Plan n Perdy Riffles

[Huntschool]

Mr. Brooks:

Is that a straight tapered barrel on the gun you posted ?

Thanks in advance

[bob in the woods]

Mike Brooks, your gun is absolutely beautiful.  Everything about it just fits.  It looks like it was transported from the 18th C through a time portal. 

[Mike Brooks]

No, not straight taper. It's a direct copy of an original  "Type G" or Carolina barrel. 1" at the breech, 9" oct section that tapers, the round tapers some as well, but there is a pretty long straight section. The barrel wall at the muzzle is about 1/16" The whole gun weighs 6 1/4lbs.

 If I had to do this over I would have reduced the size of the bolster on the lock, it made for a very broad gun through the lock area for a 1" breeched gun. It all came together well after I did a bunch of thinking over it to get the lines right. The real trick is putting a large lock like this with a very slim barrel . Lock placement is critical, lots of drawing and erasing on a paper pattern before I cut out the profile on the blank. Interestingly, the balance point is about a inch behind the rear pipe, kind of demonstrates how light this barrel is. The butt is 5" X 1 7/8" The wrist is about 1 3/8" high X about 1 1/2" wide. The tang screw screws into a square nut in front of the trigger.

[rich pierce]

You’ve been holding out on us all these years, Bob!  Super clean flowing lines on your guns.  They look “fast”.

[n stephenson]

I have really enjoyed this thread! I dug up these pics of a "salvage" gun , I built some time ago. 42 inch tapered round barrel , picked up at Friendship "sometime ", modified flint lock , simple hardware . I  built it to use these parts , I had  for a while. Just a fun build!  Good functional gun .   Nate

[Huntschool]

Thanks Mike.....  old eyes.

[blienemann]

Nice long gun, Nate – with plenty of art and interesting mounts.  Hope you and others will continue to post examples.  I remembered these pics of another plain piece by Jud B.  It’s easy to like his work from plain to $60K.  I may have seen this one at CLA – do we know who owns it?  Or other examples by Jud and other builders?  He likes to show a lot of barrel at the muzzle end, and here has filed the buttplate form and bands into the wood – pretty common on German rifles.  This patchbox might hold a Snickers bar?  What else is out there?

[Davemuzz]

That patchbox could hold chili for lunch!!   

[Mike Brooks]

Ok, I'll do another one. This is one of my favorite styles for a magnum turkey blaster. Club butt fowling gun  as was made around Connecticut in the 1770's and 80's I  think this one has a 46" 11 bore Colerain barrel with a full jug. Davis colonial lock, another style of Dutch utility musket guard and a cherry stock. Simple gun, specifically made for hunting but historically correct made stripped down as this one is. Having a full set of mounts is correct as well.....but who needs all that extra work?

[moleeyes36]

Great looking fowler, Mike.  Do you recall about how much drop you put in that stock when you made it?  Thanks.

Mole Eyes

[Mike Brooks]

Great looking fowler, Mike.  Do you recall about how much drop you put in that stock when you made it?  Thanks.

Mole Eyes

Made some time ago but probably something like 2 3/4" at the heal and about 2" at the comb. The more parallel to the bore you can make the top line of the buttstock the less you'll feel the recoil. That's why this style really lends it's self to these big bore turkey guns. This gun probably weighs 8lbs or so. The breech is 1 1/4". The butt is probably close to 2 1/4" X 5". The style of the buttstock leaves a lot of wood which helps add weight as well.

 If I was going to have a turkey gun for myself, this is what I'd build. BTW, this easily qualifies for a 3 day gun too.

[Pukka Bundook]

Mike,

I do like the warm glow you got  with the cherry.  Very nice work!
I think I like all Jud's guns as well!   

[blienemann]

Great example, Mike – plus the education you provide with the photos, buttstock design for recoil, etc.  That is quite a taper in lock panels from front to rear – like English doubles, fowlers, rifles and on to the classic late Hawkens that some folks miss.  That big lock looks good with three screws, and again fits the breech and wrist profile so well.  A plain gun with proper mounts and architecture is a great learning tool.  In three days!  This is a way to celebrate our younger years.

I had forgotten Don Bruton, who builds plain and sweet rifles with detail and style of his own.  Here’s one example, and I know there are more out there.

[Mike Brooks]

The 'backwards" taper on the lock panels is an optical illusion, don't know why the photos showed up that way.

[David Rase]

Here is an earlier gun of mine that fits the bill of on of Bob's 3 day guns.  Once I completed swedging the buttplate, casting the triggerguard and filing out the ramrod pipes, assembly was close to the 3 day mark.  This Pennsylvania style rifle is built around a 44" long .50 caliber Getz barrel and Jim Chambers early Germanic flintlock.
 








why did voldemort want to kill harry as a baby

[Eric Kettenburg]

Boy I really like pretty much everything I've seen in this thread.  Particularly, Mike's club stock.  When I first was getting into flintlocks @ age 14 or 15, for some reason I was really drawn to the early club stocks in George Neumann's old little 'blue book.'  I wore the binding right off that book.

I know the concept here are rifle guns, as Bob began the thread, but it's really hard to my way of thinking to discuss plain or otherwise "utility" arms without bringing club stocks into the equation.  I think they may very well be the epitome of utilitarian function, covering pretty much all the bases (except maybe when it comes to squirrels, in which case given the generally large bore, they tend to annihilate such small mouthfuls of sustenance...).

I think it was around 1992 or 1993 that I first began attending the F/I encampment up at Ticonderoga, and the first year I was there, I met a guy who had a few dug relics of a gun that were found somewhere in Massachusetts.  I don't remember specifically where they were found, other than that they were found in MA.  There was a lock, a brass guard and a bunch of screws.  So of course, I rushed home to make a piece along the lines of what I thought it may have looked like.  The lock was particularly interesting because it was just plain weird and I thought - and still do - that it may have been a very early American forged lock dating to the second half of the 17th century, which would make it quite spectacular indeed if in fact it was American made.  I've not seen any European work exactly like it - it's kind of a cross between the earliest style of English doglock and later English doglocks, but with a French-ish (for the period I believe) vertically moving sear.  The guard was cool too since it was just a simple loop of brass with short pointed finials, but the bow was swaged out in a spoon shape.

I think this piece dates to around 1994. I kept it and used it for a few years, took one deer and a couple of turkeys, then at some point before 2000 sold it at Fort Ti.  I wish I knew where it was now, would love to see how it's aged.  Don't remember what barrel I used other than that it was around .72 or .75. 

[blienemann]

Mike, David and Eric – all these examples are welcome – it’s a group thread, and any long gun that’s plain and pretty and built quickly, and maybe a 2 day pistol?  The more styles or “schools” represented here, the better.  I would love to have a 3 day version of the Edward Marshall rifle, if anyone is interested?  I think I may have pics of another club butt from Jack Brooks somewhere.  But here is Chuck Edwards, who occasionally builds a plain rifle like this example.  Like others, he is capable of much more, but is happy doing this for the right customer.

Notice how some of these guns have the lock tilted up at front, so that nose of lock and front lock bolt hit the web of wood between barrel and channel.  When I began, I was told the pan should be level and aligned with the barrel, but looking at originals and fine rifles by good builders, I learned.  Original locks were supplied drilled, tapped, hardened and polished, and the large old lock bolts hit the center of the lockplate nose.  Contemporary rifles with tiny front lock bolts off center stand out once you study the old guns.  Of course some locks have the curl or drop and lowered pan that help with layout.

[Davemuzz]

Here is an earlier gun of mine that fits the bill of on of Bob's 3 day guns.  Once I completed swedging the buttplate, casting the triggerguard and filing out the ramrod pipes, assembly was close to the 3 day mark.  This Pennsylvania style rifle is built around a 44" long .50 caliber Getz barrel and Jim Chambers early Germanic flintlock.
 

Boy I like this flinter. Simple yet elegant. Very nicely done!!

[AMartin]

 Fun thread and thanks for getting it started Bob ..
I wished I had taken more pictures in the past of these plain rifles as I built a fair number of em ..

Here is a Early Lancaster , sorta has a John Newcomer influence .... 58 caliber , sugar maple stock ...
For a client who lives in Lancaster County ..

Enjoy ...

[k gahagan]

I don't know if you could call this plan and perdy maybe plan and funky. It's a copy of a Composite Fowler in the Dewitt Museum in Williamsburg and one of my favorites.

[BOB HILL]

There was a common rifle on the wall at Dixon's in the eighties that had a guard like this fowler in the Dewitt Museum.I loved it so much that I built a rifle with a guard that mounted like this. I'm not sure where it is now and don't have a picture. I sure have enjoyed the guns y'all have been posting. It always makes me happy when someone orders a plain gun. I have always enjoyed building them.

[jim alford]

Ken , is the forward part of the trigger guard bow mortised into the underside of the lower forearm ? Curious minds .

[k gahagan]

Jim, That's exactly how it's done. The original looks exactly like this and I would assume done in the same manner as I did mine. I forged the trigger guard with a double taper, drilled an undersize hole, heated the guard and inserted into the hole for a perfect fit much like you would do a knife tang into a handle. Best to test how much heat to use etc. but pretty simple. The tang on the trigger goes into the space normally occupied by the front trigger guard lug. There is no other fastening needed in the front. Two screws hold the rear rail and trigger guard in place, very cool.

[Pukka Bundook]

KKen,

Very nice and plain lines.
Plain means we notice the lines more, and That Is what Counts!

Your T-guard,   
I am not sure if you are aware how old this design is, but here is one that may be the first!;


The above was made in Northern Italy about 1525.

Very best,

Richard.

[jim alford]

Thanks Ken , I'll add that bit of info into my arsenal .