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joeb33050
10-24-2006, 07:52 AM
COMMENTS? CORRECTIONS? I have nice pictures of a slug gun in this, don't know how to make them come out.
8.4.3 CAP LOCK TARGET RIFLES AND SLUG GUNS

Target rifles are commonly heavier rifles designed to shoot offhand or from the bench.
Slug guns are target rifles with great big barrels sometimes three inches in diameter, intended for bench rest shooting only. They can easily weigh more than fifty pounds. They are frequently under-hammer guns-where the hammer is on the bottom of the gun and snaps UP when the trigger is depressed.
These guns are shot with either a patched elongated bullet or a patched round ball, or an unpatched grease groove or "naked" bullet. Frequently there is a false muzzle involved.

Here's a 43 caliber under hammer gun intended for bench rest shooting or offhand shooting by a very big guy.

This picture shows the under hammer arrangement. Note that the trigger guard is the mainspring, and the whole firing mechanism is as simple and has as few parts as possible.









Here's the muzzle of the rifle with the false muzzle attached. The big round thing sticking up is to obstruct the line of sight and keep the shooter from shooting the false muzzle into the weeds.





The false muzzle is made for use with either a one-piece paper cross patch or two pieces of paper making the patch. The paper patch material is placed in the grooves, the bullet is started into the enlarged and tapered false muzzle hole, then pushed into the bore with the starter and seated on the powder with the rod.








The rifle muzzle showing the alignment holes for the false muzzle; which has pins that go into those four holes.












Some guns have an arrangement that has a primer enclosed in an apparatus, the apparatus thing is hit by the hammer, setting off the primer, setting off the charge. This has two advantages-it lights off the charge faster and better than a percussion cap and it encloses the primer so that no gas can escape from the breech, thus solving the problem with the conventional nipple and large charges.
I've watched the slug gun matches at Fort Ticonderoga, seen Marlin Bassett and Ken Bresein shooting these monsters. As expected, the elongated-bullet groups are wonderful, and the round ball groups are just amazing sometimes.