Happy Builder! - Happy Client!
Thanks for all of the kind remarks.
I seem to be going backwards, tending towards the earlier, in my appreciations for the American longrifle. Started as a discussion about RCA-II, No.111. Shumway says its got a full octagon barrel, but I see an octagon-to-round barrel. Shumway liked the side plate and so did I. Maybe a little too Germanic, but let's go Germanic-ish in an American piece. in .580 caliber. Oh, I wanted an incised volute behind a Germanic-ish cheek piece, but American - definitely American. For the rest, a couple of ideas, a couple of questions and then I get out of the way. The rest is all Allen Martin; the ideas, the choices, the composition - all of it.
The Laubach lock was the perfect match in style and proportion for the Bob Hoyt barrel Allen spec'd. 1.165 inches at the breech, tapering for 14-5/16 inches to 0.940 inches at the wedding band transition to a swamped round profile. The wedding band mic's to 0.928 inches. The swamped round barrel tapers to 0.837 inches at the mid-point and is 0.886 inches at the muzzle. Allen hand filed in the wedding band detail.
The barrel is only 40-5/16 inches in length. The architecture makes it appear to be longer. The rifle weighs 8.3 pounds.
Some of my other favorite details:
The crowned and filed muzzle...
A musket trigger... Why? Why not?
A handmade buttplate with a early 'bulbous' feature at the heel. Definitely killer 'sexy'...
The sideplate...
A very, very subtle stepped wrist...
And my incised volute...
The stock is currently receiving some hand rubs of Howard's Feed-N-Wax. You can see the rich tones of brown in the photos.
