us the stock dimentions as to drop at heel and comb, etc. ?
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Beautiful rifle. My only criticism is next time photograph it against a solid background, the picket fence makes the picture too busy and confuses the eye as tom where to look. Absolutely nothing wrong with the rifle great job you should be proud.
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Yeow. Beautiful work.
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Thanks all.
Smylee, the stock dimensions are:
2 1/4 inch drop at heel
1 3/8 inch drop at the nose of the comb
2 inch wide X 5 1/2 inch tall butt
1 3/8 inch round wrist
The butt is pretty fat as it moves forward. It doesn't taper quickly like an English fowler. I actually took a little too much off at the nose of the comb. It should be a little thicker there.
The rest of the dimensions are pretty much determined by the barrel and lock bolster, etc.
Almost all of the ramrod is exposed on the forend. The groove is less than 1/8 inch deep. The original might even be less than that as there is a ton or ram rod and pipes exposed. That was a detail that took me a while to grasp.
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Thanks for those numbers K L Moors. It looks like it will handle recoil well and that is what I will be hoping for on a 62 cal. build somewhat like yours. Again, I really like your gun and hope mine ends up as well.
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Your engraving is well designed, crisp, simple and elegant. Very well done and adds much to the beauty of the rifle.
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Beautiful rifle, Your engraving is fantastic. I do have a question, it may be the light but it almost looks like the barrel is setting on top of the wood. How much of the side flats are showing above the stock? Great look and thanks for sharing. I'm getting there, slow but sure, one at a time. I'm just starting number 15 with 2 more waiting. Addictive to say the least. Thanks again, Bob
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Thanks Taylor, that means a lot coming from someone with your talent.
The basic backbone of the scroll on the butt plate is stolen from Mr. Twigg. I did my own leaf work. Some day I hope to be able to shade 1/2 as well as the engraving on the original of this gun. That guy could cut 20 perfectly tapered, converging lines on each leaf.
I use an Optivisor, but I can't imagine doing that even with a microscope. And, to think that Mr. Twigg (or his engraver) could do it in the late 1700's with the tools of that time.
Smylee- I forgot to mention- It is 9 1/2 inches to the shoulder of the entry pipe, from the breech.
Bob, I've got about 2/3 of the side flat showing. You are right- it is very addictive. There is always a new challenge to try.
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Absolutely lovely rifle. It would present a quandry to me, though, if I owned it--it's too pretty to hunt with but a shame not to take deer hunting. Congratulations on a job well done.
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You did a great job. I am very impressed. By the way, John Twigg did not do his own engraving. All the engraving on English guns was done by men in the engravers guild and I understand that the engravers were in the same guild as the goldsmiths. There were a very few who were in the gunmakers guild and the goldsmiths guild.
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Ken.....nice looking gun. This is very similar to the gun I brought to the "show and tell" at last month's CLA show. This was
a prototype for a kit that Fred Miller and I were making about 25 years ago. I suppose Dave Keck still has the stock pattern.
John Schippers did the engraving on mine. The engraving and carving on your gun is really great, you even did a good copy
of the rear sight. I did my gun in 60 cal, and many years ago I loaned the gun to Dave Ehrig, a Pa. outdoor writer, and he
killed a Caribou in Canada with it. I also was kind of copying a gun from the "Great British Gunmakers" book, which is a
great book. The one thing that is missing in that book are shots of the cheek piece side of the gun. When people tell me
they want to built a short Jager rifle, which to my way of thinking can't even begin to compare to one of these fine english
rifles. A great gun to carry and shoot..........Don
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Ken.........I had to go back to your pictures and found that you did not put a cheek piece on your gun...........I then ran downstairs to look at mine.......no cheekpiece either.....this old brain of mine couldn't remember what I did on my gun.....ha.
On my gun I used a "fowler" type guard with a straight rail. I also did mine in steel, left bright, and after 20 or more years
it still looks great. They sure make a great hunting rifle. One other thing about your gun. Does it have a hook breech?
I was looking at your gun and it appears that the standing breech is smaller than the barrel? What did you do in this area?
I used what we called a "fake hook", which looks exactly like a hook breech but actually just screws into the barrel like an
ordinary plug........Don
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I can't remember ever seeing a cheek piece on a Twigg rifle but that doesn't mean they never had one. I think they did because Manton's did and so did Durrs Egg's. They were both apprenticed to Twigg and worked for him. I'll bet I can find a photo of a Twigg cheek piece. I did a heap of research on English sporting rifles when I made my Tathum and Egg Indian chief trade presentation rifle.
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Yes, some late Twigg rifles had raised cheek pieces. I know there's a small caliber half stock that was part of Keith Neal's collection.
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Thanks Jerry and Don for the very kind words.
Don - the gun does have a hooked breech. On the original gun, it has a hooked breech, but the breech and tang are the same size - no step as on some other guns I looked at. I used Track of the Wolf's "American Fowler" one and cut it to shape. I had to weld it in a spot to re-shape the corners on it to look like the one on the original, but that particular job went pretty easy for me. Some of the other "make my own parts" steps took a couple of tries!
Regarding the cheek piece, according to the description of this rifle in the book, there was no cheek piece. It comes to the shoulder with a wonderful grace and fit none-the-less. It feels a lot like a shotgun in terms of fit. I am really anxious to shoot it some more this weekend and get it out on opening day next Saturday.
Thanks again all.