A new project: maple stocked, rifled English fowler FINISHED

[silky]

Dave,

Thanks for sharing the build and final product -- it's beautiful! I can't remember seeing a front site like that on a round barrel before; I'm guessing it's a shallow dovetail with a standard rifle-type site tapped in? Is that common on a round barrel, or a product of this gun being a fowler on the outside and rifle on the inside?

- Tom

[bama]

Really nicely done Dave. Along with the others, I would like to say thank you for sharing it with us.

Jim

[smart dog]

Hi and thanks everyone,

It was a fun project but I have to admit, it is not my best work.  Juggling multiple projects and teaching Maria as she works on hers, kind of put me off my usual order and set of procedures.  I forgot to take care of details that should have been done much earlier in the process and I simply got distracted from my usual due diligence on everything before applying stain and finish.  I have to focus and cannot be pulled away at important points in the process.  That said, the rifle looks a lot better to me in the flesh than in photos, and the owner is ecstatic about it.  That is the main thing.  I still need to shoot it and finish writing the owner's manual for it.

Tom, the front sight is mounted in a dovetail just like normal rifle sights so the owner can adjust windage with both the front and rear sights.  The front blade is tall and will almost certainly be filed lower as he works up his load and zeros the rifle in.  I usually mortise front sights in fowler barrels:

 





However, this gun gives the owner options for adjustment.  One detail, however, the barrel wall thickness is pretty good at the muzzle so I set the dovetail in fairly deep.  That helps with round barrels because only the top portion of the curve forms the dovetail.  The deeper you can cut it, the more metal on metal contact you have between the sight base and the barrel.

dave

[Curtis]

Mighty fine work there Dave, a lot to be proud of!  I love the scallop carving on the tang, you really captured it.


Curtis

[silky]

Got it! Thank you, Dave.

- Tom

[Steeltrap]

How did you do that "inlay" (bullet shape) on the tang?  That's beautiful!!

[t.caster]

S W E E T  ! ! !

[duca]

Stunning!!!!

[smart dog]

Hi and thank you all,

I just wanted to follow up considering I started this thread as a kind of tutorial on some key aspects of British sporting guns from the mid 18th century.  I added some details that I neglected in my previous tutorials on English fowlers.  Forget for a moment it is a rifle and think smooth bore.  It represents the good quality workman-like guns imported to the American colonies in the thousands.  These were probably the most common guns in colonial America.  They would have cost at most 2 to 3 guineas (a guinea is 1 pound sterling 1 shilling)  including shipping and duties and were well within the means of a large number of people.  The hardware would have been standard fare, the engraving effective but nothing near the quality on high-end London guns. Anyway, it is an example of the standard fare available to many American colonists as long as you ignore the rifling.

dave