During the Spring Shoot at Friendship I was fortunate enough to have a a couple of friends let me shoot their long range ML's at 500 yards, and it was a truly exhilarating experience! One of the guys was Art Fleener, who goes by Snapper on this forum, who was shooting his Don Brown Alexander Henry built by TOF who also posts here. I quite jazzed by the experience and as I later walked past one of the sheds in vendor row I spotted Rod England who had his personal A. Henry rifle on display as well as a target rifle kit with a couple of different stocks.
Rod purchased the A. Henry tooling and such from Don's estate after his passing and is now producing a series of rifle kits. Advances in technology has allowed him to make some improvements to the already very nice Brown parts, such as the barrels being CNC'ed in a vertical mill to assure a perfectly centered bore, improved finish on the barrels and a very fine lock. I was so impressed by the kit and my luck of happening upon it I purchased it in short order.
The kit I purchased is one of his "
Match Rifle Gun Makers's" kits, which has fewer completed operations done by him than featured with his regular kit, specifically marketed for gun builders. It is available at a significantly lower price than the standard kits. He also offers standard kits in a Sporting/Target rifle, Stalking rifle and Full Match configurations as well as all the parts individually. Stocks are offered in English or American walnut.
Back to the kit I purchased, I was so pleased with the quality of the parts I thought I would post about them here, along with photos and comments and other information. The lock features a three screw bridle with the sear on it's own separate pivot. The screws are made in the traditional British style, and the standing breech and plug are machined and fitted together tightly. The barrel is a large, heavy work of art. The kit included a full size laminated print, and nine pages of tips and instructions as written by Don Brown, all neatly packaged in a sturdy box. Included were a box for the small parts and cardboard tubes for the barrel, print & instructions.
Anyone interested in such a rifle kit should get in touch with Rod, there is plenty of time to put one together and get it ready for the Creedmor match in Oak Ridge TN this next spring!
Here are some photos of what came in the kit, as well as the
optional Alex Henry style sights I purchased from Rod. He had several different sight sets available, I decided on the traditional A. Henry variety.
Three screw lock, the nicest quality production lock I have ever handled:
Optional Sights:
I will try to scan and add some information provided by Rod on the kits as well as a flyer for the Creedmor Shoot at Oak Ridge TN.
Curtis
