knowing what you know now ..whats your ideal of a perfect .40 rifle ?

[peabody]

if you was to build your perfect dream rifle ..
let's say a .40 caliber ..
what school ?
what wood ?
barrel ?
lock ?
my ideal ...and i don't know squat from shinola ..
just scrounging around reading and looking at pictures..  i do like the southern poorboy/barn rifles.
the ?simple elegance just screams poor folk rifle here in the ozarks..
listen guys ..  all im doing is ramblings away.. can't stop thinking of the flintlock that mr zihn is building for me ..
anyhoo .. my grandpa had his daddys old flintlock back in the early thirtys .his daddy homesteaded what we call the home place. my dad says as a child he remembers shooting it. I'm trying to track that old gun down..
told pop that i was getting one built  he said "bring it over " i want to see that !
even got one of my daughters interested .
i better quit while I'm ahead ..
before y'all git sick of me ....

peabody

[Gary Tucker]

I love 'em all.  But if I HAD to choose I guess I would be partial to a Jacob Young rifle.  Something like he built for Wm. Whitley.  Hershel and Frank do some iron mounted versions of Jacob's rifles.  I know of a fellow who for the past 20 plus years has hunted deer with nothing but .40 cal.

[galamb]

A Shenandoah rifle after one of the Sheetz Clan.

40 cal, 42" Rice Southern Classic, Chambers Late Ketland lock, Curly Maple, definitely some wire inlays.  

[Virginiarifleman]

I like the Southern Mountain Rifles, Good even Curly Maple Stock 44"  40 Cal Swamped B weight Rice or Burton Barrel, Davis Early Double set Triggers, Chambers Ketland Lock, Iron mounted with grease hole.

[gwill]

Matthew Gillespie pattern. Walnut - Rice southern classic barrel - Chambers late ketland lock (tail rounded) - Davis double set triggers - brass mounted (aged). No butt plate and no entry pipe. Finished it about a year ago. Like it more every time I shoot it.

[Larry Pletcher]

The prefect .40 is the Bucks County Schimmel that followed me home from Friendship this spring.  Allen Martin delivered it.  It is a long, slim, delicate thing:  Allen didn't leave an ounce of extra wood.

http://www.blackpowdermag.com/allen-martin-builds-a-schimmel/

Regards,
Pletch

[ice1272]

After a year of building I just about have my Southern Mountain completed.
40 cal, Rice barrel, Chambers lock, maple stock....
I was lucky enough to have a local builder named Randall Buchanan walk me through the process, from picking out the wood for the stock at the local mill, to shaping,fitting etc. In fact he taught me and two other friends the How to's nothing like a guy whose willing to pass the knowledge along to perfect strangers...at least we were in the beginning Sure wouldn't say that now! Oh he also introduced us to Jim Chambers...fantastic people !

[Kermit]

Probably one of the North Carolina "schools."

[peabody]

After a year of building I just about have my Southern Mountain completed.
40 cal, Rice barrel, Chambers lock, maple stock....
I was lucky enough to have a local builder named Randall Buchanan walk me through the process, from picking out the wood for the stock at the local mill, to shaping,fitting etc. In fact he taught me and two other friends the How to's nothing like a guy whose willing to pass the knowledge along to perfect strangers...at least we were in the beginning Sure wouldn't say that now! Oh he also introduced us to Jim Chambers...fantastic people !

that would be priceless to me . to have someone work/walk me through a build.im jealous !!  

[peabody]

The prefect .40 is the Bucks County Schimmel that followed me home from Friendship this spring.  Allen Martin delivered it.  It is a long, slim, delicate thing:  Allen didn't leave an ounce of extra wood.

http://www.blackpowdermag.com/allen-martin-builds-a-schimmel/

Regards,
Pletch
[/quote



wow... just simply wow.
that thing is . wow!
i would be scared to even touch it !

[WadePatton]

I don't know much now, but am tryin' to learn.

Just starting on a 40:  TN pattern, butt, guard by John Anderson, Ketland and triggers by Bob Roller, Freddie Harrison Curly Ash, 44" A-wt, radius rifling. 

Now just to mate up all that wood and metal and remove all the wood that's not the rifle.

[Acer Saccharum]

A scaled down Lehigh, in .40. 38" tapered barrel, late English lock.



slide show: http://s12.photobucket.com/user/Tom45-70/slideshow/Lehigh-Neihart?sort=3

[Stuartg]

Here's my 40 cal in a Lancaster style . I love how she handles and balances:



Although, the next 40 cal I build will be in a Southern Mountain offering. For some reason, it's just fitting.

[peabody]

dang !!!.. super nice lookin rifles !
but my day will be here soon !

[kaintuck]

GALAMB~! spot on

marc n tomtom

[WKevinD]

My first serious build was an Armstrong in .40 slim and just enough drop to make it a comfortable shooter.

[Kopfjaeger]

SOUTHERN MOUNTAIN RIFLE

Right Handed

Lock:  Chambers Queen Anne ( Flintlock ) ( Browned ) With matching side plate.
 
Barrel:  .40 caliber ( Swamped Barrel 42" long / A Weight / Round Bottom Rifling / ( Browned )

Stock: Tiger Stripe Maple ( Presentation Grade ) ( Stained to bring out the grain. )

Length Of Pull:  14" inches

Furniture:  Steel ( All Browned )

Trigger:  Single Trigger

Patch Box: Bean  Patchbox  ( Steel )( Browned )

[Herb]

Here is a .40 Hawken I built a few years ago.  It is a 31" 15/16" Rice Barrel with all the rest parts correct for a Hawken.  I built it for Ron, who wanted a lighter Hawken.  This weighs 8 pounds.

[Herb]

The barrel is really 7/8".

[sz]

My Idea?
This one is nice, but I have not yet made a perfect rifle.
Perfection is out of my reach, but I do keep trying.

[little joe]

40 cal Rice bbl   42 in  x seven eights,hard curly maple wood, brass  trim in Beck style.Chambers classic lock, Davis no. 6 trigger. Have this one ready but don,t know if I,m man enough to hold it, but it feels pretty good.

[Herb]

Here os a St. Louis Hawken, "sqirrel rifle", I built from images of a rifle for sale on one of the arms forums.  There were enough photos that I was able to build a good copy of it.  Here it is in an art show where it won a blue ribbon in the sculpture class.

[Herb]

Here are two rifles you probably do not want.  The top one is my copy of a Jacob Wigle (Westmoreland Co., PA) rifle found in a dry cave Indian burial out here about 1920.  I cleaned it up for a museum display about 22 years ago so had all the measurements, construction methods and engraving detail.  This one I built (my third copy) has a 44" x 15/16" barrel, but the original started out with a 46" barrel.  Tthe barrel had been cut back to 35.5 inches, probably got dragged in the mud or snow and shot, which blew the end of the barrel off.  Such long barrels are hard to load.



The second one is my copy based on three of Thomas Oldham's (Bedford Co., PA) rifles.  It is easy to shoot and I liked it but no longer can shoot such long heavy rifles well.

The bottom one is a .40 Hawken plains rifle, and it is easier to hold.
Here is a closer look at the patchboxes.  Sterling silver in the Bedford.



Detail of the muzzle.

[Tommy Bruce]

Great thread and awesome pics.....especially since I just picked up a .40 cal barrel.  It's an older, but unused Getz 13/16 straight 42" barrel.  I would like to do something from the 1st or early 2nd quarter of the 1800's.  As to the school, I am really up in the air.  Hopefully you guys will keep posting pics and I will make up my mind LOL!

[Mike R]

Well. .40s are not legal here for hunting either big [.44 or bigger] or small game [.36 or smaller]. But if I could have one I'd opt for either a Bedford style or southern mountain style as these were the classic arms made in small calibers.