cast actions

[G-Smith]

Is ther any body out there still making or casting single shot rifle kits?

[Boz330]

Frontier Armory. A friend bought one of their Highwall kits. He hasn't finished it yet.

Bob

[oldred]

Frontier Armory. A friend bought one of their Highwall kits. He hasn't finished it yet. Bob



Do they still offer that kit? Before I did my Highwall custom build I searched in vain for a casting kit but although some had been offered in the past they were all out of production now, I went back to Frontier Armory's site (New Frontier Armory?) and looked around but I can't find any casting kits. Maybe I am overlooking them but if they still have them I have a friend that's going to be delighted to know this!

I eventually just machined my Highwall receiver and internal parts from a solid bar of 4140 HT and I am as of now in the process of doing the same thing to build a scaled down "Baby" Highwall. The reason I find your post so interesting is that I have a buddy that has been hounding me to rough out a receiver blank for him but I can't legally do that so I had to turn him down.

[Boz330]

It has been awhile since he got his kit so things might have changed. I didn't try and pull up the site. It was like pulling teeth to get the kit but he did finally get it.

The kit that I thought was the simplest and neat was the Ferris action.

You could let your friend build the action on your tooling and with your "intense supervision" and mentoring.:wink:

Bob

[Bambeno]

You could legally build the reciever to an 80% or less complete and still be ok. He would have to do the finial finish work to make it an actual reciever.

[oldred]

You could legally build the reciever to an 80% or less complete and still be ok. He would have to do the finial finish work to make it an actual reciever.




Actually that was the plan but I am still concerned about what could be considered 80% and while it may be that I am worried about nothing there is unfortunately a reason for it. Seems there are some "busy bodies" locally who would like nothing more than to cause some shooting friends and me as much grief as possible. Odd ball bunch these guys, I live so far out in the boonies on a ridge here in Tn that my shooting can hardly even be heard by any neighbors but these weirdos called the police when they learned I had committed the heinous crime of building a couple of rifles, one of them a muzzleloader.



The really funny part is the county deputy that was sent out to see what the complaint was about wound up staying for a couple of hours chatting about guns, hunting and the growing local wild Turkey population, he simply laughed about the complaints since a 130 year old design single shot rifle with a 32" barrel is hardly an illegal weapon.

[Idaho Sharpshooter]

have him buy the various and sundry parts and just "assist" him in machining/fitting them.
The other part of the equation is not having to tell everybody either of you know.

Rich

[scb]

Do they still offer that kit? Before I did my Highwall custom build I searched in vain for a casting kit but although some had been offered in the past they were all out of production now, I went back to Frontier Armory's site (New Frontier Armory?)


New Frontier Armory https://www.newfrontierarmory.com doesn't appear to be the same as,
http://www.frontierarmory.com/

[oldred]

New Frontier Armory https://www.newfrontierarmory.com doesn't appear to be the same as,
http://www.frontierarmory.com/




Thanks that explains a lot, I will have Dave (the fellow I was talking about wanting the casting kit) give them a call and see what they have. I may be way off here on this one but I heard there was a small foundry that cast a bunch of those Highwall kits some years ago and several of these were sold by a couple of different people, they have since ceased production. The kits were of very high quality and were cast from 8620 steel but as of a little over a year ago none were left available for sale that I could find anyway.

Thanks again for the info.

[blindeye]

The Upper Missouri Trading Co. offers a Remington Hepburn in two stages of completion. $400 & $600. The extra money gets a bunch of machining; some of which could be difficult for a hobbiest to do. I have the more expensive kit, but it's still a little intimidating; not in difficulty but the amount of work still left to do. There's no way I'd contemplate the cheaper kit. But...other guys are more capable than I am and have better equipment. I didn't pay anywhere near the current price; luckily found another guy who realized he'd bitten off more than he could chew. Decent website, with a article on a build to completion.

[oldred]

This really got my interest up in the Highwall castings kit but I have been searching without luck the last couple of days for more info on these things. I can find the same links and and discussions at gun sites that I found a couple of years ago but it seems anything I have found dated past about the middle of 2010 is from people who are also trying to find these kits. Apparently they were last produced about 4 or 5 years ago and have not been reproduced since, this is the conclusion I have come to but I could very well be wrong. There would seem to me to be enough interest in these kits to make it a good selling item but for some reason it apparently is not, liability reasons maybe?



One option that might be considered is Taylors,

http://www.taylorsfirearmsstore.com/1885SingleShotRifleHighWallParts.htm


Every piece of the Highwall can be purchased here but of course the receiver would have to go through a dealer for the proper paperwork to keep the feds happy. These are all finished parts that would require only minor fitting but collectively they would cost more than just buying a completed rifle, still a person could buy the receiver or any other parts he might not want to make.

Just a thought

[Naphtali]

Is ther any body out there still making or casting single shot rifle kits?There was/is?? a gunsmith in Colorado or Utah who created a parallel business casting 1895 Farquharson kits of [a] chrome-molybdenum steel or Armco 17-4PH. He also sold assembled actions and barreled actions.

While he ceased this business several years ago, he had many kits in inventory - at very reasonable prices.

While I think I remember his name as Robertson, I know he is deaf (memorable). I queried about man and kits on accurate rifles forum. If you have interest and cannot locate a link, let me know. I may have contact information archived.

Hope this helps.

[Denny303]

I have done a lot of digging into this also, the only source that i have found for castings that may be reasonably priced is here:

http://therifleshoppe.com/catalog_pages/single_shot_parts/(single_shot_parts).htm

they do the reciever castings that Frontier Armory used to make. For the recievers you must call for a price on btw, as they dont list the price or availability.

Building your own firearms is not illegal btw, provided you are within legal parameters such as barrel length, it not being full auto, and that you are legally allowed to own or use a firearm and are not a felon, and the fact that the firearm is not allowed to be sold, are just a few of the requirements. Hope this helps! Denny

[oldred]

Actually they can be sold/gifted or otherwise transferred but it is kind of fuzzy about what's legal, easy enough to do but I would not attempt to interpret the exact details of law here and anyone considering transferring one of these scratch built guns needs to check the laws themselves. What gets fuzzy is the law does get kind of vague about how many guns may be transferred in a given period and of course a serial number has to be created and placed on the receiver. Basically if the firearm is of a legal design and only one or two are sold or passed as a gift then a person should be on solid legal ground PROVIDED ALL THE RULES ARE FOLLOWED! If however a person builds and transfers more than an "occasional" (I think that's the term the feds use) firearm then they need a manufacturer's license which is going to be prohibitively expensive and complicated to get unless a person is going into regular production or taking custom orders. So yes it can be done BUT be aware of the laws involved and make sure all the rules are followed!

[lkydvl]

I have several as cast Clerke receivers. They take Highwall parts.

http://s52.photobucket.com/albums/g5/lkydvl/Clerkes/

Am currently looking for someone to make me sets of internal parts for 20 receivers.

Am open to options on doing so, cash, trade, swap for receivers etc.

Please email me at lkydvl@hotmail.com if you are interested.

Andre'

[John Taylor]

Boulder River Foundry, (406) 932-6540, has high wall casting kits. I have bought several parts from them over the years. They make the castings for Sharps.
lkydvl, I might be interested in looking at what you need done.

[Idaho Sharpshooter]

Boulder River is owned by Shiloh Sharps. Their stuff is all top drawer...

Rich

[oldred]

Apparently Boulder doesn't have a web site and that's why they were so hard to find, I sure overlooked them. I did manage to find a pic of the kit, the customer must decide which version (single vs set trigger, pistol grip, etc,) but this pic shows all the parts for both versions. These are raw castings and will require a set of prints to complete but all the parts are there for someone with the equipment and determination to create a nice custom built rifle. Building this rifle from scratch is very much possible also and just looking at the raw parts in the kit and considering set-up time and the amount of machining required that may be an option. That's what I did with my first Highwall and is what I am doing with the scaled down "Baby" Highwall I am building now, considering the much easier setup when working with flat surfaces and having an established edge to work from it's not all that much more work than machining the castings or at least it seems that way to me.

[Hamish]

Don't know if this helps at all, but:

http://kwk.us/FA/

[Texantothecore]

Thanks for the info. I have emails sent to one of the maufacturers...


Could be a great project.

[Idaho Sharpshooter]

Helpful (?) Upgrade...

The Spring 2012 Issue of the Black Powder Cartridge News arrived today.

"For Catalog: Email wes@frontierarmory.com or www,frontierarmory.com. Call 405-794-9171 evenings."

hope this is of assistance,

Rich

[oldred]

Thanks for the info. I have emails sent to one of the maufacturers...


Could be a great project.



Do you have a set of drawings? The fellow I mentioned earlier that also wants one of these kits got a nice set of drawings from E-Bay for about $30. I looked them over and they are large, very high quality and seem to be complete, heck of a bargain for the price.


I'm not sure if posting a link to an E-Bay seller would be in violation of forum rules but a search there for 1885 highwall will bring up the listing if anyone is interested.

[Multigunner]

I wonder if Zamac alloy would be suitable for a .22 rimfire drop block receiver?

[trevj]

Y'know, it'd probably work just fine, but there are stronger materials available that machine as easy, like some of the higher tempers of 7075 (a zinc alloyed Aluminum) in, say, a -T6 or higher state (seen up to -T11 listed).

Or just go with what has worked for a hundred years and use steel. The cutting it out is the least of the worries in the grand scheme. It takes all the same time to set up, lay out, and generally carefully create the breech block, in whatever material you choose.

Anything with a bunch of zinc in it will rot if left to it's own devices, so consider that too. Goes for 7075, in spades. Lots of effort goes into corrosion prevention on airplane parts made of the stuff!

Cheers
Trev

[oldred]

The 45/90 Highwall I built and the scaled down "baby" Highwall I am building now are made from 4140 HT, this steel machines beautifully and has a hardness of 28 to 32 Rc without further heat treating. 4140 is extremely strong and IMO the perfect choice unless color case is desired, in that case 8620 should be used. I am almost sure the casting kits are 8620 (ALMOST sure anyway) so if color case is wanted for the receiver it should be no problem. I bought a 1 1/2"x3" bar of the 4140 alloy and machined the receiver, breechblock and most of the internal parts from that (the hammer and sear are O1 tool steel), I may get some disagreement but I don't see where that casting kit will save all that much work except for maybe the external contours of the receiver. In my case I modified the internals to eliminate the screw heads and sear pin ends from appearing on the outside of the receiver and to allow for easy trigger adjustment so there are a few more parts inside and the design is somewhat different but basically it still follows John Browning's/Winchester's design. This receiver is fairly easy to make since all internal points can be machined from the bottom and top with no inaccessible areas that would need to be clearance cut free-hand with a grinder. I don't yet have a mill (still looking for that Bridgeport deal) so I built mine on my 14x40 lathe using a home-made milling attachment and a couple of other tools I cobbled together for this project, with a mill it would be a bunch easier!