1000 Yard 45 Caliber Muzzle Loader is Together...Named Big Louie after our Maine Coon

[oldracer]

Finally....after 14 coats of lacquer, a LOT of sanding and polishing I have put the rifle together for a final test fit to see where I need to do any scraping such as the bend under the breech tang so the hook breech fits together better. Everything else seems to be fine and the trigger and lock fit well and work well. I bought the parts from Pecatonia Supply and the stock was a fancy tiger maple which was a bit extra. I figure 80gr or 120gr of FFG under a 540gr pure lead bullet sized to .449 will be fine as the test firing a couple weeks ago showed it was spot on at 100 yards. 97012970139701497015

[John Allen]

Oldracer, that is a beauty.

[Maven]

Wow! Spectacular: Hope it shoots even better than it looks, if that's even possible!

[Squeeze]

that is Sweet! Looks awesome! :drinks:

[johnson1942]

thanks for the post, both beautiful and shoots good, doesnt get better than that. have fun

[oldracer]

Thanks everyone. I have not polished the stock yet as I plan to wait about a month to let the paint fully cure and my local source is out of Rottenstone polishing powder. They had Pumice and I have some very fine polish from my motorcycle painting days. So I plan to use it a couple times at the range and then do the polishing.

[DIRT Farmer]

Try some where between 75 to 90 grains of Goex ffg. My Gibbs came in at 87 of Goex. I have some Olde Ensford ffg to try but have not tryed it yet. Swiss 1 1/2 should be 10% less.

[koger]

That is a beauty, but more of a Sheuchtzen design, don't it kick bad! I have a copy of a Whitmore, that I built some time ago, 1-20 twist, 451 bullets, 90grains-105 does well in it.

[oldracer]

Yes Koger, it did kick pretty good with 80gr of FFG and I think it is the butt plate design. I am not sure though as I have not weighed yet but it does feel heavier than my Pedersoli Gibbs bit that one has an almost flat butt plate. The barrel is a 34 inch long 1 inch non tapered design with 1 in 18 twist and the brass hooked butt plate also weighs a ton. I plan to put some rounds through it manana so we'll see.

[idahoron]

Good looking gun but I want to see a picture of the cat too! Ron

[bigted]

very nice job!

[johnson1942]

please post a picture when you rub it out. it is beautiful now but when you rub it out it will be like 3D.

[oldracer]

97140Here's a picture of the rifle's name sake. Note he is bigger than our male pug who weighs about 16 pounds!

[johnson1942]

thanks for the post, we have jiggs, squeeks and jasper here also would like to have a maine coon also some day, hes a good looking cat.

[idahoron]

My brother in laws Mane coon is HUGE I bet he is over 4 foot long from tip of tail to tip of nose. Ron

[tomme boy]

Nice! What kind of Lacquer did you use? I use to sell PPG, DuPont, House of Color, RM paint. I really liked RM till the place I worked for was bought out and we had to sell all DuPont.