Shooting originals

[rich pierce]

I have restored a late Southern mountain rifle to shooting condition. It needed a lot of work on the bore, re-breaching, a new lock, and some glue work on the stock. Please note this was a totally in-attributable beater. Yesterday I had it leaning against the workbench and it fell. Stock split from the lick to the comb. I’ve got it glued up again but age has not been kind to the wood obviously. Also heavy long-barrels put a lot of stress on a skinny stock.

Just sharing for those thinking of restoring an original to shooting condition. Yes I’d been warned but some guys have to learn for themselves.

I will likely restock the parts at some point to make my work to this point worthwhile. The barrel shoots fine now. Just needs a new handle.

[Majorjoel]

Sorry to hear about your rifle's slip and fall accident Rich!   Leaning longrifles can be prone to this no matter how old they are!    I have noticed that there is something about the shape of a Bucks County longrifle that, for me anyway, seem to like to slide downward while they are leaning against my work bench.

[stuart cee dub]

At least it isn't quite like the axe that George Washington cut the cherry tree down with …
The axe head was replace twice 
and the handle replaced three times
but it has perfect provenance from the original family.

At least it was saved . Straight wall hangers are one step closer to dust bin in most estates .Sorry to hear it broke too 

[mountainman70]

Me sorry to hear too.  However, a restock in good wood with same features of original is a good thing.
Best regards,Rich. Dave F

[Bob McBride]

Sorry to hear Rich. They're slipperier than eels with those buttplates. I like to keep rubber mats around my bench floor and a few notches cut in along the front of the bench itself. I put a tiny dent in a Mike Brooks rifle myself like that..... 

[rich pierce]

Add to the list of guns to build! I will probably lop off an inch and a half at the breech as I’m tired of trying to re-fresh it till the powder chamber is as tight as the rest of the bore. It will still be heavy and over 44” long.

[Mike Brooks]

Sorry to hear Rich. They're slipperier than eels with those buttplates. I like to keep rubber mats around my bench floor and a few notches cut in along the front of the bench itself. I put a tiny dent in a Mike Brooks rifle myself like that..... 

Dent was probably already there.

[Bob McBride]

Sorry to hear Rich. They're slipperier than eels with those buttplates. I like to keep rubber mats around my bench floor and a few notches cut in along the front of the bench itself. I put a tiny dent in a Mike Brooks rifle myself like that..... 

Dent was probably already there.

  No, I’m afraid I did it, but it’s no more than a character ding. I dribbled on myself a little as it started sliding I can tell you that....

[Herb]

I leaned a rifle against a wall once and it fell over and cracked the wrist.  Cured me of leaning rifles against walls.  Always use a corner or lay it down!  Same for guitars.  I have doweled and glued the heads on three guitars that others leaned against a chair or wall and they fell over and broke.  Now I see someone lean a guitar like that and I jump on them like a duck on a Junebug!

[WadePatton]

I leaned a rifle against a wall once and it fell over and cracked the wrist.  Cured me of leaning rifles against walls.  Always use a corner or lay it down!  Same for guitars.  I have doweled and glued the heads on three guitars that others leaned against a chair or wall and they fell over and broke.  Now I see someone lean a guitar like that and I jump on them like a duck on a Junebug!

Dropped a gitty just the other day--right on the headstock--and the crack in the neck that gave me pause when I bought it--held fast.  So call me lucky. It's not fancy/expensive/historic but is most-played.

Rifle fell over the other day and hit nothing but the front sight and bent the brass, which bent right back until nearly almost straight before it cracked.  Going with silver next.

[Bob McBride]

I leaned a rifle against a wall once and it fell over and cracked the wrist.  Cured me of leaning rifles against walls.  Always use a corner or lay it down!  Same for guitars.  I have doweled and glued the heads on three guitars that others leaned against a chair or wall and they fell over and broke.  Now I see someone lean a guitar like that and I jump on them like a duck on a Junebug!

Dropped a gitty just the other day--right on the headstock--and the crack in the neck that gave me pause when I bought it--held fast.  So call me lucky. It's not fancy/expensive/historic but is most-played.

Rifle fell over the other day and hit nothing but the front sight and bent the brass, which bent right back until nearly almost straight before it cracked.  Going with silver next.

Wade, don’t buy any. Next time I run across you I’ll give you a piece. I’ve got plenty of scrap pieces big enough for a blade.

[Eric Krewson]

After I knocked over my favorite gifted flintlock rifle from a dying friend and bent the delicate rear sight like an accordian I notched my workbench at a bunch of places to make sure it wouldn't happen again. A few strokes with a #49 nicholson and it's a done deal.




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[Daryl]

Taylor and I have done that at our range, on wooden benches, using the wood cutting blade on a Leatherman tool. Very fast and quite necessary to keep rifles from sliding and falling.
Another way is with a soft blanket, folded and laid on the bench. This is what we have to do now, that we have concrete benches.
Here's Taylor shooting his J. Lang 16 bore rifle.

[heelerau]

Daryl, that nice English hunting rifle.I have a bid on another English hunting rifle for a mate, in .52, should know next week if its been successful. Will be fun waking it up.

[D. Taylor Sapergia]

The bench in my shop is made from wood.  At each end, I drilled three holes for dowels (ramrod ends) sticking out about 2 1/2".  That gives me a place in which to lean two rifles at each end of the shop.  The butts sit on rubber mats.  So far. so good.

[Anonymous]

One of life’s lessons we all seem to know, yet we occasionally need take that refresher course. Nothing worse than the sound or sight of a long gun hitting the deck. I even cringe when a cleaning rod with jag on it surrenders itself to the force gravity.  I’ve learned to slightly open the draws of my favorite workbench to provide ‘corners’ (between the bench and draw) to lean guns into.

[rich pierce]

I agree but have dropped contemporary guns and not had the stock explode. Good news is I glued it within 5 minutes and it’s near invisible. My point is that restoring an old gun to shooting condition, that already has repairs to a cracked stock, is a chancy business. If a gun is sound then age alone is not an issue probably. I’m not saying don’t shoot originals. Just increased risk of issues already present, getting worse. I should have seen the stock was prone to cracking and thought about that for a minute. “Hmm, it has a really bad crack I will have to fix. I wonder what that means?”

[Anonymous]

Recently restored a slightly over 100 year old gun of a type we don’t discuss here to not just shooting condition, but competition condition. Repaired a number of serious cracks/splits and replaced the last 12” or so of forearm that was either broken off or removed by some bubba gunsmith.  Had it hanging from a hook in butt in the basement as the final coat of Tung Oil was drying when it somehow ‘jumped’ off the hook and hit the concrete floor with the very tip of the stock.  Have a high basement so the tip of the stock was about eye level where it hung. Didn’t want to look when I saw it on the floor, but the splice repair held, although there was a flat spot where it hit. Calling it aging. Later that night the bride tells me she had to chase a crazy bird out of the basement earlier ..... and a couple things might have hit the floor.

[hanshi]

My basement shop has a concrete floor.  But even though I covered it with puzzle mats I have several resting places on the edge of the bench to prevent a gun from falling.  I used to shoot at a range with a concrete floor (actually still do at a different one).  There were several gun rests up and down the firing line - the preferred spot for guns when someone was at the targets.  My smoothbore was resting in one when a big puff of wind knocked it to the concrete.  A few minor scratches on the forestock was all.  I was lucky.

[MuskratMike]

Ok, now you all have the Muskrat worried. Never had one slide off the bench and if it did hopefully it would come to rest against my big vise that I cover with a heavy terry cloth towel when cleaning a rifle. Heading out to cut notch in the bench face or screw in a padded hook.

[Greg Pennell]

While I haven’t dropped a rifle off the bench yet (knock on wood), I did have a minor cat-astrophie with a barrel and one of those god-forsaken cast lollipop tangs. While working on my Gillespie squirrel rifle last year, my shop cat managed to roll the barrel off the bench, which landed tang first on the concrete. Of course, I’d already filed the darn thing out (a chore in itself), and inlet it into the stock. Bent the tang 90 degrees, and even though I heated it red hot, it snapped off when I tried to straighten it out. Wound up filing a new tang out of a long blank, just a tiny bit larger than the original, and re-inletting.

My solution was like Taylor’s, except I used long deck screws into the edge of the benches, and slipped a piece of plastic tubing over the screws to prevent marring. Now all barrels, stocks, and in-progress guns get set in my little racks, and a rubberband cut from a bike inner tube keeps them in place.

Greg

[smylee grouch]

I usualy have one or two of those squeeze quick clamps with me when I shoot at a range with out good rifle holding fixtures.

[Marcruger]

Like minds Smylee. I have two small C-clamps and a washcloth in my shooting box. I clamp them on the edge of the loading bench. The washcloth reduces finish wear. The gun certainly won’t slide side to side. God bless, Marc

[Pukka Bundook]

In our "shoot shed" I installed some of thos rubber-coated things you hang garden  spades and stuff from.  They are a "U" shape and screw into the edge of the bench.  They look like row-locks from a boat.  Guns stood in those can't fall over.
This doesn't mean I haven't had guns fall over, BTW!

Got one finished and Linda was "hovering" the floor, hit it, and it fell, bending the entry pipe badly.    Got it fixed up though.  :-)
On one, It was leaning up nice and solid, and an English shot flask was hanging from a peg above it. the flask  fell off, and the nozzle cut a gouge out the buttstock just like a wood gouge would!  That one still shows.
 Flask had  a pound or 2 of shot in it, and gained momentum before it bit...