Rebuilding a GRRW Leman

[Herb]

I no longer have the muscular strength to hold up my Bridger for off-hand shooting, so was trying to decide what kind of shorter and lighter rifle I could make for my November elk hunt and our local matches.  This one certainly qualifies.  Here is how it came about:  I checkered the stock of a  Chinese copy of a Winchester 52 target rifle for Carney, had 20 hours in the project.  Told him to give me what he thought it was worth.  Now, my crowd does a Wyoming gallery .22 shoot in the winter, 50 shots a week for 10 weeks, at 50 feet.  Bullseye about the size of an aspirin tablet.  I averaged about 1140 out of 1250 the last four years, but Dave scores over 1200.  Good match ammo was hard to get and expensive, I like Wolf and so Carney gave me two cartons (1000 rounds) of it in payment.  Dave figured that was too good for me and also wanted to help me out with a muzzleloader I could shoot off-hand.  He had this .54 Leman that went through a fire and so took my Wolf ammo away from me and gave me two cartons of Federal Auto Match, which shoots better in my rifle than I can hold, and the Leman.  It has a GRRW .54 caliber 1 1/16" barrel 24 inches long, but it is not a GRRW shop rifle.  Carl Walker built it at home, it has his cartouche on it.  He does not remember building it.  I think it suggests a rifle that was cut short because of a damaged muzzle.  There is no nose cap on it. The caplock was salvageable once the damaged springs were replaced but Dave sold that and the buttplate and trigger guard and trigger long ago, this is all I got.  It has a 3/8 x 24 powder drum, but I am going to make it a flintlock, using a Late English lock.  There is no 3/8x24 flash hole liner so I bought a 1" steel bolt of this size and will cut the head down to have a shoulder and cut it to 1/4" length and drill a flash hole.








There is no nose cap.  This is wood.


More to follow.

[Herb]

Top is GRRW's Leman Concept rifle, the first of this design, located here in Vernal.  Then the burned rifle, looks as if it was based on the above.  Then a caplock I built in a class at GRRW in 1978.


The concept rifle has more drop than mine.  I'll copy the burned one with the concept buttstock but leave the tacks off the cheekpiece, put the rest of them in.


I called Muzzleloader Builders Supply about the 3/8x24 flash hole liner and got advice (none commercially available, White Lightning has a 3/8x32 (I have one and the tap) but that won't work.  Ryan had a Leman 15/16 stock but measured it and said there was enough wood to fit the 1 1/16" barrel in and have enough width for the lock and panels.  The stock was $165




I had a buttplate of unknown origin, Doc White says it will work.  I am not restoring this rifle to original, so the shorter return is fine with me.  Some original Lemans had this style of trigger guard (from MBS), and I like that spur to the rear rather than to the front.  I got a trigger and plate from MBS, doesn't pin in the wood like my caplock.



I ordered these parts by phone Monday noon and UPS delivered them noon the next day, fast shipping service from Aberdeen, Idaho to Vernal.  Track in Minnesota takes about five days, just how it is.  I'll  show progress reports as I build this short Leman.

[Herb]

I built a test bed for my burned GRRW  barrel before inletting it into the stock.  Carved out a barrel channel in a 2x4, inletted the lock  and pinned the barrel and used a wood screw for the tang.  No lock bolt- saved this lock for another day.  I will make this into a flintlock.  Used 50 grains of Goex 3F, JoAnn drill patching with lube and 600 grit emory flour on the patch.  Cleaned the bore as I loaded the .520 ball.  Shot 9 times, all good patches, even reused one.  Got home and used my endoscope to look at the bore, and it is still blotchy.  There doesn't seem to be pitting, but it is still a little rough.  Think I'll use some more 600 grit on the patches when I have it together and do test firing.


I used a nail to push up to trip the sear.  Have a spring inside this cartridge head push cap.