Frankenrifle rescue gun question number one

[thecapgunkid]

15 years in Cowboy Shooting away from buckskinning, trekking and 18th century shoemaking did not slow down my uptake enough as it is, but I went and bought this Frankenrifle that jumped off gunbroker, grabbed me by the collar and shouted "Save me, Save me!!!".  I asked a boatload of questions and got a lot of photos from the owner, and am sure it is safe.  It needs a lot of corrective work, mostly in the wood. 

Since I don't have the facilities or tools to build from scratch, I wanna rescues this rifle.  It is a product of the sixties or seventies according to the seller, and has the only octagon to round barrel rifled to .54 that I have ever seen.  I thought all those were all smoothbore trade guns.  It has an L.Reeb stamp on the underside.

Never heard of it.

There will be a five second recess here for everybody to make a joke about the dummy who bought a junk pile. 

Anyways...I have a machinist who will help me shorten it because it weighs ten pounds and seems to have more iron in it than a Sherman Tank.

Aside from the ..."Who the Sam Hill is L. Reeb?"...part, what I wanna know is can you slightly swamp a round barrel and bed it  to help balance or should I leave it alone and lift weights?

I don't know how to post a picture, so advice on that would help too.

Thanks, and,

Don't shoot yore eye out, kid
Greg Geiger
The Capgun Kid

[rich pierce]

Not sure what it weighs but folks used to modern guns can be surprised at the weight of original flint and percussion rifles, especially later period ones.  Hawkens often weighed close to 10 pounds and sometimes more, and Southern squirrel rifles about the same.  So you may want to decide what your goals are for this barrel.  The octagon to round, .54 barreled rifle that is best known is the 1803 Harpers Ferry rifle.  Do you want to make a rifle that is comfortable for you to shoot and well crafted?  Or do you want to make a rifle that also closely represents an original of some kind?  Without pictures, or at the very least, dimensions, we can't offer much specific advice.

[D. Taylor Sapergia]

I'm with Rich on this one.  There is so much lost in written communication...so go to the Tutorial forum and figure out how to post pictures.  They will each tell a thousand words - and accurately.  There are many here who can offer you wonderful creative advice, so take advantage of it.

[Dan'l 1946]

 What is the barrel length? And how much are you thinking of cutting off. If it balances well now, you could ruin that by altering the length.
                                    Dan

[Majorjoel]

Another important question for you is do you plan to fix up the rifle with the stock it is now sporting or do a total restock of the old barrel and it's parts? A lot depends on what your idea's are. 

[Ky-Flinter]

Greg,

Welcome to ALR.  Here is a link to the tutorial on posting pictures.  http://americanlongrifles.org/forum/index.php?topic=10.0

-Ron

[thecapgunkid]

Thanks, folks and I will figure out how to post pictures soon.
These are all good questions to gel what I have been thinking.

I am not looking to duplicate an historical piece because I am not experienced enough to be precise like that. .  I prefer early style guns rather than something like the Harpers Ferry Rifle.  I want to get a better looking, more cohesive shooter out of it, not a re-creation

The reason about six inches is coming off the full 44 inches is because the gun doesn't balance at all, and is muzzle heavy.  Having hefted this piece, then put it together after I took some wood off, it is my judgement that bringing it down to 38" or so will enhance the balance. It is hard to describe, but I can feel that this gun will balance the way my old 38" gun did after Nathan McKenzie made it for me and I ran with it for so long.   Weight and balance are an issue only because of a left shoulder injury that has recovered by only about 95%, and I am willing to estimate and take risks because the only way with this gun is up.

I originally thought of restocking it, but would rather gain some experience and make any mistakes by re-working the existing gun.   If I fail, then I will have it re-stocked because being a shoemaker has taught me to stay within yourself when doing any kind of hand work.  If I can't get it done, take the three and out and punt.

Dunno as I would seriously think of throwing this on a lathe and tapering the barrel, for the simple reason that, were it a good idea on a round, there might be some examples or accounts of doing that.  I just want to know if anybody here has tried it.

Thanks again everybody for the welcomes into ALR.  It has already been interesting as well as informative.  Hope I meet some of you at Dixons, and I will be posting questions as I make progress on this puppy.

Don't shoot your eye out, kid

Greg Geiger
The Capgun Kid

[Don Getz]

Greg........where did you come up with the name "Frankengun"?    The reason I wondered, I heard that name before.   I made
an early "christian's spring" barn gun and sold it to a Colonel in the army.   Despite the fact that it was a so called barn gun,
I put a sliding wood box on it.  There was a rather bad check in the stock blank which ran from up near the heel of the stock
and ran down thru the patch box inlet and continued down thru the bottom line of the stock.  We thought of glueing it but my
son John had a better idea.  We made five copper staples and drilled small holes for them along the lower portion of the check.
We pounded them across the check......looked fantastic.   The Colonel bought it and we told him it had a name, "the staple
gun".  When he got it home his kids called it the "Franken gun", since it did somewhat look like the stitches on Frankenstein,
the monster.........Don

[thecapgunkid]

Truth be knownst, I was goona call it  The Train Wreck.  In cowboy shooting we use that phrase when you are shooting well and then blow the whole match on one shooting stage.   The gun looks like the maker had the right idea but either he blew several operations or time took its toll.  I am my own worst critic, and when I don't feel I did a good job on a project I toss it and label it after the monster.

I suppose, if I am successful in re-building this thing, I'll need another name for it.  Don't get me started on how I wish it had a Getz barrel....