flintlock double rifle

[Dowrat]

This is gonna be fun! I just finished this .54 caliber double rifle. The barrels were made in Germany about 150 years ago. Stock from a block of European walnut. She weighs just shy of 11 pounds, so it doesn't have much recoil from a load of 80 grains of 3fg Goex and a .530 round ball. I haven't had time to shoot it much or work up a good load yet. At 25 yards the lefts and rights print 1 inch apart.







post picture

[Daryl]

Very nicely made rifle. Well done.
If the barrels are printing almost parallel, then you are in great shape for a deer rifle. The barrels, if just slightly converging (I assume the bore axis's are more than 1" apart)
They should finally shoot into one group at about 100yards, then slowly cross to being 1" apart again (but reversed) by 200yards. PERFECT!!
I would want more power for elk and moose at our normal ranges.

[Steeltrap]

Nice!  If you would have put a cheek piece on each side it would have been ambidextrous.   

[Daryl]

Like most air rifles- YIKES!

[Dowrat]

Wow. Not much interest in a flintlock double rifle I guess. I thought I would get more critique on my build.

[Bob Gerard]

That looks like some nice work and great on you for reusing those old barrels into a contemporary piece. Don’t worry about the comments- it’s a tight- lipped group here 😅

[D. Taylor Sapergia]

It's a most unusual build for this site.  There may have been one other double rifle in the past ten years.  Yours looks to be well built and a really creamy piece of European walnut.  I like the recessed breeches and the tapered lock area.

[Daryl]

I too-noticed those, Taylor. If it wasn't for your SxS 12 bore, I might not have.

[Bob Roller]

Maybe a shortage of correct locks may have something to do with few doubles being made.On a rifle,regulating the barrels may be a problem as well;
I had a Holland&Holland double breech loader that had been taken apart and re-regulated by the late Tom Dawson to conform to his ideas for a certain
load.He also made double rifles with locks I made for him using external parts he got from England.
Bob Roller

[Cody Tetachuk]

I bought a .500BPE SXS last spring and during my research to find a proper load learned that regulating the barrels is a function of powder charge and/or bullet choice. If the barrels are shooting wide, reduce the powder charge and/or bullet weight and they will come together. If they are crossing, increase the powder charge and/or bullet weight to pull them apart. On vintage sis rifles (at least the British ones, the powder charge and bullet were engraved on the water table or under the butt plate as the barrels were regulated by load manipulation at the "factory". I do not know of this translates to a ML SXS but would be easy to test. but upping and towering powder charges and see if it makes a difference on where the bullets print. Nice work on the sxs BTW. Makes me wonder if I should sleeve the barrels of my 12GA sxs flint and turn it into a rifle. HMMMMMM.

[Dowrat]

Thank you for that information, Cody. I believe these barrels were a BPE, back in the day. Probably regulated for some powder/projectile combination at that time. I haven't had a chance to shoot it past 25 yards yet, but I'm pleased to see them shooting parallel at that range using various powder charges. It will be fun (and maybe frustrating) to figure out my best load with this rifle. Kinda fun that almost everyone who has inspected this gun has hefted it, shouldered it, checked it all over , then exclaimed, "Hey it's rifled!"

[bama]

The double rifle has always fascinated me and I appreciated you sharing this one with us. You did a very nice job building it. I have the barrels made to make a double rifle but it will be a full stocked and built like a long rifle. If all goes well I will get to start this project in the fall of next year.

[ScottH]

Nice!
Are you going to try checkering on the stock?
Looks like it will be a lot of fun to shoot!

[Dowrat]

Scott - I wish I could do the checkering on this stock, but I've tried checkering before and I could easily mess it up. A man's got to know his limitations! LOL

[Craig Wilcox]

Dowrat, you have made a very utilitarian piece of art.  I do like the lock panels.

[Daryl]

There is nothing I don't like about that gun, except maybe the locks. LOL
I really enjoyed shooting my cap-lock SxS on the black powder trail at our range. Several of the targets needed a quick right then left. What a sound that made.
pow/clang/pow/clang. Lots of fun.
I foolishly sold it, of course.
As to regulation, Dowrat, you are lucky. Cody has the jist of it. Ctg. guns and ML's might be slightly different, but the "work" is the same.
My DR crossed by about 2 1/2" at 50 yards using 85gr. 2F GOEX, with the left barrel striking 2" high of centre and the right barrel striking 2" low of centre. Not good.
Increasing the powder charge to 100gr. 2F GOEX, had both barrels shooting into the same group at 50yards.  Increasing the powder charge further to 110gr.,
had the barrels shooting parallel at 50yards, and thus on out, shooting parallel at all ranges.
Increasing the powder charge to 120gr. had them crossing again, but reversed the elevation of the 85g.r charge, with the right shooting high and the left shooting low
by just about the same amount as well.
Some people just can't stand to have this much fun.
50 yard target with 100gr. 2F.

[Cody Tetachuk]

Thank you for that information, Cody. I believe these barrels were a BPE, back in the day.

That would be an interesting 'turn of events". Many ML double rifles were converted back in the day to suppository, an original BPE converted to flint would be quite the departure from the norm.

Probably regulated for some powder/projectile combination at that time.

There were a couple different .500 BPE calibres, .500 - 2-1/2", .500 - 3" and .500 - 3-1/4", maybe more. Mine is the .500 - 3" ( from what I understand the .50-140 Sharps is pretty much a direct copy) which typically took 136gr BP and a relatively short bullet (300gr - 340GR) as it has relatively slow twist. Mine has a twist of 1-37 so should shoot RB quite well at lower charges if yours is similar.

[Bob Roller]

A long dormant memory just staggered across my mind.The H&H double rifle I got from Tom Dawson was later traded for a cased W.W.Greener double barrel caplock  16 bore rifle with 12 and 10 gauge shotgun barrels,Greener patent bullet mould.Using 16 bore patched round balls it would make side by side holes at 50 yards with 90 grains of DuPont 3fg.Another great relic from a great maker that I sold but a new born son had arrived to join his "big"brother.
Bob Roller.

[J.M.Browning]

Great job of stocking !

[Curtis]

Now that's pretty cool!


Curtis

[Dowrat]

My thanks to everyone for the replies and discussion. Just what I hoped for when I posted the pictures. Have a great day!

Darryl