AmericanLongRifles Forums
General discussion => Gun Building => Topic started by: k gahagan on August 11, 2025, 03:01:33 AM
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New Hudson Valley Fowler with architecture copied from an 1700-1750 original Fowler. Lock suppied from The Rifle Shoppe is an early Dutch flat face lock while different from the original is one of my favorites. The 56" all round barrel was made by Ed Ray. I cast the trigger guard and side plate with the original sideplate used as the pattern for the new one. Butt plate swaged from sheet brass.
(https://i.ibb.co/HfYTyMCY/IMG-3091.jpg) (https://ibb.co/Q3nvVqkn)
(https://i.ibb.co/KxNPLTLF/IMG-3080.jpg) (https://ibb.co/1GsgdFd8)
(https://i.ibb.co/fYV6csdF/IMG-3073.jpg) (https://ibb.co/WWN8TLv5)
(https://i.ibb.co/fYLP6HYZ/IMG-3078.jpg) (https://ibb.co/6RLf9FRG)
(https://i.ibb.co/YFDdPnxJ/IMG-3063.jpg) (https://ibb.co/Jwxpm698)
(https://i.ibb.co/jvRVcVjd/IMG-3085-copy.png) (https://ibb.co/qM50t02z)
(https://i.ibb.co/CK8Z6mv2/IMG-3083.png) (https://ibb.co/60wx8rbB)
(https://i.ibb.co/Y4GGJMqN/IMG-3084-copy.png) (https://ibb.co/TD55JSFw)
(https://i.ibb.co/chYNpBLk/IMG-3076.jpg) (https://ibb.co/QvD6qgdp)
(https://i.ibb.co/1f51qRBk/IMG-3079.jpg) (https://ibb.co/yn1tygKr)
(https://i.ibb.co/gM9W5mR5/IMG-3088.jpg) (https://ibb.co/TB20VYgV)
(https://i.ibb.co/sdfwvF7t/IMG-3082-copy.png) (https://ibb.co/Zpj86h9N)
(https://i.ibb.co/gM3VLnv1/IMG-3087.jpg) (https://ibb.co/sv2HdB5S)
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Many great features tastefully and masterfully melded together. Very enjoyable to see.
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awsome fowler
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Masterful!
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Beautiful gun. Excellent work.
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Lovely gun with lots of character, Ken.
Outstanding!
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Very nice.
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REALLY cool beans.
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Absolutely stunning!
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That's beautiful!!
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Sweet!!!! fowler Ken.
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Nice Ken - Ir's that old Gahagan Magic
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Schweet!
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Ken, some specific questions and comments.
Is the tang area carving your own design? It fits well but feels like I haven’t seen it before.
I can see the underside carving fore and aft of the guard has several influences I’m familiar with - HV 2-3 in Grinslade’s book come to mind, but amplified here.
The nose of the comb is very sculptural - I think it’s your creation.
Overall, as I think how did you design it, it suggests a familiarity with the spectrum of stylistic motifs and architectural elements found on early HVFs, and a kind of new synthesis such as Ian Pratt often does.
Just trying to put it in perspective with specific originals. HVFs are not mainstream for most of us, so would you say this represents a synthesis of one or several originals, or more of a new creation using originals as inspiration? I’m always interested in the design phase.
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Great work Ken and a great looking gun !
Monty
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I like it. Excellent work
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Fantastic
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Thank you all for your comments. Rich I see you have some question. As I think I mentioned in the post I patterned this fowler after an original I was able to get in the Grinslade auction. It's one that he acquired after the book. It's a really nice early fowler in very good shape. I used the original for the general architecture on mine and used several other details like the shape of the butt plate, thimbles etc. Where I varied was the lock, the carving and many other details. So the overall feel of my version hopefully has a similar feel even with these changes. Some of elements that started as features in Grinslades book are lock which is on example 10. The original has a round face lock with I had but I used my favorite Dutch early flat face lock. The tang carving is a variation of the carving on example 15. The engraving on the butt plate is a variation of the engraving on number 9. I wanted something fairly simple and folky and keep coming back to this one. The raised portion on the tang that creates a sort of sighting plane is from 20. The carving is perhaps the furthest departure and also from several sources with my own interpretation. The tang carving is derived from 15. Carving designed combining elements from originals in a hopefully pleasing manner.
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Thanks, Ken! Glad you got the original. I’ll have to dig out the auction photos, if I saved them.
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Rich, I'll post some pictures of the original in the next couple of days
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That’s fantastic. So much to see in it, cool details everywhere.
Just wondering if a barrel that long might knock out a few of those flying geese, too 😆
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Outstanding! 'Always happy to see one of these come off the bench. Especially when done at this high level. Beautiful work!
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That’s a cool one!
-Robert
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Super well done. Very believable and a great, well conceived melding of details. Best of all, the owner is very happy !
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You are just the master of this stuff.
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Late to the party here, but Ken’s Hudson Valley fowlers never disappoint!
Ken, love the flat lock – haven’t seen that before on one of your HVFs and it looks great. Beautiful figure in the stock as well…
Jay
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Any chance you can give the measurement for the barrel? Length, OD of the breech and muzzle? I'd like to understand the sight angle with the tang groove. That is beautiful work.
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I too am late to this party, but please permit me to say how great it is to see this fowler. That large early Dutch lock is just great.
Doug Frank
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Beautiful, Ken! Thanks for posting! Best,
Ed
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Thank you all for your comments. Woodpecker you had some questions about the raised portion on the tang that forms the rear siting plane. The barrel is 56" long with a breech dimension just under 1 3/8ths. It's a 12 gaUGE bore with .060 walls so the o.d. on the muzzle should be about .845. With the tiny front site that is very low to the barrel you can assume this rear site would not really be effective other than a little left to right reference. There are many variations of this feature on these breeches but none would truly work as a site.
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Wow, great stuff Ken as usual. Always a pleasure to she your stuff. One of these years I need to do a HVF.