...........Note: The idea came from an early "Handloader" or "Rifle" magazine, and the title of the article therein was the 'Asperly Aimless'.
My iteration consisted of 3 posts on the "Single Shot" forum at the old Shooters.com BB. These were dated from Jan 12th to Jan 16th, 1998.
..........I recently came across the name of Proff Brutus Asperly in some casual reading, and recalled his remarkable firearms invention, the Asperly Aimless series of rifles. In fact I had been almost successfull in expunging from my memory the fact that I did in fact still own one. I felt that by now I might be safe in re-aquainting myself with the piece.
I then went outside and removed the Asperly from where it was propping up a corner of my wife's potting bench. As I stood there holding it, my mind went back to when it had become mine. I'm sure all of you can recall such incidents yourselves. I had the 'Need', and you know how that goes. The haggleing was long and drawn out. Both the owner and I were growing weary of the back and forth offers and counter offers. It was becoming acrimonious and I could get him to go no higher.
Giving up, I pocketed his hard earned $30 and shouldering the Asperly, I went home. Reference material on these is scarce to the point of being non-existant. I suppose it wasn't well advertised and owners may have been reluctant to mention owning one?
Regardless, I have done my best in determining the model of which I became the owner. I have come to beleive that this is the Asperly Grande Deluxe Spontaneous Model, MkII. The Target version at that. I further believe it had been owned by a target shooting team, as the initials AT&SF are branded into the stock. As further evidence of it being a target model, what I thought at first were spare cartridge recepticals are in fact places for addition weight.
There are 4 such places and after much experimentation I have found that cheap and easy to come by railroad spikes fit handily into each hole. This allows weight regulation. The stock is also very well weatherproofed. The stock is also fully checkered in what appears to be the rasp and hammer method, an early forerunner of the more common impressed type checkering.
Beyond assertaining it to be the Target version, strong evidence of it being also of Grande Deluxe lineage (and the MkII at that) is how the stamped sheet metal breech block and cotter key breech locking device are both fully engraved. Bear in mind too that the cotter key is retained by a BRASS bead chain. The engraving is very tastefully done with what was apparently a prick punch and single jack.
As an example, on the side of the action, what some have thought to be a dog pointing at a turkey, is in fact a dog pointing. However under close examination it comes to light that he is using his left rear leg to point not at a turkey but a bush. There must be quail under it. Scenes of this type are not often seen on the more mundane firearms.
To leave the firearm for a moment, we should know the reason for the good proffessors developement of these rather unique firearms. While not a hunter or even a 'Gun Guy' himself, he felt that there was no longer any real sport in game hunting with the modern cartridges available. Add to that the magic of rangefinding scopes, scent killing clothes, etc and etc. In addition to that, with such things, the poor hunter's entire experience is over way too fast. So our exceptional Prof Brutus Asperly conjured up a means to give both the game animal and the hunter a much richer experience.
In the next installment I'll explain and describe the rather unusual sights, loading proceedure, and if I feel up to it we might even fire it.
....................Buckshot
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) about the original .45-.22 Asperly Aimless (.22 rimfire necked up). Is yours still in the original caliber or is it a rebore?? We want loading info...
You SHOT that thing!
