I had to cut down the height of the lock plate quite a bit to get the look I was looking for through the wrist. I think the hardest part building this rifle was getting the profile of the forearm looking right using a 3/4 barrel and 1/4 inch ramrod. It worked out great, but I had to sneak up on it and down size everything to get it to look like I wanted. It would have been an easier build if I had used a 7/8 x 44 inch .40 cal I have in the shop that would exactly match the original rifle, but I wanted to build a small cal squirrel rifle.
The inlet fits are not as tight on the original rifle, and the lines were not as straight on the original rifle verses my finished product. However, the original is over 150 years old and I don't know how it looked when new. I have two other original mountain rifles, and the inlet fits on these rifles are not as tight, but the lines are straight and crisp. However, I don't know how they looked before the rifles were used for many years of service. I am sure that there were gunsmiths working in the early days that had inlet fits similar and better than my rifle. I know they were doing the work to make a living and may have worked a bit faster than I do when I work. Our goals may have been slightly different depending upon the circumstances.
I think all of us who build rifles will agree that we set standards for our own work, and we continue to try to make that perfect rifle with no flaws. I have yet to meet that goal. I use the same standards on each rifle I build (Southern, Virginia, Bedford, or Hawken). I do try to improve my fit and finish on each rifle, but I think my work is starting to decline a bit due to the issues we face when we get older (such as eye sight). I know I have looked at some of the rifles I made in the 80's, and I sometimes wonder how I accomplished the work. I know it takes about three times longer for me to make a plain southern rifle now verses when I first started. I have to put more time into doing the jobs associated with building a rifle to get similar results. My main goal pertaining to building rifles is to make a quality rifle that will serve its owner well through the test of time, and hopefully someone will be trying to collect my work 150 years down the road.
Roger Sells
