Sketch/plans for original Woodsrunner

[Jamie Hurley]

I read a post on here from several years ago here that seemed to indicate that there are sketches of/plans for the original Woodsrunner rifle floating around. If that's true, and whoever has them can make a copy, I'd be thrilled to pay for it. Please let me know if this is possible. I'd love to try my hand at this one.

[rich pierce]

A retired Pennsylvania barrel inletter/stock shaper named Fred (I’m blanking on his last name) had a pattern for it. A physical pattern, not a blueprint. He used to supply pre carved stocks for it.

[Eric Kettenburg]

Fred Miller.

If you want an "original woodsrunner," just take one of Jim's kits and make everything deliberately crooked!  Mission accomplished. 

[David Rase]

Wallace Gusler taught a class at the NMLRA workshop quite a few years ago and had made full size drawings of the gun, at least the buttstock, pipes, triggerguard and sideplate.  It has been a while since I looked at the plans so I will look at my set of plans and see what Wallace actually drew up.
David

[Eric Laird]

When I built my "copy" back in '05, I took the pictures from Wallace's article in Muzzle Blast and blew them up to the dimensions he listed. It was a little difficult to determine some of the contours, etc, but I was fortunate to handle the original in '07 or '08 and was able to "correct" the shape. That did NOT include making everything crooked! That would have been too much work!

[Eric Kettenburg]

I forget now if it was Wallace or someone else that had a theory as to why the buttplate was crooked and some of the angles are... odd.  As in, it may have been done deliberately.  I find it to be a weird gun and don't really like it, but to it's credit it sure is super light and would certainly be a good piece to live up to it's nickname!

[Eric Laird]

It seems to me back in the day, IIRC, some of the characteristics espoused for "Virginia" guns were a sideplate panel that paralleled the bore line and not the barrel contour, and a low cheekpiece. I think a lot of that was based on this gun. In handling the original, I almost wonder if the blank was too narrow because the sideplate panel and outside of the cheekpiece were basically in the same plane, i.e., they were at the level of the outside ("left" side) of the blank. I don't recall Wallace addressing the crooked buttplate - maybe he can come on and do so. I would have loved to attend the class he gave, if for no other reason than to see the rifle disassembled and learn what he had gleaned from it!

When I first saw the article I thought, "That is one ugly 'riffle gun'", but it grew on me. I had a barreled blank sitting in the corner - a plain piece of maple with my first attempt at hand inletting a swamped barrel - that had been there for a while because I wasn't happy with the inletting job. So I figured nothing ventured, nothing gained and went ahead and built it. I can only say it is one sweet handling rifle! Somewhat "unconventional" but a great-handling gun. Jim Kibler picked a good one to duplicate, and with his modifications to make is somewhat more conventional in architecture (e.g., making the wrist more uniform in depth) it's a winner for the masses!

On a related note, I think Fred Miller (and now Dave Keck) had the "Feather Gun", not the "Woodsrunner". When Fred was still doing them, you could get it with the incredibly short forearm of the original or have the ramrod channel routed to a more conventional length. I have one I picked up from Dennis when I was still up in Virginia. Now that I'm retired I hope to get back to building. It's number three or four on my list, but since it's a partially shaped buttstock, maybe I should move it up to number one just to get back into it!

And sorry for the ridiculously long post - just the ramblings of a retired guy drinking my morning coffee, before I head out to mow and bush hog!