Buckshot
03-23-2008, 05:03 AM
...............I had so much fun shooting the Whitworth at the clubs last 'Buffalo' shoot, I felt I needed to try the Rigby kit from Pecantonica River sever years back. Some photos:
http://www.fototime.com/79E8B23CAB84AC7/standard.jpg
This is the rifle.
http://www.fototime.com/103B7CD70CB7B7A/standard.jpg
It came with a rather short tang on the standing breech. I cut it off and welded on a piece of 1/2"x1/8" low carbon HR steel, shaped and inletted it. The original was WAY to short for a tang sight. The only thing I can figure is if you wanted a tang you either had to set it right on the wood or inlet a steel base to set it on.
I took a cheap 'Flip -Flop' type Italian made tang sight and cut the base of the staff off. I made a new base for the staff and MiG welded the staff to it. I made an attachement and silver soldered that to the tang. If you look closely at the attachment block on the tang you can see a slight channel. This is for the spring loaded plunger in the base of the staff. The staff will move forward if it hits something under recoil, but can be pulled back up to the same upright position.
The spring and plunger in the new staff base is the extracter spring and plunger from an M1 Garand. Just visible on top of the new staff base is a screwhead. This is a screw which bears on the plunger spring to adjust tension.
http://www.fototime.com/643BCEA85446EA3/standard.jpg
I was going to drill and tap the nipple bolster for a blow out plug but haven't gotten around to that yet. It's only been 6-7 years so ya gotta give me a chance to buckle down. The lock is an L&R and is actually a ***. A Davis English bar lock which is a 4 screw would have been better. Instead of the trigger sear carried on it's own bearing pin like a rifle like this would have, this L&R English Bar lock is the more common 3 screw where the sear is pivited on a bridle screw.
The tumbler DOES have a fly. The trigger is actually quite good but it took a lot of work and could be better.
http://www.fototime.com/BE135D6E73B7ADE/standard.jpg
The front sight. Back in the day of the long range muzzle loading match rifles the windage was adjusted up front. After all, you were standing there reloading and the front sight was right there too :-). This front sight is a unit from a Ag42B Swedish Ljungman 6.5mm gas operated semi auto rifle. However, it does have windage adjustment and the sight was inexpensive from Springfield Sporters. I cut the round barrel attachment off and filed the base to match the octagon barrel, then soldered it on.
The barrel is a Green Mountain 34" unit of 45 cal with an 18" twist. The front sight appears to be set back a bit, but that was common for these rifles as the muzzle could be 'freshend' a couple times without requireing the sight to be removed and replaced. I didnt place it so for muzzle freshening, but rather I contempated turning about an inch of it round to take a boolit starter. Something else I haven't gotten around to yet, either. The sight looks period so that's a plus.
What happened was about 2 years ago the arm on the tumbler that carries the stirrup for the mainspring broke off. I just stuck it back into the closet. As I mentioned, I decided I wanted to shoot it in the Buffalo silhuette match so out it came. I contacted "The Gun Works" and spoke to Suzi. A very nice lady. She checked and said they had the parts in stock and would get them out today (Monday, previous week). I had the new parts Wednesday of last week.
They were the wrong parts. Not their fault because the L&R lock on this rifle, is doubleing for an English bar lock but is actually a L&R right hand shotgun lock! I'd ordered the L&R Henry Sporting lock parts. The square hammer attaching point was timed differently, everything else being the same. I e-mailed them Thursday and Suzi suggested I send the entire lock with the old and new parts back to them. I did so on Monday of this week.
I got an e-mail from her Wednesday saying that they had the stuff and Joe (her husband) had assembled the new parts to the lock and oiled it :-). I had it in my hot hands today.
The previous week when I had called about the lock, I was also seeking some information about their barrels. In addition to being "The Gun Works", they're also "The Oregon Barrel Co". Suzi didn't have the info but said Joe was out of town, but she'd tell him to call. On Wednesday of last week he called.
What a neat guy. Actually both of them were like taking to family or good friends. We must have been on the phone for close to an hour. Joe acted like he had all the time in the world. Oregon barrel will make barrels to your specs in most any dimension you want including 8, 6 and 4 bore! They offer straight round, tapered round. Ditto Octagon and up to 34" long. You can spec your bore OD and your groove depth. You may also spec the twist you want, the number of lands and grooves, and your land and groove width (to a certain extent).
He said right now they were busy making double rifles. He said you send a double barrel shotgun and they'll turn it into a double rifle, regulated to place it's shots into a 3" circle at 50 yards. He said they just got done making one in 9.3x74R. He said he was lucky that he had a buddy doing the shooting and regulating as sometimes people want something like a 577 -2.75" and he couldn't stand that. However he was in the process of getting the stuff together to make one for himself using the Mag-Tech 28ga hulls and tapered for 54 caliber to make a double.
I was asking as I have a couple spare Snider actions and was thinking of making a half oct/half round 28" barreld Snider half stocked sporter with a 40" twist. Joe said that unless they had it in stock he asked for about 3 months lead time to produce a custom barrel. They also fit breech plugs if you're wanting a muzzle loader. Here's their address for the website:
http://www.thegunworks.com/GunIndex.cfm
................Buckshot
http://www.fototime.com/79E8B23CAB84AC7/standard.jpg
This is the rifle.
http://www.fototime.com/103B7CD70CB7B7A/standard.jpg
It came with a rather short tang on the standing breech. I cut it off and welded on a piece of 1/2"x1/8" low carbon HR steel, shaped and inletted it. The original was WAY to short for a tang sight. The only thing I can figure is if you wanted a tang you either had to set it right on the wood or inlet a steel base to set it on.
I took a cheap 'Flip -Flop' type Italian made tang sight and cut the base of the staff off. I made a new base for the staff and MiG welded the staff to it. I made an attachement and silver soldered that to the tang. If you look closely at the attachment block on the tang you can see a slight channel. This is for the spring loaded plunger in the base of the staff. The staff will move forward if it hits something under recoil, but can be pulled back up to the same upright position.
The spring and plunger in the new staff base is the extracter spring and plunger from an M1 Garand. Just visible on top of the new staff base is a screwhead. This is a screw which bears on the plunger spring to adjust tension.
http://www.fototime.com/643BCEA85446EA3/standard.jpg
I was going to drill and tap the nipple bolster for a blow out plug but haven't gotten around to that yet. It's only been 6-7 years so ya gotta give me a chance to buckle down. The lock is an L&R and is actually a ***. A Davis English bar lock which is a 4 screw would have been better. Instead of the trigger sear carried on it's own bearing pin like a rifle like this would have, this L&R English Bar lock is the more common 3 screw where the sear is pivited on a bridle screw.
The tumbler DOES have a fly. The trigger is actually quite good but it took a lot of work and could be better.
http://www.fototime.com/BE135D6E73B7ADE/standard.jpg
The front sight. Back in the day of the long range muzzle loading match rifles the windage was adjusted up front. After all, you were standing there reloading and the front sight was right there too :-). This front sight is a unit from a Ag42B Swedish Ljungman 6.5mm gas operated semi auto rifle. However, it does have windage adjustment and the sight was inexpensive from Springfield Sporters. I cut the round barrel attachment off and filed the base to match the octagon barrel, then soldered it on.
The barrel is a Green Mountain 34" unit of 45 cal with an 18" twist. The front sight appears to be set back a bit, but that was common for these rifles as the muzzle could be 'freshend' a couple times without requireing the sight to be removed and replaced. I didnt place it so for muzzle freshening, but rather I contempated turning about an inch of it round to take a boolit starter. Something else I haven't gotten around to yet, either. The sight looks period so that's a plus.
What happened was about 2 years ago the arm on the tumbler that carries the stirrup for the mainspring broke off. I just stuck it back into the closet. As I mentioned, I decided I wanted to shoot it in the Buffalo silhuette match so out it came. I contacted "The Gun Works" and spoke to Suzi. A very nice lady. She checked and said they had the parts in stock and would get them out today (Monday, previous week). I had the new parts Wednesday of last week.
They were the wrong parts. Not their fault because the L&R lock on this rifle, is doubleing for an English bar lock but is actually a L&R right hand shotgun lock! I'd ordered the L&R Henry Sporting lock parts. The square hammer attaching point was timed differently, everything else being the same. I e-mailed them Thursday and Suzi suggested I send the entire lock with the old and new parts back to them. I did so on Monday of this week.
I got an e-mail from her Wednesday saying that they had the stuff and Joe (her husband) had assembled the new parts to the lock and oiled it :-). I had it in my hot hands today.
The previous week when I had called about the lock, I was also seeking some information about their barrels. In addition to being "The Gun Works", they're also "The Oregon Barrel Co". Suzi didn't have the info but said Joe was out of town, but she'd tell him to call. On Wednesday of last week he called.
What a neat guy. Actually both of them were like taking to family or good friends. We must have been on the phone for close to an hour. Joe acted like he had all the time in the world. Oregon barrel will make barrels to your specs in most any dimension you want including 8, 6 and 4 bore! They offer straight round, tapered round. Ditto Octagon and up to 34" long. You can spec your bore OD and your groove depth. You may also spec the twist you want, the number of lands and grooves, and your land and groove width (to a certain extent).
He said right now they were busy making double rifles. He said you send a double barrel shotgun and they'll turn it into a double rifle, regulated to place it's shots into a 3" circle at 50 yards. He said they just got done making one in 9.3x74R. He said he was lucky that he had a buddy doing the shooting and regulating as sometimes people want something like a 577 -2.75" and he couldn't stand that. However he was in the process of getting the stuff together to make one for himself using the Mag-Tech 28ga hulls and tapered for 54 caliber to make a double.
I was asking as I have a couple spare Snider actions and was thinking of making a half oct/half round 28" barreld Snider half stocked sporter with a 40" twist. Joe said that unless they had it in stock he asked for about 3 months lead time to produce a custom barrel. They also fit breech plugs if you're wanting a muzzle loader. Here's their address for the website:
http://www.thegunworks.com/GunIndex.cfm
................Buckshot