Honey, I shrunk the Haga! (Thanks for the tip Eric vonA)

[smart dog]

Hi Folks,
I made this gun for Morgan's Rifle Corps to be used as a loaner for new members.  That way they can get started without the huge outlay for an historically correct rifle.  I made it from a stock blank started by Malcolm Dick, who died in 2013 and was Morgan's commander for many years.  It may have been the last gun he worked on.  Malcolm clearly had a Berks County gun in mind and I continued in that school.  Unfortunately, the stock blank was already cut out and would not permit me to make the gun as robust as a typical early Reading or Berks gun.  Consequently, I scaled it down a little.  I wanted it to be a credible product by an early Reading maker and one obviously made by a man doing the work as a living, not a hobby.  To that end, I did not fuss and try to make everything perfect.  I made and shaped things "good enough" and moved on.  I also gave myself a time limit of 2 hours on each carved section.  That time limit included drawing on the wood, cutting, and finishing the design.  At the end of 2 hours, I was done with the section.  The stock was chiseled, rasped, filed, scraped, and burnished. I did not remove every scratch, smooth every background, correct every curve, or fix every little dimple or chip.  I think the end result looks pretty good, but then perhaps I am biased.  The barrel is a 44 inch "C" weight 50 cal swamped Colerain cut down to 39 1/2".  The lock is a small Siler, which allowed me to keep the LOP greater than 13".  The trigger guard is David Dodd's early Berks guard made by Reeves Goehring.  I made the muzzle cap, thimbles, trigger, triggerplate, sights, sideplate, patchbox, and patchbox release mechanism.  The stock is stained with ferric nitrate and water (aqua fortis) and finished with polymerized tung oil, which was slowly built up to give a harder looking finish.  The rifle has low sights but it shoots really well, until heat waves obscure the front sight.  I hope you enjoy the photos and comments and criticisms are welcome.

dave            

[Tim Crosby]

  What a Grand rifle, well done.

    Tim C.

[tallbear]

Very nice Dave!!! Even working within the confines of the stock I saw at Dixons you've pulled off a very believable Reading gun!! I like it

Mitch

[Dennis Glazener]

Very well done Dave. Great looking rifle.
Dennis

[David Rase]

Dave,
That is a very nice rifle.  From looking at the pictures posted,  you no doubt exceeded your expectations for a historically correct workman like gun.  Well done sir.
David

[davec2]

David,

Beautifully done (as is always expected).  Can you elaborate on what brand of finish was used and how you applied it?  And the metal finish ?

[D. Taylor Sapergia]

This is a neatly made and credible rifle.  My compliments.

[jerrywh]

 That is a very  nice gun. What is the drop on that rifle?

[JB2]

Pretty nice for a 'loaner'!  That's gonna make lots of old members of the Corps wish they were new members.

[Mark Elliott]

Very nicely done!    You would never know this was done in a workman like manner.  I guess that proves that you are a very skilled gunsmith.

[rich pierce]

Yadunrealgood!

[PPatch]

Tell you what Dave; if I walked into a Berks Co. rifle shop and saw that rifle on display I would become mighty attached to it awful quick. I like your "workman like" approach and not getting too fussy although I highly suspect it takes a very knowledgeable fellow to pull that off. Very nice rifle. I particularly like the staining and finishing, tasty!

another dave

 

[Acer Saccharum]

I would like to join the club, just for a chance to shoot that gun!

Very very nice!

Tom

[wattlebuster]

Very nice. Excellent work

[Tom Currie]

Dave, I am fan of early 2 piece patchboxes and that finial style . Also love the deep rich color. The tang carving is really clean and needless to say executed well.

[Curtis]

Dave,

I feel you achieved the desired results with the rifle, it is a very appealing gun.  I will have to attempt to apply your "2 hour strategy" to my carving someday.  Not sure I can restrain myself enough to comply! lol.  It certainly worked for you in this case.  What did you use for finish on the barrel?

Curtis

[J. Talbert]

Well done Dave!

Where can I get a loan application?

Jeff

[smart dog]

Thanks everyone for the nice comments.  I appreciate your interest in my work.  The gun was a lot of fun to build but it also was a challenge to get right.  I had a lot of help from HIB and Mitch Yates.  I also got to see some original Reading guns, which was a huge plus.  I was also inspired by Eric Von Aschwege's Beck and pistol, and Acer's early rifle at Dixon's.  The patchbox has a silver plate attached to the inside of the lid that I engraved : Malcolm Dick, Historiker, Lehrer, Buchsenmacher (historian, teacher, gunmaker).  I also signed it "Person & Dick 2014" on the bottom of the barrel.

Davec2 - I draw filed the barrel with progressively finer files and then polished it with a maroon ScotchBrite pad.  I also rounded the edges of the octagon with a fine file.  I put on one coat or cycle of cold rust browning and heavily carded that with the ScotchBrite pad.  Then I applied instant cold bluing, washed the barrel in water and ScotchBrited off the bluing to the final finish.  I just wanted the barrel tarnished a bit with a few deeper stains.  With respect to the lock, I case harden the plate, pan, frizzen and flintcock.  I use a rectangular pan with lid to bed the parts in charcoal.  When I pour that into the quench, it drops as a solid brick without air contacting any of the parts.  I add about 1/4 cup of potassium nitrate to the quench before a pour.  That gives the metal a nice even translucent blue-brown color that looks more like a tarnish than an actual bluing.

JerryH - the stock has a drop at the heel of 3.5".  It is very comfortable to shoot offhand.  I'd hate to try shooting it from a prone position.

Thanks again everyone for looking,

dave   

[smart dog]

DaveC2,
I forgot to answer your question about the stock finish.  It could not be easier.  I simply apply polymerized tung oil (Sutherland-Welles, made right here in VT) that is thinned 50% with mineral spirits.  I slosh that on the stock with a brush letting it soak in as a sealer.  I let that dry thoroughly (about 24 hours) and then simply hand rub in drops of unthinned polymerized tung oil until the finish is what I want. It took about 10 days to complete the finish on that gun.  On a few hot dry days, I had to add a few drops of raw artist grade linseed oil to the tung oil to slow down drying so I could spread it properly by hand rubbing.  I would have used raw tung oil instead if I had some on hand.

dave   

[Don Getz]

I Love the finish, carving, color, etc.    It seems to have an awful lot of drop in the buttstock, did the stock blank regulate
how much drop?...........Don

[Eric Smith]

I love the Haga Guns.

[smart dog]

Hi E. Smith,
I would be very pleased if you thought my rifle looked like a gun attributed to Haga.  Very pleased indeed.

dave

[smart dog]

Don,
The outline of the gun was already band sawed so I had to work within those limits, including the LOP and drop.  It also was mostly inletted for a 13/16" straight octagon barrel but with that inlet located way to the left side, as if Malcolm intended a left-handed gun.  Yet all the sketches on the stock for the lock and patchbox indicated a right-hand gun.  I got clever and solved that little problem by inletting a "C" weight swamped barrel.  By placing the left edge of that barrel against the left wall of the inlet, it pushed the centerline of the gun substantially to the right side.  By using a small Siler lock and a relatively thick butt plate, I was also able to bring the LOP to 13 1/8".  It all worked as planned but I could not make a really fat butted gun.  The dimensions are a little more like a Federal period Reading gun than a pre-Rev War gun.  I just did the best I could.   It happens to fit me very well except a little short.  The drop is wonderful, no hunkering down on the cheek piece to line up the sights.  Just bring the gun to your face and you are lined up.  I like it. I am glad you like it too because that means a lot to me.

dave

[Pete G.]

Excellent.

I find a gun finished in a "workmanlike manner" to be much more attractive than the hobby guns that are endlessly fussed and fidgeted over. Good enough really can be good enough.

There can indeed be a fine line between hobby and mental illness.

Being a loaner, this piece will no doubt continue to gain character and realism. Thanks for sharing.

[E.vonAschwege]

Dave,
  That's a beautiful little rifle!  The new folks at your group are going to be spoiled to shoot a gun like that.  Very nicely fit and finished in a way that looks credible and authentic.  I like that you used the small Siler instead of a large, it helps keep the lock panels smaller and gives better lines through the lock region.  Thanks for sharing,
-Eric