Jim Chambers English Sporting Rifle build. Ver.2

[flatsguide]

Thanks Brian, how is your engraving going?

Pukka, thanks for the photo, it looks nice. This is the engraving that I tried to copy. Sorry but I don’t know who did this work…maybe someone knows.

Boss sure does build some fine guns.

[Daryl]

Top- Notch !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Curtis]

Richard, very nice - and precise!  Some good line width variation as well.

Curtis

[Brian Jordan]

Richard, I'm tapping away on some brass practice plates every day. I did add a picture of the side plate to my colonial rifle post. A very basic design, but did add curves as you suggested.

[flatsguide]

Making a folding leaf rear sight for the rifle. I wound up doing a lot of needle file work to remove the round corners in the milled slot the there was the fitting of the leaf hinge boss to the slot. I used a smoke lamp to soot the base to be able to see where the hinge boss rubbed the a few strokes with a modified #6 cut needle file …rinse and repeat till the leaf fits. Now I have to drill the hole for the hinge pin that is .055” diameter.
Thanks for looking!
Cheers Richard

[Curtis]

That sight is going to be a dandy, Richard!  Lots of work represented in that.


Curtis

[Adrie luke]

This one has two valves





Tis is on scale

[flatsguide]

Thanks Curtis!
Adrie,thanks for those photos, a lot of work went into those  sights.
Cheers Richard

[flatsguide]

The leaves are fitted and the next step is to reduce the sides of the bases without shortening the dove tail section. After that I’ll drill for the pins. The sketch shows what the finished sights should look like…

[Adrie luke]

Flatsguide

It is indeed a lot of work.
After a lot of use, the valve can develop some play and fall forward.
Perhaps a set screw would be a modern solution
I just wanted to offer an idea.

Regards, Adrie

[Daryl]

This is an 1850's Joseph Lang version.

[flatsguide]

Adrie, I plan on using a flat or music wire spring to keep the leaf (valve) from moving whether it upright or in the flat stowed position. Your way would work fine too…instead of a set screw you could incorporate the pin and screw in one piece.
Daryl, thanks for posting those photos. My front sight I made looks very much like the one you show and it has a faux ivory bead. I’m on the fence on what kind of rear sight shape,so far the money is on a shallow ‘V’ , but the one you show looks like it might work just as well.
All my sight bases and leaves are done . Now the tricky part for me is drilling for the pins.

This photo shows the cutter I made to form the 1/8” diameter base on the sight bases. It’s a fly cutter.


This is the 3rd of the three sights.

[snapper]

Very nice work as always.   

Last night sitting in the deer stand I was studying the rear sights on an Alex Henry sporting rifle thinking how it was done in 1850 and how much work it took.   This rifle has 3 folding leaf's.

Looking forward to seeing the rifle in person.

Fleener

[Daryl]

flatsguide - the wide V Express sight that I use, is a modern version giving better vision of the animal and surrounding area, especially in running shooting.
The cap-lock era V's, such as on the Joseph Lang 1853 16 bore I pictured were not as wide, however, sighting is done the same. The bead is placed  in the
bottom of the V.
If there is no time to raise a blade for further distances, the bead is simply raised inside the "V". To see what that would look like, after sighting in and perhaps
marking the side for range, raising the blade against the standing sight and looking at the relationship of the bead in the longer range sight against where it would
be in the stand-ing sight will  give the sight picture needed for the longer range when using only the first sight for aiming as a fleeing animal, or such.
I hope I explained that well enough.

[flatsguide]

Thanks Art! You have good taste in rifles and guns it’s a pleasure to enjoy their finer points while hunting.
Daryl, I used that same technique you explained as I used many times when handgun hunting.
I got the hole drilled and reamed on the first of the three sights. I was concerned that the drill would wander and ruin both the base and leaf but I lucked out and the exit hole was within a few thousandths of the entry hole. The first drill bit of .052” was a carbide drill chosen for its inherent stiffness.

Final reaming

[Daryl]

Yes, exactly, same method of sighting with longer range handgun shooting.
Good job on the pin.

[Jim Kibler]

Wow!  That's some beautiful work.  Most don't realize how much time things like this take.

[flatsguide]

Daryl, thanks! I think I’m going to use the ‘V’ notch that is used on the photos of that sight you posted.
Jim, thank you for the kind words. As an admirer of your outstanding artistry, it means a lot to me.
In order to get the correct sight heights for 100 and 150 yards, I made a dummy try sight. The sight ‘blades’ are .030” plastic sheet. At the range I’ll just keep cutting the base of the plastic to lower the sight until it hits to point of aim. The ‘V’ notches are a 90 degree angle. I tried a 60 degree angle using a 3 square file but I like the 90 cut with a square needle file. Right now I think the base of this sight is too high so before I shoot 8ll cut it lower. The load will be 125 gns 1 1/2 Swiss, a 1/4” thick beeswax soaked felt .020” patch and a .562” pure lead ball. That load chronos around 1720 fps.

[Daryl]

Depending on the depth or rifling, you may not need the felt wad for a good seal, as long as the patch is a hard compressed, .020".