I have spent a fair amount of time studying and building Bucks Co. guns. One of the things on my "To Do" list has been Andrew Verner's rifle, as featured in RCA 63. A number of months back Taylor submitted his admirable effort on this rifle. Well, Taylor, that was just what I needed to get me to take the time to make an effort myself. I was extremely lucky that through a friend, I got to see, handle, measure, and photograph the original and make a tracing of the outline. In this effort, I attempted to fairly reflect the finish and wear of the original. The original at one time had a red tinted violin varnish finish with a decidedly yellow undertone. I started with a yellow stain and then applied the red violin finish over the entire gun. This finish was then removed in the wear areas, and a light brown spirit based stain applied to these areas. The really dark areas were stained in, and then a lacquer finish was applied over this to raise and crinkle the finish. When the finish was completed, the entire gun was given a couple of coats of thinned spar varnish to seal and protect it.
The original gun has a 46-1/4 barrel and this one a 46" barrel. The original LOP was just about 13-3/4 " as is this one. I used Reaves Goehring castings. The lock is Golden Age Siler with the frizzen, hammer screw, and lockplate modified in various areas to resemble the original. All other parts were shop made.