Have you "Done it all"?

[DavZee]

I'm wondering how far you've taken it.
I've melted the lead, cast the boolit. I've made the lube and lubed the boolit, then loaded the cartridge. Very average.
But I'm wondering how far others have gone. Have you built the gun that shot the boolit?
Have you made the powder that shot the boolit that you cast, in the gun that you built?
Perhaps you've formed the cartridge, that held the powder you made, for the boolit that you cast, in the barrel that you forged and drilled? And a stock you whittled from a limb off the walnut tree out back? There's got to be some great stories out there.
Then again maybe this has been covered 50 times already and I apologize for bringing it up.
But I was just wondering....

[bhn22]

Or mined the ore, smelted it, forged it, and whittled the action with my trusty Barlow knife?

[MTtimberline]

Made the primer from strike anywhere matches...

[jonp]

Made primers and blackpowder. Made a stock once. I'm not a blacksmith so I have not made my own barrels.

[bhn22]

Made the primer from strike anywhere matches...

I have done this.

[Old Caster]

In the late 50's I took cap guns and knocked the support pins out of the barrel and inserted an 1/8 threaded pipe. 1/8 in pipe is actually about .28 inside diameter so it was just right for a quarter inch ball bearing with a patch. I put a threaded coupling on the end and a pipe plug in that. The plug had to be filed to an angle so the hammer would hit it squarely and a 1/16 hole was drilled where the hammer hit. Part of the coupling had to be filed off too so it would fit in the action part of the pistol and also where the caps slid up had to be removed. A diagonal cutter worked fine for that with a little filing. To keep the barrel from moving I held the pistol barrel up and while heating the aluminum up would add solder between the pistol barrel and the pipe until it was solid. I cut the pipe off even with the front when finished. For ignition I would poke a hole in a paper cap and then put a short pin through the cap and into the 1/16th hole. I used a long rifle empty cartridge to measure two scoops of black powder for my load. I shot this gun at all sorts of things and unless they were close, I never hit them. Amazingly enough I bought my black powder at Walgreens until they stopped selling it around 1958. I got some sulfur from a nearby pile that National lead had, bought some potassium nitrate from Walgreens, and made my own charcoal out of wood. I had problems getting as much power out of my black as what I had previously bought and had to prime my flash hole but it did work. I read in a book that black powder was mixed with urine from a wine drinker but wasn't willing to drink wine so I used water and I think that was my problem. Soon afterwards Walgreens quit selling the nitrate because it was used as a medicine for animals and no one bought it anymore. In those days we walked down the street with our rifles and went to a nearby woods to hunt squirrels and occasionally a policeman might ask where you were going and then would ask if there were many squirrels there. Times have changed.

[btroj]

Have not done it all.

Have built muzzleloading rifles. Have never made a barrel, lock, or action. Haven't made powder , primers, or brass.

I suppose I should say that I know my limitations.

[geargnasher]

There is a lot of talent on this board. One fellow made a presentation-grade Volcanic Repeater from scratch with an accurately proportioned action necessitating lathe-turned .40-caliber cases and cast boolits. Many here are perfecting QUALITY black powder manufacturing. Others are swaging their own jacketed bullets from copper tubing or recycled cartridge brass. We have stock makers, refinishers, professional gunsmiths of all types, paper-patchers, you name it. Lead alloy and lube development done here, including painted jackets and smokless powder paper jackets, probably exceeds most of the combined data found elsewhere on the web. Not bragging, but yeah, there are some real renaissance men here, and a few ladies too.

Gear

[felix]

Occasionally, you will find a person who can build a gun from scratch and then shoot it well. These folks tend to be black powder guys only. Smokeless folks tend to shoot for the most part, but some like to build by first purchasing parts not in their expertise and then make the parts fit as a unit. I know of no person on this board who has built a scope, not even with purchased parts, for example. The expertise required for constructing a smokeless gun to shoot well just takes on too many disciplines. ... felix

[35 shooter]

Haven't done all that, but..... I have cut down the tree and made all wood bows and arrows from it. Broadheads from saw blades, made the strings , cut self nocks into the homemade arrows and fletched with "real" wild turkey feathers. Should count for something huh?.....Country boys can survive, even old ones like me.:)

[eck0313]

I've not made powder or primers, etc. but I HAVE won matches with bullets I cast, lubed with lube I made, that I loaded and shot.

Very satisfying.

[Adam10mm]

I've mixed the alloy from raw metals (ie separate ingots of pure foundry tin, antimony, lead), cast the bullets, loaded the ammo, and built the gun (my 10mm 1911). That's about it. Never bothered with making my own lube, I just buy White Label and be done with it.

[mdi]

Well, I made zip guns in the '50s when I was in Jr. High. I "mined" berms/backstops. But I have fabricated parts for my early guns (sights, single action pawls).

[w5pv]

We use to make pistols out of 1/2"pipe we used a six inch piece for the barrel a 90 elbow a 3 or 4 inch nipple for the handle and a cap to close it up.we sawed a slot just ahead of the 90 just big enough to get fuse for a 2" fire cracker through pack some paper into the barrel and then a marble on top of that with more packing wasn't too powerful but a lot of fun pretending.

[2400]

Made primers from strike anywhere matches, blackpowder, I've made several stocks and hand gun grips. I worked for a barrel maker and made a few for myself. Made my own scope mounts but not rings,

[.22-10-45]

Back in the late 70's, brass for the .577/.450 Martini-Henry was hard to find..and then you needed dies to load it..what to do? I turned cases from 3/4" brass rod..using chamber cast for dimensions. I made them a very close fit..so no sizing was needed..and left nearly 1/2" in case head area to take up excess powder space..they still hold aound 75grs. of black..which is plenty. Turned up a 3 piece swaging die for expanding .577 minie balls to .385 dia. for .577 Snider.