.62 Caliber Smooth Rifle Project

[ettoreR]

So my initial plan was to build some form of fowler with a 38 inch barrel, Well, when I received the barrel I realized that I had goofed and order a 32 inch square to round barrel. Thinking that a 32 inch barrel may be a bit on the short side for a fowler, I started looking at smooth rifles and Jaegers. After seeing a smooth rifle built by Tyler of Golden Mean Flintlocks which included a square to round barrel, I decided on the smooth rifle concept. It'll be a shortie, but I've always wanted to build one so I might as well start now. Does anyone have any good reading on smooth rifles? I just going with the flow at the moment and drawing a few things up as I go along. I don't necessarily know what I can call the attributes of this gun but it'll certainly be somewhat unique. Any photos or articles pertaining to smooth rifle would be a great help!



Pretty happy with this layout, but ill surely deviate from it later on, I'm never good at sticking to the original plan.








Did the whole channel with gouges and chisels, I've got a few differently sized round rebate planes coming in the mail, I'm sure they'll make life a lot easier!












got a cheek piece established, it doesn't stand too proud and tapers toward the rear





I elected to make a sliding wood patch box, same material that come off the blank.
( so the first lid didn't workout so hot, I made a new one and i am much more pleased with how it came out.




















I am debating on whether or not i want to cap the rear with brass or not yet.

While I was bending my original cast side plate i accidently broke it, so i grabbed some scrap brass and drew up a new one. I outlined it with a drill press at first then finished it off with a jewlers saw and files, it came out nice!











and that's that!

The ramrod channel was gouged out following a center line, then I took a rod of steel sharpened to a scraping surface at one end and scraped the channel out. This worked surprisingly well and went extremely quick, Id highly recommend it!











website for uploading photos

[Keith Zimmerman]

Ive never seen a square to round barrel.

[rich pierce]

Ive never seen a square to round barrel.

Seems old-timey for octagon to round. Good progress.

[FALout]

Good start on your build and your inletting of the buttplate looks good.  But, I do have a question on your layout on your stock, I don’t see your lock laid out there.  It seems like you decided where the trigger will go, but that is usually dictated by the sear of the lock.  Depending on the lock, that could move that trigger forward or back, while the lock has to be in certain position in relation to breech of barrel.

[Bob Gerard]

Nice to watch how your build is going along. Helps us far more novice builders a lot.

[ettoreR]

Good start on your build and your inletting of the buttplate looks good.  But, I do have a question on your layout on your stock, I don’t see your lock laid out there.  It seems like you decided where the trigger will go, but that is usually dictated by the sear of the lock.  Depending on the lock, that could move that trigger forward or back, while the lock has to be in certain position in relation to breech of barrel.

Hey there, so i did lay the lock out initially its just hard to see, I didn't trace the entire lock but I located the end of my breech plug and put that mark on the stock and barrel. I used that mark to determine where my pan will sit, and traced the pan and bolster. Then I marked the front and rear of the lock with two small lines, which I can then use later along with the pan tracing to index the lock. Finally I reinstalled the sear and the tumbler, I lined up the lock on its index points by eyeballing it downward and made a mark where the sear bar touches.

[ettoreR]

Fitted my ramrod pipes yesterday, I realize I'm horrible at keeping up with my photos of the progress.

[Daryl]

I agree a full stocked fowler should have a longer barrel. 31 to 32" is just fine on a 1/2 stocked version.
I really like your butt profile.
This one is 31" including the patent breech.

[ettoreR]

Yeah the barrel was by total accident, but so far it's actually very handy feeling, it'll have a nicely profiled forend. Next time I'll order the right length barrel! That's a nice half stock you're picturing there. I'm basically calling this smooth rifle a fantasy gun, I'm sure someone out there will catch an eye for it

[ettoreR]

Did a bit of stock shaping today, I'm copying the profile of Jim kiblers colonial rifle fore stock since I enjoy how it looks and feels, more to come
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