Southern Mountain Rifle

[Carper]

SMR on Kodiak Island.  Visiting Doctor wanted to take my old rifle to the range today and I thought some of you might enjoy seeing it. This rifle is very plain and home made. I rifled the 47 caliber barrel. I gave it to a fellow and he willed it back to me at his death. It’s getting on  in age but still shoots great.  The big lock makes it seem wonderfully slim.

[Arcturus]

Beautiful... nice piece of wood.  I like the bag and horn, too.  Nice that it came back to you after serving its recipient for his lifetime.  Lots of memories in that rifle, I bet.  How old is it?  Think you'll ever get the urge to build some new ones?

[Craig Wilcox]

Carper, that is a really nice rifle.  But how in the world did you come up with a .47 caliber for it?  And were you able to find a mold, or did you have to make one?
Thinking on it, .47 is a good choice, halfway between .45 and .50.
No wonder you rifled it yourself, I do not think any barrel maker would have that in stock.

Glad that customer returned the rifle, but sad that he is gone now.  Again, very nice!

[Carper]

Thanks for the compliments. It was a nice piece of wood. It’s been a real killer.It started out as a 36 cal and with a little dog shot probably 500 squirrels then I reamed it up trying to hit 45 so,I could use store bought rbs but got a little too big so I made a little cherry and cut up a old Dixie mold.  We shot lots of does  and several nice bucks with it. Was a cap lock originally. It’s about 40 years old. I made about 43 of these plain , homemade rifles and I quess rifled another 75 barrels by hand. It wasn’t unusual to rifle a barrel shooot it in a special stock and a scope mounted to see how it shot , then run it up a few calibers and rerifle it and try it again. I’d stop when I got something I really liked.

[Skychief]

Beautiful!

[stubshaft]

Very nice rifle, the ball bag is interesting too.

[mountainman70]

Some fine work and carma, bro. These ol guns from the 60-90s are beginning to be in a class of their own. Too bad more of us that built them back then didn't sign them.
 How are you up there? Best regards, Dave F

[Marcruger]

Lovely work there sir.  It would make many a gunsmith proud.  I like the lines.   God Bless,   Marc

[Algae]

Very, VERY NICE!! Would love to see more! 
Thank for sharing.

Al J.

[Craig Wilcox]

Real nice ball bag, Carper.   I would never have thought of using dew claws in any fashion, but now ya got me itching to try it.

My son seems to have quite a few deer tracking through his 5 acres of kinda swampy hardwood forest.  We be surrounded by many acres of corn and soybeans,  Dadgum corn is too tall to see over and too dense to traipse through.  Every once in a while the deer come through the yard though, so there is always hope.

Thursday the VA is getting me a new set of wheels - I told them to get something suitabe to adapt to tracks.  Then I have to find some suitable substance to make the tracks from.  I guess I could be like a 19th century gun shop and use buffalo leather for the belts and some "L" stock bolted on for the cleats/growsers.

[alamosa]

Beautiful rifle Carper:

.47 is an odd caliber.  My friend has a .44 which wasn't too hard to find balls for.  As far as molds, Jeff Tanner who just passed away, but his son is running the business and has been for a while, offers the single brass molds that fit the Lee handles.  They make round ball molds in every thousandths, .460, .461,.462,.463 etc., all the way from small .36 up to .60 and .70 cals.  After knowing your rifling depth, your can find a ball and patch combo that will shoot best in your rifle.  Anyways it's a good source for molds if you have an odd size caliber or need a specific size ball.  Good shooting, thanks for the pics.

[Daryl]

Carper, that's a lovely bit of kit. Well done.

[Davemuzz]

Just simple and very elegant!  Very nice work!!