koger
02-20-2014, 09:19 PM
Got out a old favorite rifle I built nearly 20 years ago yesterday. I lubed up 50 bullets and plan on getting it out this spring. It is a .45 caliber, .451 bore, 30"with a 1-20 twist, 1" across the flats. I was at Friendship, shooting the NMLRA matches, and ran across a deal on this barrel and a.32, both for $100, sold the .32 half an hour later for $100. I picked up a breech plug, had a lock, triggers and guard, took the barrel to the truck. On the way back, happened to look into the dumpster, found a hawken style stock blank, inletted for 1" and had a windcheck/crack in the end of the butt. I dug it out an took it to the truck, figuring the LOP was way to long, when I got home, cut the stock to fit me, nearly all the crack was gone, acraglassed the rest of it, turned out the stock had fair curl to it! I made a heavy duty drum and rib to the barrel, cut 2 dovetails, and browned it. The barrel was made out of modern 4140 Chrome Moly steel, very hard to machine.
Over the nest 5 months I worked off and on, assembled a fair copy of a Whitmore LR rifle, as seen in the Walter Cline book. I had also ordered a Rapine 5 grease groove slug mold, 430 grains with flat tip, made from pure lead. I drilled and tapped the midddle of the barrel, added a Burris 2.75 scout scope and started working up loads. With 95 grs, 2ffg, musket cap and a felt wad under the slug, it shot right out of the gate. With me holding up my end, it would shoot a ragged hole at 100yds, and keep 5 shots touching at 200, or close to it!! I ended up killing 3 deer with it, and it was overkill if anything. Two does were dropped in their tracks. I shot a big 8pt in our late ML season, at about 75yds, I was on one ridge sitting on a rock, he came down the opposite ridge chasing a young doe, only shot offered was a Texas heart shot up the rear, which I took. The slug hit the joint in the ham and thru, thru sevral ribs, out the shoulder an thru the neck and hit the clay bank in fron of him, the buck trainwrecked. I made my way over there, field dressed him and only then when getting a handful of leaves to wipe my hands off, did I see where the bullet had hit the clay bank. I stuck a limb I cut off into the hole, was about 12 inches deep. I dug out the slug and pocketed it, put it on my reloading bench when I got back home. A couple of days later, I took a brush and washed all the gore and mud off the bullet, and it was in good shape, nice rifling engraving. It was mushroomed to .90 caliber and still weighed 409 grains.
That next summer I added a TC vernier mid range tang site, and a globe front with inserts, used the fine wire one sticking up with no head. I could get no closer than 200yds, with the glob bottomed out, but used to to groundhog hunt quiet a bit, I had permisson to hunt on nearly 40 farms here in KY, and made some nice shots with the setup, my longest whistle pig being 325 yds, prone. I missed him the first 2 times I shot at him, but my 3rd trip back I had the elevation, and at the bullet impact he did 2 cartwheels before landing on the ground in the soybean field. Later that year at a friends 500 yd range where they shoot Benchrest, Modern high dollar bolt guns, I was up there and got to shooting at a man silhouette at the long distance, and got 9 hits in a row on a calm day one evening right before sunset. After playing with this gun for 2 years, I saw what they are capable of at long distance, and truly amazed me. I just thought I would share, and could email a pic if somone could post it for me.
Over the nest 5 months I worked off and on, assembled a fair copy of a Whitmore LR rifle, as seen in the Walter Cline book. I had also ordered a Rapine 5 grease groove slug mold, 430 grains with flat tip, made from pure lead. I drilled and tapped the midddle of the barrel, added a Burris 2.75 scout scope and started working up loads. With 95 grs, 2ffg, musket cap and a felt wad under the slug, it shot right out of the gate. With me holding up my end, it would shoot a ragged hole at 100yds, and keep 5 shots touching at 200, or close to it!! I ended up killing 3 deer with it, and it was overkill if anything. Two does were dropped in their tracks. I shot a big 8pt in our late ML season, at about 75yds, I was on one ridge sitting on a rock, he came down the opposite ridge chasing a young doe, only shot offered was a Texas heart shot up the rear, which I took. The slug hit the joint in the ham and thru, thru sevral ribs, out the shoulder an thru the neck and hit the clay bank in fron of him, the buck trainwrecked. I made my way over there, field dressed him and only then when getting a handful of leaves to wipe my hands off, did I see where the bullet had hit the clay bank. I stuck a limb I cut off into the hole, was about 12 inches deep. I dug out the slug and pocketed it, put it on my reloading bench when I got back home. A couple of days later, I took a brush and washed all the gore and mud off the bullet, and it was in good shape, nice rifling engraving. It was mushroomed to .90 caliber and still weighed 409 grains.
That next summer I added a TC vernier mid range tang site, and a globe front with inserts, used the fine wire one sticking up with no head. I could get no closer than 200yds, with the glob bottomed out, but used to to groundhog hunt quiet a bit, I had permisson to hunt on nearly 40 farms here in KY, and made some nice shots with the setup, my longest whistle pig being 325 yds, prone. I missed him the first 2 times I shot at him, but my 3rd trip back I had the elevation, and at the bullet impact he did 2 cartwheels before landing on the ground in the soybean field. Later that year at a friends 500 yd range where they shoot Benchrest, Modern high dollar bolt guns, I was up there and got to shooting at a man silhouette at the long distance, and got 9 hits in a row on a calm day one evening right before sunset. After playing with this gun for 2 years, I saw what they are capable of at long distance, and truly amazed me. I just thought I would share, and could email a pic if somone could post it for me.