Southwest Virginia Iron Triggerguard.

[M Tornichio]

I thought I would post some pictures of a guard that I have been working on for the class I am taking with Ian Pratt and Jim Kibler. I finally have been able to get out the shed to do some forging recently. I had orginally planned on making this a tutorial, but I really had not idea of how this was going to turn out, so I have some pictures that show the progress along the way. I am still not finished, I have more filing to do on the front and rear extensions, but I think you guys will get the idea. The inspiration was a rifle made by Jacob Young. I am not doing a direct copy of either of the two rifles that I know exist. In the end, I am hoping that my version is somewhat inspired by both examples.

I started out forging the front bow of the triggerguard from a piece of steel that was 3 inches long. It was a square shape approximately the size of a railroad spike. For me the most difficult part was trying to get enough metal for the area directly infront of the bow. I had thought about this for about 3 years. I essentially started by making a 90 degree bend and started hammering to shape. this is the result after alot of heats and hammering.

Eventually I filed down the bow and ended up with this, which allowed me to forge out the other pieces of the guard.


This is a picture of the back two pieces rough forged. If you look closely you can see the spirit of the old mountain gunsmiths. Just kidding, It is just steam off of the tongs. It has been pretty cold as of late. You can just make out the snow on the ground through the slot at the door in the background. I have approximately 2 feet of snow out side of where my forge is located. I just ran out side to grab the hot metal pieces and quickly made ran inside to the inside of the shed to hammer. It has not been easy forging, the metal has been loosing its heat quickly this winter.


Finally this is where I am currently after all the pieces have been fitted and filed. Still more to go, but I am finally getting there.The other triggerguard bow will become a woodbury style triggerguard.






I am open to any critique. I tried to thin up the guard quite a bit, but It still look king of fat on the edges in the pictures.
Ask if you have any questions,
Marc

[Mark Elliott]

I would suggest that you feather the edges of the bow some more.   At this point a file will have to take care of that.  If you feather your edges at the forge,  it makes for less filing.   Other than that, I like the guard very much.   I may have to steal your design.

Mark E.

[eagle24]

Marc,

I think it looks great and will be awesome when you get the filing finished.  I'm trying to learn to forge trigger guards and butt plates myself, so I really appreciate what you have done.  So far, I can make a round bar flat.   How are the parts joined?  Pinned and brazed in the forge?

[J. Talbert]

I like it a lot!

I'd put it on a gun in heartbeat.  It not only looks good, it should be pretty comfortable to grip also.

Jeff

[lew wetzel]

mark,that turned out really nice...you are really doing some good forge work there...you keep this up and you be giving old ian a run for his money....maybe teaching your own class....lol

[C Wallingford]

Very, very nice. Great style. Looks like a very usable guard.

[Birddog6]

Mark:  Very nice looking job. Like the style, shape, work,  it is really nice.

One suggestion I have, based from me making a few errors on them    The guard looks a tad straight for the contour of the bottom of a stock. Maybe not, (have not seen the stock) but if you have not checked, you need to. Reason being when you have to bend one end of the rail to get it in place, sometimes that throws the anchor points of the rail off on the bow. So the rail could end up too low or either end to make it balance out.   If you have a sharp bend of the rail coming up off the bow, the anchor point needs to be higher to make the rail even with the wood. Or you could end up with the rail right against the wood on one end & up 3/8" off the wood at the tail.......  You follow me ?  If not I can rough draw it out.

However, if you have already check this , then forget all the above !   

But all in all..........  Excellent job.....  

Keith

[Tim Crosby]

 Nice work Marc.

 Tim C.

[M Tornichio]

I would suggest that you feather the edges of the bow some more.   At this point a file will have to take care of that.  If you feather your edges at the forge,  it makes for less filing.   Other than that, I like the guard very much.   I may have to steal your design.

Mark E.

Mark thanks for the critique about the bow. I am going to work on that area. Feel free to use the design all you want. I was inspired by the Jacob Young rifle which was brass mounted. I had to make a few adjustments to work it out in steel.

[M Tornichio]

Keith thanks for the suggestion.
That is a really good point. The design of my rifle stock definitely took a departure from the original in this area. The Jacob Young rifle that I used for inspiration on this guard had a step wrist that had a sharp step down at the end of the rear triggerguard extension. I made my rifle have a much less sharp point in the area. The wrist feathers into the bottom of the buttstock like some earlier rifle examples. It is really hard to explain with out a picture. I will post some when i get the guard inlet into wood.  you have a very sharp eye to catch that detail. I struggle sometimes trying to figure out how high the grip rail should be above the wrist. I had to rework the rear of the guard to get the rail closer to the wrist. this is one area that I differed from the original. I will post pictures when i get the guard into the wood.

[Larry Luck]

Great loking guard.  I like it a lot.

Have you thought of using it as a master and doing some castings?  I bet it would sell on TOTW or elsewhere.

Larry Luck

[rdillon]

I want one!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


Great Job!

[Steve Bookout]

Very nice guard.  I see a labor of love happening here and that makes the part even better.  Cheers, Bookie

[M Tornichio]

thanks guys.
Greg, I missed your question the first time through. I pinned the pieces together and brazed the pieces together with copper. You could use silver if it was high temp hard silver solder. I would not recomend the low temp stuff though. I am quite sure you could knock the pieces apart with not much effort with the softer stuff.

[rsells]

Marc,
I like the guard.  Good work.  Believe it or not, a fellow showed up at the Mini CLA show in KY a couple weeks ago with an original Jacob Young signed iron mounted rifle.  It was not as fancy as the brass rifles we have seen, but it was a great rifle.  The barrel and trigger plate were marked "Jacob Young".  The owner had it on a table for only a few minutes during the show.
                                                                                  Roger Sells

[Tommy Bruce]

Mark that's a nice looking trigger guard.  I think you are going to have to quit your day job and focus on the important things such as  blacksmithing

[RobertS]

Looks great to me, I've been trying to get started, but so far my stuff still looks like scrap.  Thanks for sharing your knowledge, maybe some of it will rub off!