Hi,
Thanks everyone for looking and commenting. The project will be a challenge but the story is not about me. It is about Josh and his determination. Mike, thank you. That is a generous offer but I think we have all the parts we need. I am going to see how many Josh can make by hand. The project will go slowly because Josh lives about 40-50 miles away on the other side of the Green Mountains and there are very few transportation options available for him in rural Vermont. His wife works long hours and can only bring him over every few weeks. I meet them half way. Rich, Tom, Larry, and John might remember the powder horn Josh made that I brought to Dixon's. It's an astonishing horn given he has never seen a powder horn. He's never seen a long rifle either, except with his hands. He currently shoots an old flintlock NW trade gun by Sitting Fox, I think. He brings the gun up to his shoulder and has a friend sight it from behind, telling him when to squeeze. However, only Josh touches the gun. As you can imagine, he does not do well shooting paper but does pretty well with larger metal animal targets and the "ding" gives him instant feed back. A short side story: I picked up the stock blank from a vendor in VT and delivered it to Josh. He packed it up with the barrel and shipped it USPS to Dave Keck. En route, the barrel fell out in one of the trucks because Josh did not reinforce the ends of the box very well. Dave called me when he opened the box and only saw the stock. I called Josh and he went down to his local PO and they very quickly tracked down the trucks used for the transport and had someone check them. Within a couple days, the barrel was delivered to Dave. Rural POs, where they know everybody in town, can be a great asset.
dave
