First build.
When the Pecatonica Jaeger stock, barrel, triggers and lock showed up it came with a straight, 31” , .58 cal. barrel because they did not have any swamped barrels in stock. I did not want to wait and jury rig the barrel inletting, so I posted on two forums about swamping corners off the barrel rather than worrying about the inlet problem.
On one forum one of the members came up with some sophisticated mathematics that documented why only a negligible amount of weight would be removed. He was probably right.
(edited)
I haven’t been on the forums for a while because the move from Connecticut to Pennsylvania and the time it took to build my shop kept me busy. I finished this gun just before we moved in May from Hide-behind-the-rock-Connecticut-Gun-Control-Politicians to Gun-Heaven-With-Lots-of-Clubs-and-Ranges just outside of Harrisburg, Pa. Now I got to shoot this bad boy.
The Pecatonica Parts went together well with a minimum work and sufficient incompetence on my part to get by and I have a picture of it here. The shoemakers pegs holding on the leather buttplate were a must. That’s ‘cause I am a Cordwainer first, and still unsure how much rifle building I will dare to try.
The protractor and Sharpie were the maximum technology I would use on the gun to measure out the barrel.
When I slurped on and rubbed in the Boiled Linseed Oil and Turps on the stock toward the end of the project I noticed that the eye could not easily see the swamping. When I held it up and sighted on the wall the weight issue did not matter because this rifle locked on and did not wobble.
Ever since I could remember I did most of my sighting in work offhand, bracing the barrel for only the first four or five shots and then going full offhand. So, I needed a stand. Cross stick would not do and I was not going to sit down at a bench. Using some scrap furring strips, bolts and wing nuts I made a crude, adjustable rest with a wool pad. I can rest it on the bench, hold both the forestock and the stand and still shoot offhand out of the pouch.
The range At Myerstown Pa is a simple affair, a hallmark of a small town club that looks like it contains a lot of fun. It is also private and sheltered, so during the week it was wide open. So I adjusted the stand and banged away. I don’t weight powder and subscribe to complex data and Mathematics, so I sawed off the measure and noted the ball/patch once I got the rifle as close to a whip crack as it was going to come. The short barrel did not help that sound, but the gun felt really good. By about the third shot I got it to the center after compensating for the low impact points.
Building the shop is a separate post, but I cannot decide whether I had more fun building than shooting. If there’s any regret at all, it is that I can only chat with or listen to those and other forum members rather than sponge up their knowledge in person….so thanks for the math and thanks for the sarcasm.
