My 45 Caliber Under Hammer is Getting Finished!

[oldracer]

Getting finished after ordering the parts last fall. Seems no one is making fast twist (1 in 18) 45 caliber barrels right now and I found one from an old guy in WI, thanks a million Emery! There are 15 coats of clear lacquer on the wood right now so I'll shoot it tomorrow and let the finish set for a week or two, sand the hell out of it then shoot another 8 or 10 coats. The barrel and action finish took 3 coats of Oxpho Blue and came out nice and even.167841167842167843

[koger]

Nice!

[Bo1]

Very nice looking

[Earlwb]

it is looking good. I love your awesome rear adjustable peep sight too. Nice.

[BPJONES]

Nice looking rifle. Have you made other under hammers?

[victorfox]

Cool man! I Love underhammer designs. I plan to build a musket someday when i find the time. Muzzleloaders are illegal here unless 100-plus old. Nothing that an ugly piece of wood, artificially put rust and some carving don't fix.... ;)

[johnson1942]

old racer, it doesnt get better than that one for planning, and looks. you put together a gun that will do the 800 to 1000 yards or any distance you want. thats the real deal, it also will never misfire and im sure the breech will have very little fouling. give us a detailed range report. if anyone want a target or hunter, pattern your gun after this one.

[oldracer]

Wow.....no "new" muzzle loaders? I have a friend that has 6 or 8 that were built in the 1890's or so and if interested? Even in the gun unfriendly state of CA we can build, buy, trade, etc muzzle loaders as long as they can never be used with a cartridge. The state, when writing their gun laws got so confused about muzzle loaders, they referred to the Federal Regulations and they say new copies are okay!

Roger, thanks for the nice words and it will look as great as that 50 caliber I have that you made once I get done! I have already shot it once and plan to go again tomorrow. I noted there is more "jump" when shot with the same load as my Pedersoli Gibbs and I think it is because it is lighter? No kick though thank goodness!

[725]

That looks fabulous. Can you show design aspects of the receiver? More eye candy!!

[oldracer]

The action is an Allen and I found a picture of one with a partial disassembly view. The lock nut is the adjustment for trigger pull it appears and I have mine set at 2# currently. I looked around and there does not seem to be any double set trigger assemblies for an under hammer commercially available although there are some here and there.

[johnson1942]

when you shoot it ,tell us if the breech is cleaner than a sidelock or the same? its a question thats been in my mind for a long time. you could polish the sear of the trigger on a buffing wheel with polishing powder and it would have great smooth let of. keep us in the loop.

[oldracer]

When I took the rifle to the range a couple weeks ago I used the #11 nipple and percussion cap. The goop in the base of the barrel was a lot lighter than with a side lock, but there was a slight build up in the hole the nipple screwed into. It had a small hole through it and I initially thought it was a part of the barrel but it was easily removed with a pick. The 209 adapter is a bit longer so I will have to see how it burns.

In Major Roberts' book, he mentions increased accuracy, better powder burn and better repeatability with an under hammer especially when used with "primer" adapters and they could be either center fire or shotgun types. I like the 209 as they are very easy to handle although I do use a drill bit to clean out fowling when I pull the primer out. That makes using them easier.

[johnson1942]

keep us in the loop.

[oldracer]

Well went to the range today and shot a dozen rounds and got tired so ended things. The good news first, at 50 yards away the first shot was a bit high, then 4 touching. I adjusted the tang sight right and up a bit and then 5 more touching right at the center of my home made shoot-n-see target. This was with the same load, bullet, wad, ETC that I have used in both my Gibbs and home made slug gun (90 gr Goex FFG, .060 fiber wad, 540 gr BACO Creedmoor lubed bullet with no compression of the powder).

The bad news, half way through I had to pull the 209 adapter as I could not get the spent primer out. The reason was because I could not get my drill bit in the opening to clean out the fouling from the last primer! The under hammer-hammer was in the way so tonight I cut a drill bit down a bit so it will let me get rid of fouling. On a happy note, the impact of the bullet did not change when switching from 209's to #11 caps? Some chrono testing might be in order possibly?

[johnson1942]

if you go back to the 209 primer nipple put some spit under the cap when you put the cap on. when the primer goes off it will turn the spit to steam and make the shot gun primer come out easier. i also have a very very small pliers in my pocket for getting the primers out of the nipple. love the gun

[victorfox]

Oldracer, I live in Brazil and the commie govt makes everything it can to take our guns of us. But we are stubborn... Would you believe the police routinely go tru rural areas and confiscate the old guys smokepoles? That is, a senior of about 70, having his old .40, .50 smoothbore (meaning here a shotgun of about .410, 32ga size) taken away and he going to jail? That's what happens behind the curtain...

[oldracer]

Wow, Brazil sure has changed since I was there in 1970 when I was on the USS Enterprise CVA(N) 65 during it's move to CA from VA. We only stopped in RIO so I did not get to see very much of the country. From the news we get here, there are lots of problems there and maybe some day they will get better. As I mentioned, we were lucky that CA just referenced the Federal laws when it comes to muzzle loaders as they could not figure them out!

[johnson1942]

they will have to start buying cross bows in brazil, darn good way to go if you cant have a firearm.

[Fly]

SWEET RIFLE! You did a great job.

Fly

[bubba.50]

The action is an Allen and I found a picture of one with a partial disassembly view. The lock nut is the adjustment for trigger pull it appears and I have mine set at 2# currently. I looked around and there does not seem to be any double set trigger assemblies for an under hammer commercially available although there are some here and there.



any way you could get a bigger picture of this? I'd like to see a little better how it works.

[victorfox]

Oldracer gone were The good old days... We have a law to be voted soon but now the main problem is to depose the prez.
Johnson, yes bows crossbows and airguns have quite a market here for this reason. I like them and have made some.self bows but stick to the "smokepole". We have a hard time to buy them permits licenses and such... If the new law passes we will be able to carry and yes we'll have legal ml...

[johnson1942]

i would just like to add a little more. i think the ideal long range target muzzle loader is the way oldracer built this one. it couldnt get more design perfect. also a good hunter with a shorter barrel in any cal. one would like to hunt with. how about a 13/16 barrel 28 inch long in 30 cal slow twist for rabbits and tree rats. may have to build one my self some day.

[oldracer]

Here is the link to the Allen lock pictures: https://images.search.yahoo.com/search/images?p=allen+under+hammer+action&fr=yfp-t-586-s&imgurl=http%3A%2F%2Fid3417.securedata.net%2Flongri fles-pr%2Fimages%2FAllenUnderhammer1.jpg#id=0&iurl=http%3A%2F%2Fid3417.securedata.net%2Flongrifl es-pr%2Fimages%2FAllenUnderhammer1.jpg&action=click


I bought the parts except for the barrel from Pecatonica River and they said most any barrel can be fitted as long as the threads can be cut. I would not want to try swapping barrels due to the seal where it is threaded to the action.

[mazo kid]

John, you are doing a great job! Glad I could help. Did you do the checkering?

[W.R.Buchanan]

When I saw this thread I immediately thought it was a Hopkins and Allen Gun which is one of my all time favorite Muzzleloaders .

Very simple and also a very sleek design which I wish I had bought back in the day when they were available.

Yours is pretty cool too!

After doing a search I found the outfit that makes the actions and they have the Simple Under Hammer version available as well.

I might just put one of these together.

Randy

[oldracer]

Hey there Emery, yes I muddled through the checkering and it is not too bad to do on maple as it is fairly hard and even in the grain. I have some pieces left over from making a new stock for that 50 caliber chuck gun and plan to do some practice more as it seems to be a losable skill. I have a master cutter set from Gunline tools and they work great. The barrel and action I flat filed for 4 or 5 days and then smoothed it with 320 and 400 paper. I used 3 coats of Oxpho Blue and it came out nice and dark. I have one more sanding and a final spray of the clear lacquer and the stock should be finished? I polish after a couple of weeks.

[johnson1942]

fine pumice powder until, you cant get it smoother, then go to HUTS plastic polish. you wont believe the results.

[dondiego]

Where can I find this HUTS plastic polish?

[oldracer]

I bought some a few years ago after Roger laid out his steps for finishing a lacquer finish for me. The fact I had bought one of his fine (very fine) muzzle loaders helped some too! It is the final step after I use a mixture of pumice stone and oil for a few hours and then the HUTS is used. My hands and arms really take a beating due to the arthritis but in the end it is worth it.

http://www.hutproducts.com/prodinfo.asp?number=0106

[johnson1942]

HUTS can be bought off of the internet. it isnt costly either. it is used by many to make plastic windows on old sport cars and small planes new again. all oil finishes are a form of plastic and you can polish a finish out so smooth that it almost like it goes away and the grain of the wood will just jump out of any hardwood. again rub out with a very fine pumice and oil and when you get that as far as it will go the HUTS will make the finish way beyond anything you ever dreamed you could get out of your finish. if you took a new browning rifle with their high gloss finish and rubbed it out with HUTS you would take that finish way beyond anything browning did. good for restoring the headlight plastic covers on your cars and pickups, better than new. takes elbow grease but i figure my time is free so i dont count the elbow grease time. any hard wood stock you have now you can make better with HUTS. the only thing that comes close to it is brownells 5f polish. however it is a lot more expensive that HUTS. i was turned on to it from a friend who owned two small planes he used to check cattle on his 100,000 acre ranch. he redid the plastic windshields to like new once every year. they have 4000 head of cattle to keep tabs on. also the old corvette owners use it for the plastic back windows or something like that. you cant go wrong with HUTS.