English Sporting Rifle

[Bill of the 45th]

So, Dave Keck finally got my Walnut stock profile in English Sporting rifle with a tapered Oregon barrel in .70 Cal.  I'm thinking Northern Michigan Squirrel rifle.  Anyway to my point. since I'm having a dickens of a time finding a 7/8"X14 English hooked breech for the build, would it be OK to either use a fowler breech, or use a regular tanged breech with wedges.  Also would it it work to modify the fowler breech.

Bill

[smart dog]

Hi Bill,
What period and kind of English rifle are you making?  If you are making a mid-18th century flint rifle then TOW's large flint fowler hook and tang (EF-18-7) is fine assuming the outside dimensions are big enough for your barrel.  Just reshape the tang correctly for an English gun and perhaps file off the humped sighting groove.  Keep in mind some early 18th century English rifles had the hump just like fowlers.

dave

[Bill of the 45th]

Thanks Dave, that's what I'm going for.  It's a 1 1/8" breech with 7/8"x14 threads.  The barrel came with a standard tang, but I didn't think it would look right with keys.

Bill

[Daryl]

Much depends on the era.

This is a very heavy 11 bore, ball and shot gun. It could easily have been a rifle.  It's barrel length is 36" & it is 1 3/8" across the breech in front of the dip on the left side.
I placed second in a smoothbore round ball shoot with this 'borrowed' gun about 9 years ago, at Hefley Creek Rendezvous.