Fat Joe’s Fancy Gun Shoppe Cranks Out #4

[Joe S]

For critique, an early Hudson Valley Fowler. 

Specifications:

Barrel – 10 bore, sawed off to only 50”.  Still too long to get in the cab of my truck, though. 
Lock – An exact copy of some poor castings of an early Dutch lock from the Rifle Shoppe.  The only salvageable cast parts were the cock, frizzen and frizzen spring.  The rest of the lock was made by Montana’s preeminent lock maker, Richard Wheeler.  The frizzen wouldn’t spark properly, so I added a 1095 face.  That worked out OK.
Trigger Guard – started out as a TOW French Tulle fusil de chasse.  The final shape was based rather loosely on Grinslade #7.
Front sight from MLBS.
The buttplate, trigger, ramrod pipes and side plate were made by me.  I wanted to emulate cast ramrod pipes, so I made these out of 0.060 steel.  That little experiment gave me a whole new appreciation of 0.040 brass.
The stain is AF, and the finish is brown varnish, both courtesy of the Montana Historical Gun Makers Guild.

I used the traditional DR method for inletting the barrel and drilling the ramrod hole.  Since those came out OK, I used the same method to engrave the lock.  As you can see, the engraving looks very nice.  So now I’m beginning to wonder, would it be possible to make an entire gun by this DR method?

Full disclosure – Rase has seen this gun. When I asked him for an opinion, he said, and I quote “Well, if you sawed off about half of that barrel, it might make a pretty good canoe paddle.”

So what’s the verdict gents?  Shall I saw the barrel off and toss this thing in my boat? 

[PPatch]

Unique architecture. I like the Lou Chaney as Wolfman front sight 



And the brown varnish. Your inletting is well done all round, and the circle motif is carried throughout, good. Unfortunately I have not studied fowlers enough to offer much beyond that.

Keep on trucking Gordo and welcome to ALR.

dave

[David Rase]

Full disclosure – Rase has seen this gun. When I asked him for an opinion, he said, and I quote “Well, if you sawed off about half of that barrel, it might make a pretty good canoe paddle.”

And the positive reinforcement and validation of your gunmaking skills will continue for as long as you keep me in caramels and your homemade aqua fortis.  I will be back in August to replenish. 
David

[Joe S]

Ask and ye shall receive.  We'll have both for you when you get there.

[Smoketown]

That's  about the purdyist canoe paddle I ever done seen.   

Cheers,
Smoketown

[Daryl]

Very nicely unique.  That is "some" high polish on that side plate.

That's quite a piece! I like it, however with so much drop at the comb, it might be difficult to "shoot flying" - or not - one would have to attempt that venture, at any rate.

[Turtle]

real nice-I'll have to build a Hudson some time. Every time a customer for a New England fouler wants a long barrel, I tape a 6+ inch dowel to a 42'barrel gun and tell then to go put it in their truck. So far, they all change their mind.
                                               Turtle

[Joe S]

Daryl

The finish on all of the metal is FF pumice.  If I recall correctly, that’s about 300 grit.  In person, it gives a soft, satin type finsh, but I may not have photographed it wel.

That’s a good observation about the drop in the stock.  There are a lot of these old guns that seem odd to us, until we understand what they were doing with them.  Dan Pharis has commented extensively on stock designs that are not very comfortable to shoot, unless they are shot off a plank from a kneeling positon.  This is what they were designed for, and they work very well when used that way.

This gun was designed specifically for shooting waterfowl sitting on the water, and would have been shot from a sitting or prone position on a boat or from the bank.  It is very well designed for this shooting style, and is much more comfortable to shoot off the bench than a 12 gauge with modern stock proportions.  This gun has a couple of other well thought out features for a large bore gun that will be shot with heavy loads - the top line is parallel to the bore, and the butt is tall and wide (6” x 2 ¼”). 

I intend to use it for turkey, so the design is appropriate for the use. This gun has a lot of features that would make it challenging for wing shooting, but that is not its intended use.

Turtle – LOL. The shortest real HV fowler that I could find was 54”.  I tried that out and there was no way, so I settled for 50". I can get this thing in my truck, but it goes in at an angle, and you have to be careful when you open the door.  You could of course, build an HV style gun with a reasonable barrel length, but I try to come as close as I can to the original guns.

[jim alford]

Looks really good Joe .

[SingleMalt]

A 10 bore is just shy of artillery1  Looks good!  Thats a difficult subject to build.

[Mike Brooks]

I had no problem putting my HVF with the 72" barrel in my wife's sub compact KIA Soul.

[Joe S]

I had no problem putting my HVF with the 72" barrel in my wife's sub compact KIA Soul.

Perhaps she would loan me her car next time I go turkey hunting?

A 10 bore is just shy of artillery!

Yup.  And an 8 bore actually is artillery.  The only reason I didn’t build an 8 is that they won’t let me shoot turkey with anything bigger than 10 bore.  No, Montana’s turkeys aren’t any harder to kill than any other turkeys.  It’s just that I’m a lousy shot, and I figure if some shot is good, more is better.

[Mike Brooks]

You could always put it in the back of your truck.....
I had to deliver a couple HVF's with 60" barrels to a big event in Maryland in the late 90's. I had a short bed Ranger and there was no way those guns would fit anywhere in that truck. Ended up buying a new long bed Ranger so I could get the guns there, needed a new truck anyway.
HVF's are great for shooting big loads at non flying things. Great architecture as the recoil comes straight back. You can shoot big loads with relatively little pain. I like your trigger guard, pipes and side plate, all very nicely designed. I'm not so crazy about your buttplate, but it is OK. Your treatment on the scoop out on either side of your buttstock is unusual, I haven't seen anything like that before.
 How big is the breech on the barrel? A big breech really helps the architecture on these.

[Bill Madden]

Jose, isn't this your second change in user name this year? How are we to keep up with you? Nice job. As regards using the DR method for an entire build, how about doing that on your upcoming Jaeger build? That might test his skills!

[longcruise]

What is the "DR method"?

[conquerordie]

Yeah I was wondering what the DR method was as well? I'm just starting a 55 inch barreled New England fowler. Guess I'm gonna have to get a new car too. Nice fowler by the way.
Greg

[John Archer]

The DR method is the David Rase method. David is a superb gunmaker/engraver/tool and die maker/ inletter of barrels, and ramrod hole driller.

John.

[conquerordie]

Can't afford the DR method now that I have to buy a new car to move my fowler   .
Greg

[Joe S]

Mike

The barrel is 1 3/8” at the breech.  I think this is about the easiest dimension to work with.  Up to 1 ½” would probably be OK too, but going down, you’d start running into architectural difficulties.  People who are not familiar with these guns may not realize how massive they are.  The lock is 7” long, and the wrist is 1 5/8”.  Trying to get all that to work together with a skinny barrel would not be easy.

I agree, the scoop is unusual, but there is precedent for it.  I could probably find the pictures in my files. Usually they’re formed by cutting straight down from the top.  This one was cut that way, then slightly relieved to emphasize the margins.  When the opportunity arises, I find that I prefer this sort of architectural emphasis.  It may be because I don’t see as well as I used to, and the sharp edges help me visualize a feature.

I am strongly tempted to put little red glass eyes in the front sight.  What would you think about that?

Bill – As long as there are people around here who could positively identity me, say, in a police lineup, I find it expedient to change my name from time to time.

The DR method is simple – you send the barrel and stock to David Rase.  He has the barrel inleted and the ram rod hole drilled by a professional, then he sends them back to you.  That’s all there to it.

[Mike Brooks]

The "scoop" is good, it's the relief carved step outlining the scoop I haven't seen before.

[Wayne the Shrink]

Not glass, use tiny faceted garnets.  That gun is worth it!  No one knows me here, but LOML (Love of my Life) is a Geologist and we have mined garnets as well as sapphires and other native stones in native earth in North Carolina.  They are not all that expensive and are available. 

[Curtis]

Quite funky!  I like it!

Curtis

[Joe S]

Thanks Curtis.  I think funky is about right. 

Dr Shrink - Garnets...don't encourage me, I might actually do it.

Here's a a picture I forgot to post earlier.  This is the first ramrod I've carved.  It was a lot more work that I had anticipated.

[Joe S.]

Love the front sight,nicely done shootin iron,turkeys beware!