Ferguson Build questions

[FlintFan]

 I cannot pack more than 55 gr of powder behind a beeswax lubed 0.648" ball or 60 gr behind a beeswax lubed 0.615" ball (the size Bryan Brown suggests).  My rifle is accurate with the larger ball at 50 yards but I want more powder behind it for 100 and 150 yards. I intend to have a machinist friend bore out the powder chamber to the correct historical depth.

I also made one out of the standard TRS parts.  Using the .615 lubed ball, I fill the chamber with 3F Swiss, which is about 60 grains by a volume measure.  When I close the breech a very small amount (a couple grains) is cut off by the breech screw and pushed out.  All balls touch at 100 yards with this load.  The Swiss powder prints a foot higher at 100 yards as opposed to using 3F Goex, which I also experimented with.  Accuracy with 2F powder was varied depending on brand, but not as good as with either brand of 3F.  In my rifle 3F Swiss was the "silver bullet".  

I also lube (beeswax and tallow mix) the breech screw, which lets me shoot as long as I want without cleaning it. 

[smart dog]

Hi Flintfan,
Thanks.  I too use Swiss 3F and have good luck with a 648 ball but I cannot get any accuracy from a beeswax lubed 615.  At 50 yards the horizontal deviation is 9-10 inches from a rest.  The elevation is always fine but the horizontal spread is terrible.  With the 648, they would all be touching in the black.  I suspect, as always, barrels vary in their performance and what feeds them best.

dave 
 

[D. Taylor Sapergia]

the Ferguson rifle I made was for a Canadian working in Belgium.  He was going to use it in Germany for hunting boar from a stand.  On Jess 's recommendation, I bought a .650 mould from Ray Rapine ( what an interesting guy he is).  The rifle shot to the sights at 100 yds and was fun to shoot.  I made a little wooden handled brass tool for pushing the ball right up to the rifling in the chamber.

[Bob Roller]

the Ferguson rifle I made was for a Canadian working in Belgium.  He was going to use it in Germany for hunting boar from a stand.  On Jess 's recommendation, I bought a .650 mould from Ray Rapine ( what an interesting guy he is).  The rifle shot to the sights at 100 yds and was fun to shoot.  I made a little wooden handled brass tool for pushing the ball right up to the rifling in the chamber.

Hmmm.A breech loading flint lock rifle that employs one of the Schuetzen loading methods.Veeeeeery interesting.

Bob Roller

[xtriggerman]

Hi Xtriggerman,
Nice job on that Ferguson.  I believe the TRS parts are cast from the 2nd ordnance issue Ferguson located in the Nunnemacher collection at the Milwaukee Public museum.  DeWitt Bailey describes that gun in his book on British military flintlock rifles.  Below are photos of one I built a few years ago.  My stock was a plank of English walnut with a tiny bit of figure and somewhat plain brown color.  I used a thin mix of scarlet and orange aniline water-based dyes to tint and heighten the color.  It worked well.  The stock was finished with an oil-varnish, which I believe was the kind of finish used on the originals.  My only complaint with the TRS barrel and action is that my powder chamber appears to be short compared with the patent drawings of the original design by Ferguson.  I cannot pack more than 55 gr of powder behind a beeswax lubed 0.648" ball or 60 gr behind a beeswax lubed 0.615" ball (the size Bryan Brown suggests).  My rifle is accurate with the larger ball at 50 yards but I want more powder behind it for 100 and 150 yards. I intend to have a machinist friend bore out the powder chamber to the correct historical depth.

dave

  Hey, you did a great job on locating the pin placements for the trigger and sling loop. The pictures out there are (until yours here) are extremely vague. With a lac of any direction there, I decided to weld ears onto the trigger plate and pin the trigger in a more typical fashion. With the pivot pin much nearer to the area of pull, the trigger is some what crisper with less movement during sear release. While not original, maybe a tad more functional. Then on the sling loop pin, I simply intersected the hole for it with the tang screw hole but not dead on but mostly forward the tang screw. This way I just cut a notch in the sling loop stud and let the tang screw keep it in place via the notch. We can never have enough pictures here on all the great builds..... as few as they may be.