This gun really wasn’t supposed to get made at all. It started out as a practice carving buttstock for a class I took with Ian Pratt and Ken Gahagan at SOAW in preparation for an Albrecht we were building. We used it to practice layout and different carving techniques and then moved on to the real project. When I got home I threw it in a corner of my shop, carving unfinished, and forgot about it. Later that spring I was between projects and thought perhaps I’d finish the carving, for practice. As I worked on the carving, I thought that I could even finish and age it, you know, for practice. Oh, and I could do a faux broken wrist repair, wouldn’t that be fun. And perhaps do the same to the tang and trigger guard! And kit-bash the lock a bit! That’d be fun. The next thing I knew I was ordering parts from Kibler, a lock from Chamber’s and a barrel from Rice to finish it out.
I think these were leftover stocks from when Jim Kibler switched over from Chamber’s lock to his own. They had been cut off just past the entry pipe inlet. The project just kind of grew a life of its own, piecemeal. If I had thought it out perhaps I would have done it with a replaced forestock and a full-length barrel. It would have been a bit more functional that way. Or maybe I would have pitched it in the woodstove. In any event I had great fun with it as is. Perhaps because there was never any pressure not to screw up. After all it was only a practice stock. It gave me the opportunity to try lots of things to it that I may never had the courage to do otherwise on a “real” project. Would love to have comments/critiques, you can be harsh - it's only a practice stock after all.
Anyway, as I worked on it, I couldn’t help but come up with a backstory for how it ended up this way. If you like that sort of thing here it is, otherwise skip!
A young man was out hunting along the frontier with a new rifle that he was perhaps a little too proud of when he was ambushed. During the desperate fight he was forced to use his prized rifle as a club. It saved his life but at the cost of a badly broken rifle. At least that’s the story he always told. Some, though, said it was just as likely that he and the rifle took a bad fall from his horse while deep in his cups. He did drink a bit in those days after all. But me, I think that's just meanness. In any event, the owner being a fair mechanick (and having no money at hand for restocking) fixed the broken wrist, tang, and trigger guard with some care. Still proud of the rifle it went everywhere with him and saw him though many more adventures even as the frontier moved farther away west. Some 20 or so years later he was out on an extended fall bear hunt when calamity struck again. He was always careful when he double shotted but this time the extra ball crept up in the barrel causing it to rupture badly when fired. Far from home and not willing to give up the hunt he borrowed a hacksaw and cut the barrel off at the split and used his knife to cut away the shattered forestock. He was back in business, at least for close in work. Back home he couldn’t bear to part with his treasured rifle, butchered though it was, so he moved the sights back hoping that he still could put it to some use. For the next few decades it found a home under the wagon seat or in the barn. At some point it was bored out to 20 gauge and ended up with a replaced cock though no one could remember when. It didn’t really get used much anymore but somehow it was a comfort to the man as he got older. When the old man finally died it was put away in a dark corner of the attic by the grandson that ended up with the farm. There wasn’t much call for a busted up old flintlock these days anyway and it made his wife nervous what with the kids now old enough to run around down at the barn.
It has a 20" 20 gauge Rice barrel.
Faux broken wrist repair. Trigger guard also has a repair. You know, the trigger guard was actually difficult to break. That Kibler brass is tough.
Chambers lock with a Davis Colonial cock. I filed out the top jaw and top jaw screw as crude replacements though the top jaw turned out nicer than I wanted. Sometimes it's hard to do crude.
I bought the patchbox cover from Kibler but made my own catch. I recut the box so it looked hand cut.
Brazed some brass onto the tang for a faux repair.
Made my own sideplate so it did not jump out quite so strongly as a Kibler.
My practice Albrecht butt carving. Adequate at best.
I cut in an open dovetailed slot for where the original sight would have been. "Shattered" forearm cut away with a knife.
Worn entry pipe.
The trigger guard was riveted and soldered for the repair. Belt and suspenders...
