New "Twigg" About Done

[KLMoors]

Thanks Taylor, that means a lot coming from someone with your talent.

The basic backbone of the scroll on the butt plate is stolen from Mr. Twigg. I did my own leaf work. Some day I hope to be able to shade 1/2 as well as the engraving on the original of this gun. That guy could cut 20 perfectly tapered, converging lines on each leaf.

I use an Optivisor, but I can't imagine doing that even with a microscope. And, to think that Mr. Twigg (or his engraver) could do it in the late 1700's with the tools of that time.


Smylee- I forgot to mention- It is 9 1/2 inches to the shoulder of the entry pipe, from the breech.

Bob, I've got about 2/3 of the side flat showing.  You are right- it is very addictive. There is always a new challenge to try.

[dogcreek]

Absolutely lovely rifle. It would present a quandry to me, though, if I owned it--it's too pretty to hunt with but a shame not to take deer hunting. Congratulations on a job well done.

[jerrywh]

You did a great job. I am very impressed. By the way, John Twigg did not do his own engraving. All the engraving on English guns was done by men in the engravers guild and I understand that the engravers were in the same guild as the goldsmiths. There were a very few who were in the gunmakers guild and the goldsmiths guild.

[Don Getz]

Ken.....nice looking gun.   This is very similar to the gun I brought to the "show and tell" at last month's CLA show.  This was
a prototype for a kit that Fred Miller and I were making about 25 years ago.    I suppose Dave Keck still has the stock pattern.
John Schippers did the engraving on mine.   The engraving and carving on your gun is really great, you even did a good copy
of the rear sight.   I did my gun in 60 cal, and many years ago I loaned the gun to Dave Ehrig, a Pa. outdoor writer, and he
killed a Caribou in Canada with it.   I also was kind of copying a gun from the "Great British Gunmakers" book, which is a
great book.   The one thing that is missing in that book are shots of the cheek piece side of the gun.   When people tell me
they want to built a short Jager rifle, which to my way of thinking can't even begin to compare to one of these fine english
rifles.  A great gun to carry and shoot..........Don

[Don Getz]

Ken.........I had to go back to your pictures and found that you did not put a cheek piece on your gun...........I then ran downstairs to look at mine.......no cheekpiece either.....this old brain of mine couldn't remember what I did on my gun.....ha.
On my gun I used a "fowler" type guard with a straight rail.   I also did mine in steel, left bright, and after 20 or more years
it still looks great.  They sure make a great hunting rifle.   One other thing about your gun.   Does it have a hook breech?
I was looking at your gun and it appears that the standing breech is smaller than the barrel?  What did you do in this area?
I used what we called a "fake hook", which looks exactly like a hook breech but actually just screws into the barrel like an
ordinary plug........Don

[jerrywh]

I can't remember ever seeing a cheek piece on a Twigg rifle but that doesn't mean they never had one. I think they did because Manton's did and so did Durrs Egg's. They were both apprenticed to Twigg and worked for him. I'll bet I can find a photo of a Twigg cheek piece.  I did a heap of research on English sporting rifles when I made my Tathum and Egg Indian chief trade presentation rifle.

[James Rogers]

Yes, some late Twigg rifles had raised cheek pieces. I know there's a small caliber half stock that was part of Keith Neal's collection.

[KLMoors]

Thanks Jerry and Don for the very kind words.

Don - the gun does have a hooked breech. On the original gun, it has a hooked breech, but the breech and tang are the same size -  no step as on some other guns I looked at.  I used Track of the Wolf's "American Fowler" one and cut it to shape. I had to weld it in a spot to re-shape the corners on it to look like the one on the original, but that particular job went pretty easy for me. Some of the other "make my own parts" steps took a couple of tries!

Regarding the cheek piece, according to the description of this rifle in the book, there was no cheek piece. It comes to the shoulder with a wonderful grace and fit none-the-less. It feels a lot like a shotgun in terms of fit. I am really anxious to shoot it some more this weekend and get it out on opening day next Saturday.

Thanks again all.