Thanks guys,I appreciate your comments..
Except Eric, man them's fightin words, Nice Wood? Haven't heard that one since about my first or second rifle. I did forge the trigger guard, made all but the lock and barrel on it. The guard is probably a cross betwen German and Woodbury. My customer had wanted something along the lines of an early American rifle with a lot of Germanic features, of course he gave me a lot of leeway in how I would pull it off. Bill has pretty much nailed how I was seeing it, by no means a copy of an existing piece, really a contemporary gun I suppose.
Here is a better look at the guard
Ken, that is my stamp on the sideplate, I had another like it but smaller for little blades, etc, but I have lost it. Probably picked it up and beat it into a blade by accident. I used Permalyn finsh on this one, nitric stain.
Kevin It's a .50 cal rifle, was bigger than inch and a sixteenth at the breech I think. the buttplate was a bit under 2 inches at it's widest spot, but I still got a nice shape because the comb is fairly narrow compared to some.
The owner has offered to let me take it to the CLA show, will probably have it at Dixon's too