Just finished Bedford County

[L. Akers]

This is not a copy of any rifle but my version "within the school".  Built from a plank around a 44", .40 cal Douglas barrel and an L&R Durs Egg lock that I slimmed down a bit and elongated the tail.  Buttplate and trigger guard were purchased castings--everything else I made.  Finish is Dangler dark brown stain rubbed out and topped with LMF maple stain finished with tung oil.  Critiques would be very welcome.

 


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[Craig Wilcox]

Nice work, Mr. Akers!  And a (to me) most unusual side plate.

[rich pierce]

Nice and clean. I’d like to see a more characteristic Bedford lock to really seal the deal but understand the challenges there.

[hanshi]

Wow!  Great work.  I think it's a beautiful piece of gun building.

[Mike from OK]

That patchbox is beautiful!

Nice job!

Mike

[Daryl]

My thoughts exactly, Mike. The silver eagle medallion also very nicely done and inlet.

[L. Akers]

Thank you fellas for the kind remarks.  Rich, I'm not sure what you are picturing as a more "characteristic" lock.  In researching this build I found that locks of the general style I used were used more than any other style by a margin of 2 to 1 on FLINTLOCK Bedfords.  From my research I am convinced that period makers were using off the shelf english locks.  I am comfortable with my choice of lock as being very characteristic and appropriate for a flint Bedford.

[rich pierce]

Makes sense. I was thinking of the rat tail percussion locks. I have seen so few Bedford flintlock rifles that I lacked any perspective.

[okieboy]

 I personally like that you didn't use a rat-tail lock as there are plenty of Bedfords (including percussion) that didn't use them: and careful study reveals that most rat-tail flintlocks were in fact "reconverted". More experienced collectors welcome to weigh in on this statement.
 The photos that you provided do not show very well how much drop the stock has nor the comb design very clearly to my old eyes. Did you design your own stock pattern or base it on an example? Curious because, like locks, not all Bedford stocks follow the hockey-stick pattern.
 I like your gun, admire your finish and will be interested to hear about shooting it.

[L. Akers]

okieboy, if you click on the photos you can enlarge them.  The photo of the lock (second picture) when enlarged is full size.  You can see the comb/wrist junction.  The comb rises about 3/32" above the wrist and is straight to the butt.  Drop at the comb is about 1-1/8" and drop at the heel is about 2-1/4".  I designed my own stock based on the knowledge that Bedford rifles had very low combs and a triangular butt shape.  Flint Bedford stocks (at least those I found) had reasonable, shootable drops.

I will also be interested to hear about shooting it!  I posted the original post on Wed. morning and sold the gun that afternoon.  It went to a local guy so I will get to shoot it at some point.

[Willbarq]

So it's a straight barrel then? 

[Goo]

I like the area around the lock panel it looks like what I was taught to to be thought of as good architecture.