Shaders on chunkers

[Kermit]

If you don't know, you can move on, I reckon.

How did you make 'em? What materials? How attached?

Extra credit for diagrams or photos. Heck, write a sonnet or a ballad if you like. 

[smylee grouch]

I have made several from brass sheet aprox. 40 or 50 thousands of an inch thick. I had bought the sheet as practice plates for engraving. I heated the sheet up with a propane torch to red color and quenched in water the formed them in an open vice with a round shaft. Engraving is optional.

[Hungry Horse]

 Kermit;

  I had an opportunity to handle an old chunk gun years ago. At first I thought it had some sort of early scope on it ( this was before I knew what a chunk gun was). It was a home made shade, made from thin copper shim stock. it was formed by tapping the copper between two boards, with a broom handle as a form. The edges were bent at about a 45 degree angle, with about 3/16ths of an inch left to fit down between the forestock and the barrel. The inside was smoked with a tallow candle to produce a glare free interior.

                           Hungry Horse

[smokinbuck]

Kermit,
Since I am still illiterate re posting, send me your email again and I will send you pics of a few I have. I have some from copper tubing, steel, pvc and one from sheet copper that was made by the tin man at the Ohio Historical Society.
Mark

[Dphariss]

Bent from sheet brass to hold on the barrel side flats by springiness of the brass.

Dan

[Dphariss]

[duca]

NICE!

[Don Getz]

The last picture shown above, ....shaders are too short.   My local hardware store has some malleable iron sheets, 40 to 50 thousands thick, about 8" x 15".   Real nice to work with.   First determine how big you want..........use a piece of cardboard
and curl it around the barrel so that the edges rest on the top of the stock, make it about 1 1/2" diameter.  You can make
them any length you want.   The iron sheets are nice to work with, no springback.   The most difficult is bending it into a circle,
well, almost a circle.  Leave the opening large enought to be able to force it over the two side flats of the barrel, the run some
black electrical tape around it to keep it in place.......Don

[Kermit]

I can complicate this a little. Gun is an underhammer (shudder!) with no forestock, just a barrel out front of the nipple. I was thinkin' something fitting and proper like black ABS pipe and elastic velcro bands. You know, traditional. But I'm open.

[smokinbuck]

Kermit,
I sent out some pictures and a seperate email with an explanation. The "tube" shader pics I sent are of one I use on my underhammer, not a problem.
Mark

[Black Jack]

Dan,
Could you give me some information on the photograph you posted? Where was it taken, and most importantly does this form of chunk shooting have a particular name? I attend some clubs where they shoot traditional over the log matches from the prone position. I think I could shoot pretty well from prone, but I'm not quite sure how I could get up again. This picture of someone shooting from an elevated position looks like it would be ideal and I would like enough information to be able to seek out some similar matches.
Thanks,
Jack Lee

[smokinbuck]

Jack,
Not to steal Dan's thunder but this picture is of a "plank" shoot. A lot of us are having trouble getting off the ground at the regular chunk shoots and are trying out "table shooting". You sit on a stool, bucket etc. and shoot off a three legged T shaped table at 30 yards. Same rules as chunk except the rifles are limited to 13 pounds and you can use an adjustable rear peep, no cant block For more information contact; Robin Warner at p.r.warner@hotmail.com.
Mark

[Roger Fisher]

I 'stole' my shaders from Barbara's quilting frame yrs and yrs ago cut them abt 6 in for rear sight cover and 3 inches for front.  Galvanized metal they are. Were already rounded padded the edging w/good ol duct tape.

[Kermit]

Mark: thanks for the pix. 

I'm about to build myself a funky lightweight knockdown plank setup. We're all a gettin' older. I'm getting out some with my new hip hinge, but getting up off the ground is limited to about once a day. Are all the youngsters hung up on ARs? Hope not.

[smokinbuck]

Kermit,
I didn't realize that all the new parts in your house aren't on the gun bench. Hope the hip works well for you. Plank shooting is good, from what I'm told, but you shoud contact Robin about the table shooting. You use a stool, bucket, bench etc and there is no more getting up and down than getting out of a chair. Will send a picture of my latest group from a table.
Mark

[SPG]

Gentlemen,

There may be an advantage to the short shaders pictured in Mr. Phariss's post. They don't capture mirage off a barrel as bad as a full-length shader does. I have both types and have noticed this phenomenon. In low temperatures this can be a sizable problem. I've not noticed a glare problem with the short shaders but I am, however, a greenhorn chunk shooter.

Plank matches as shot in Cody are from the kneeling position shown and there is no limit to rifle weight. I believe I posted these rules somewhere else on this site. Those needing to shoot from a stool or chair will be allowed but subjected to intense ridicule and harassment from our collection of warm and fuzzy shooters. The only guy that could get away with this without some "jobbing" would be Don King.

Steve

[okieboy]

Kermit,
 Here are the shaders that I use. A globe front is considered a shade front as long as it uses only a post or pinhead. The rear is hardware store black plastic pipe,ABS I think, that fits tightly on the barrel, but I put a rubber band around it for security. If you use plastic pipe, run some sand paper spinning through it with a dowel pin and drill motor to remove the shine.

[Angus]

Here's some different setups that I've seen:
-Full length copper pipe that had rectangle cutouts to slip over sights, held on by Velcro straps
-PVC split with table saw, rattle can flat black, slip'd over barrel flats, Velcro again. length varied by the shooter
-Flat steel stock formed into a U held on with various means (elec tape, leather thongs, kite string) length=6-9" each to full length, your choice
-Globe sight hoods, like the Sharps

Now, I am too cheap to buy fancy materials, so I fashioned mine from two soup cans, already round, light weight, just enough tension after split lengthwise to hold position, and I find them to be of sufficient length to cover for shade yet let in light to see. I tie these on for security in the wind and not be distracting blowing over onto the next shooter.

Everyone has a different perspective of how long they need to be. One of the biggest goals is to keep the glare off the sights. I find that it also trains the eye to focus on what is in the tunnel.
I was at a chunk match that was overcast, using my shaders and had a guy tell me " you won't need those today". I left them on and won. Needless to say he was *#)*^~ off. Maybe it was because my rifle wasn't finished. It was still pretty square plank. I had roughed in a cheek piece and layed duct tape over the rasp marks to keep from getting splinters in my jaw.

[Kermit]

You've just got to love the attitude in chunk shooting. You guys who live where it's practiced--I'm truly jealous. When I've hauled mine to our range, folks just have to ask, and seem baffled that anyone would subject themselves to such indignities in the name of entertainment. No converts yet.

I seem to recall a tale of a chunk gun with a barrel made from a tractor axle, stock painted red, and named "Farmall."

[smokinbuck]

Angus,
Overcast or not, you were right to keep your shaders in place. What they will do, if sized properly, will act like an aperture on a camera lens and make your focus much more acute. For that reason I like to use a 1" round copper tube, full length.
Mark

[Angus]

Kermit,

The Farmall rifle is no tale, it is real. If you ever get the chance to attend the Bevel Brothers shoot, you could ask Lowell to see it. Fred shot this rifle a number of times and it was always quite the sight for those who had never seen it before.

[Dphariss]

Dan,
Could you give me some information on the photograph you posted? Where was it taken, and most importantly does this form of chunk shooting have a particular name? I attend some clubs where they shoot traditional over the log matches from the prone position. I think I could shoot pretty well from prone, but I'm not quite sure how I could get up again. This picture of someone shooting from an elevated position looks like it would be ideal and I would like enough information to be able to seek out some similar matches.
Thanks,
Jack Lee

Its a "plank rest". It is also traditional. And it can be used with snow and ice on the ground.
I think there are other posts on this subject on the site with a photo of a painting of Turkey Match at Sarasota Springs in winter off a plank on a saw horse. 
We shoot this as our Turkey Match at Cody 12 months of the year. It does help some shooters with problems rising from prone. Its not as steady as prone over a chunk but everyone shoots the same rest so its not a factor.

Dan

[Kermit]

Dan, I really like your plank rest horse. Since leaving the farm, I don't have a stock trailer to haul stuff like that. What I do have though, is a growing pile of sketches for a knock-down horse. They always look too flimsy to bother building. The latest scheme is to come up with one lightweight, knock down, and well braced that can be water balasted with a bucket or two. Also thinking western red cedar. Dang gun club is no place to store anything you don't want abused and shot up by the AR crowd.

[okieboy]

Hey Kermit,
 At some of the "picnic table" center shoots the flimsiness of the table is part of the fun and challenge of the shooting, so lightwieght and not balasted might be just fine since everyone will face the same thing.

[Kermit]

Good point!!!