Ferguson Rifle just completed.

[deepcreekdale]

Just finished this for a customer from The Rifle Shoppe parts set, I had some trepidation at first as I have heard all sorts of horror stories about this set, stock not inlet correctly, lock in the wrong place etc. I am not a fan of parts sets or kits but this one was a piece of cake. The build is different naturally, for example the barrel is hard to inlet because of the breech screw going straight down you have to lift the barrel straight up each time during the inletting process. The inletting was fine, everything needed final inletting to fit, which is the way it should be. The only problem in the whole project was the sear bar on the lock was about 1/8 too short and the trigger about 1/8 too short as well so had to lengthen them. No big deal. My only criticism is I doubt any Ferguson rifles issued to the troops had such a nice piece of wood for the stock. You need more than a Kibler kit build under your belt but it was no harder than any other pre-inlet kit or parts set. The hardest part was polishing all that metal, especially that bayonet which is a big old thing.

[deepcreekdale]

Breech closed




Breech open
picture sharing

[borderdogs]

Very nice! A neat project you did a great job on it.
Rob

[Daryl]

Cool project.

[emmagee]

Your customer will be very happy 

[DavidC]

Looks great!! How long did it take to get that order?

[alacran]

I just saw one of those a week or so ago. I believe it was a Narraganset arms product. Looked like CaCa compared to your version.
You did a great job on it Dale.

[emmagee]

Looks great!! How long did it take to get that order?

I bought the kit from a member here, so I didn't have to wait for years for it. I ordered the bayonet directly from TRS, and it came in a surprisingly short time. It's a hit and a miss with them.....

[Mike Brooks]

So what's the thingus sticking up out of the wood next to the barrel tang?

[emmagee]

So what's the thingus sticking up out of the wood next to the barrel tang?

It's the pin that holds the rear sling swivel.

[deepcreekdale]

So what's the thingus sticking up out of the wood next to the barrel tang?

Yep, it is a pin to hold the rear swivel like emmagee said. One of the trickier operations, since the swivel post is mounted at an angle and in order to drill straight through the peg which secures it, requires your tongue to be in just the right position after measuring a few times to get that angle right.

[deepcreekdale]

Looks great!! How long did it take to get that order?

Thanks for the compliment and all the other ones as well. The customer actually sent me the parts set; I don't know how long he had to wait. There is probably a bit of a wait for these since there is some extra machining needed on the castings for the breech block. I have always had pretty good luck with ordering from TRS. A few things I think that help which might not work for everybody on all projects. For example, say you want a French musket, or a Dutch Fowler. They have several models of each in their catalog. Call and ask which ones might be in stock. Chances are better that one may be in stock or in the process of having the parts cast. And remember, for most if not all of their sets, there is NO other source so patience is a virtue. Second, ordering a single part might take a while. They are not like Track or MLBS with a large inventory, they have literally hundreds of part sets available, it would take millions of dollars to stock all those parts. They do not send an order to the foundry until they have enough parts needed to justify the foundry accepting the order. No foundry is going to cast a single buttplate. i once ordered a dozen miquelet style lock parts sets. Jane said it would be 9 months. They came in 8 months and 21 days. I bet if I had ordered a single one, it would have taken longer.

[foresterdj]

Being too lazy to do my own research, please someone explain the vertical screw breach plug thingy. How is it used? How does it not leak combustion gases?

[frankie]

very nice

[smart dog]

Hi Foresterdj,
One turn of the trigger guard handle lowers the screw plug enough to clear the chamber.  You place a round ball in the chamber and then fill the space up behind it with powder, screw the plug back up, prime the pan and fire. The ball rest against a shoulder like a modern barrel chamber and the explosion forces the lead into the rifling like a modern bullet.  There is no gas escape except a little from the top of the hole because the threads are tapered and they seal more tightly  as you close the breech. There is a lot about Ferguson rifles on the internet but as always much of it is incorrect, hyperbole, and superficial.

dave

[smylee grouch]

Not knowing anything about this subject I have to ask. Do the barrels lead up when shooting that bare ball ?

[smart dog]

Hi Smylee,
Not that I've noticed but I lubricate the balls with beeswax before going out to shoot the rifle. It is no worse than the later breechloaders.

dave

[DavidC]

Ferguson's great idea was the use of a multiform thread rather than a single thread. Rather than 1 thread with 12 rotations per inch he used multiple threads that each made 1 rotation over the necessary distance to expose the breech. I believe he was the first to use that concept but there is at least 1 French breech-loading flintlock with the same general design but it requires many rotations to expose the breech enough to load.

Too far ahead of its time to be made practically, but super cool and they have American Revolution relevance. Technically they break the forum's rules... 

[alacran]

Technically, they are illegal for muzzleloading hunts in most states, or muzzleloading competition. That is why I've never had an interest in them.

[Bob Roller]

Not knowing anything about this subject I have to ask. Do the barrels lead up when shooting that bare ball ?

My question as well.A dry lead ball thru a rifled barrel can't work for long and then scraping the lead out will be no end of fun.
These marvelous relics were to try and replace the loading thru the muzzle and I imagine that some of these guns were used
as muzzle loaders anyhow once the leading showed up.B.Tyler Henry sounded the death knell for the muzzle loader as a weapon of war by 1865 but it never entirely died out and ws in use as a hunting and target rifle even thru the 20th century when a revival in interest
in them started something that has lasted until THIS minute.The Ferguson was one of a number of attempts to make a fast loading gun
and absurdities like the Ellis I mentioned in an earlier post using superposed loads and a sliding lock was one.Colt's revolving rifle from 1836 was a step forward  but were prone to multiple discharges that made a special stance mandatory to safely fire it without injury.
Bob Roller

[deepcreekdale]

Technically, they are illegal for muzzleloading hunts in most states, or muzzleloading competition. That is why I've never had an interest in them.

i asked a friend of mine who is a retired FWC officer if he would cite someone for using one of these for hunting. (He is on this board, he might want to chip in) He said he would consider it within the spirit of a muzzleloader for hunting purposes. Unlikely most game officers would be familiar enough with them to really call you on it. Besides, it is not a light gun, I would not want to lug it around on a hunt. Probably leave that bayonet behind as well!

[Daryl]

Bayonet might be handy if hunting grizzlies with it.  Might be a necessary attachment as the powder charge is no more than a deer load, imho.

[Bob Roller]

The percussion cap made the successful breech loader possible and there was a bunch of them.
That same tiny cap negated all the efforts of the finest London lock makers but they left us with
some of the finest locks made by the finest craftsmen who did their very best to forestall the tiny
caps arrival.Thank you Mr.Manton and others who labored in vain to stop advances in firearms and
the ways to fire them.
Bob Roller

[Craig Wilcox]

If you line the bears up neatly, that bayonet might get you a two-for-one.

They were marvelous rifles for the time, and that 12-thread breech surely took a LOT of engineering.  Would be difficult to manage for mass production even in this time.  CNC maybe?

Were they accurate enough for hunting?  What type of rifling was used, both number of lands/grooves and twist rate?

[45-110]

They were marvelous rifles for the time, and that 12-thread breech surely took a LOT of engineering.  Would be difficult to manage for mass production even in this time.  CNC maybe?

Before I retired from aerospace machining, a very experienced co woker tried to duplicate the threads by thread milling on a CNC Haas, the male thread was perfect, the female thread angle was off. It engage nicely but would never seal correctly.