What are Badger bbl. custom, made where/who, price ??
Tom,
Badger barrels are no longer available, nor are suitable barrels from others, with one exception. Snapper and I bought the last 3 sets of hardware from Don Brown's widow. His set included a Badger barrel but mine didn't. I was unable to source any barrels for mine until Rod England made them available and I waited over 4 years to get mine. Mine were part of the first run and are made by Rice Barrels and profiled by someone else. These barrels are only available from Rod and Rice won't sell or make you one.
The breeches are cast and needn't be machined as they have the proper strength and profile. All the screws are tapered English screws and have 60 degree heads so you will need to purchase the proper set of countersinks. If you buy the profiled stock from Rod, DO NOT get the lock pre-inlet if you plan to use either the Davis lock or Roller's lock. Neither will fit into the mortise and the lock plate profile must be modified to make them work requiring many hours of filing and fitting. There is MINIMAL room for error.
If you want to build one, Rod's component set is the only way to go as all the parts are matched to fit. On the face of it, the gun seems simple but it's not. All kinds of little details that will come back to bite you in the butt if you're not careful.
There are two restrictions weight wise. The "traditional" class requires the gun weigh less than 10 lbs. The regular class requires it to be less than 15 lbs. To build a heavy gun of the Rigby style, one would obtain an 1-1/8" barrel blank and an 1-1/4" breech from TOTW. These breeches are not drilled, but do have a powder chamber. You would drill from the offside (left) to locate your primer channel and then insert a filler piece from that side. Then, you can obtain a short piece of DOM tubing with an 1-1/8" ID and cut it into short sections for form your Rigby flats which are soldered to the blank. To have a Rigby barrel profiled by someone would probably cost you upwards of $1K to have made.
I can help you with any advice you might need. As I said, Snapper's rifle was one of three. #2 will be mine and I made a Damascus lock plate and toe box for it and everything will be a fine plum brown. I may try to do false Damascus on the barrel. #3 will be a conventional AH with a Roller lock. I also have a heavy Rigby on the bench and a light .38 with an octagon barrel in the works.
