Another Game Picture

[northmn]

http://i550.photobucket.com/albums/ii425/Davidpeck16/GrouseFowler/grouseFowler002.jpg

Kind of different from the rest but I just got this grouse with the flintlock fowler pictured. I have shown the gun before. I built it from a modern 12 ga. shot gun barrel I got at a gun show for $5. I split the stock blank out of a tree I cut off my place, and the parts were this and that I ahd accumulated over the years from building. I would like to brag a bit about the shot, but really it was a pot shot. Still it was with the flintlock.

Northmn

[home in oz]

Neat story, good hunt!

[idahoron]

Very well done! Ron

[roverboy]

I like the stock grain.

[DIRT Farmer]

northmn I don't think the writers for the big magazines would ever admidt that. It must have been the perfect day, impossible shot and the dog has perfect manners.

It is good to see people post using the guns our fore fathers (mothers to ) used to feed their families. Thanks

[kbstenberg]

There isn't a person alive that would not be proud of a picture like that.
Keep that silver stream flowing
Kevin

[northmn]

northmn I don't think the writers for the big magazines would ever admidt that. It must have been the perfect day, impossible shot and the dog has perfect manners.

It is good to see people post using the guns our fore fathers (mothers to ) used to feed their families. Thanks

Shooting a ruffed grouse on the fly while zipping through the brush is a challenge with a modern shotgun. As the years go by it gets to be a bigger challenge. I would love to have made up a more interesting story, but the truth is that while sometimes they will present a decent shot flying for a fowler, most shots will be taken as pot shots. They have gotten pretty wild around my area. They used to hold for pointers. The last time I used a pointer most would run like a pheasant and get up in very thick brush not offering a shot. While I love bird dogs, I can get more birds without one. I am also walking more miles and seeing fewer grouse due to the hunting pressure.

Northmn

[northmn]

http://i550.photobucket.com/albums/ii425/Davidpeck16/GrouseFowler/002.jpg

Got another one today but with a 20 bore smooth rifle I am in progress of building. Plan on installing a wood patchbox and do a little carving. Should finally get it finished this winter. I am helping to improve the species by eliminating the dumb ones.

Northmn

[Hanshi]

Northmn, I think I've seen a pic of that smoothie before but would you be so kind as to tell a bit more about it and possibly another pic or two?

[KCSO]

When I hit my first moving dove with a flinter I danced for joy. Shhoting flying with a traditional flinter is as good as it gets. Nice Grouse by the way are they all that big up there?

[northmn]

Northmn, I think I've seen a pic of that smoothie before but would you be so kind as to tell a bit more about it and possibly another pic or two?

They are two seperate guns, one is in the making and I really not going to show much of it until I finish it. The second picture is one I got with my smooth rifle, whcih is a ML basically built like a rifle except it uses a 42" smoothbore barrel. It shoots ball great and does work with shot. It has a rifle buttplate, trigger guard and other furniture following the Beck rifles. It also is built with a Large Siler lock where a fowler would have a larger lock.

http://i550.photobucket.com/albums/ii425/Davidpeck16/002.jpg
http://i550.photobucket.com/albums/ii425/Davidpeck16/003-1.jpg

I have shown this one before. It was made out of spare parts I had accumulated over the years in my shop. The barrel was off a junked single shotone I picked up at a gun show for $5.00, I had picked up the lock earlier but ahd to buy a plate and frizzen as it had originally been really cobled up. The stock I cut myself and it is setting on the sister stock. The rest of the parts were the spares. It is kind of patterned after a late English flintlock.

Northmn

[northmn]

When I hit my first moving dove with a flinter I danced for joy. Shhoting flying with a traditional flinter is as good as it gets. Nice Grouse by the way are they all that big up there?

Someday I am going to find a grouse unlucky enough to be had flying. They pretty fast and zipping through a lot of brush. The second one was not all that big, its getting late enough so that they are really feathering out. They pretty tasty too.

Northmn

[roverboy]

Did you have much trouble putting a breechplug on the modern barrel?

[MT Gianni]

Nice shooting and nice looking guns.

[Hanshi]

Did you have much trouble putting a breechplug on the modern barrel?

My thoughts exactly roverboy. I do like your gun, Northmn.

[DIRT Farmer]

I was part of releasing ruff grouse in the Hoosier National forest many years ago and for some strange reason I have never went back to try hunting them. I have shot a few wild quail with my 28 gauge trade gun, a 42 inch barrel gets intersting in a locust thicket. On preserve hunts the trade gun just helps to make it intersting. My origonal Belgin hardware store double 11ga makes a good hunting gun, but without the "cool" factor of the flint gun. The "guides"on put and take hunt have looked at me like I was green or something when I brought out my gun but it does well in the open fields most have to hunt.

[northmn]

Did you have much trouble putting a breechplug on the modern barrel?

I have shot grouse with a percussion double which I sold a few years ago and with BP cartridge guns with double hammer which is also a riot. The flintlock would be fun for a flying grouse but the combination of time to pull back the hammer and ignition lag does seem to make a difference.
Putting a breech plug in a modern barrel requires either that you cut off the breech about 2" or that you do as I did and cut it off about 1" and install a long breech plug for the rest of the chamber depth. this barrel was 2 3/4 chambered. I used a 7/8 fine thread plug and was able to tap it as the chamber was larger. If I make another in the future I will drill it using the recommended drill size. I then drilled a 1/2" hole in the face of the breech plug to within 5/8" of the breech to get a normal lock fit. This is referred to as a Nock breech. As a 12 bore usually takes a pretty heavy charge it works well but one does have to use a minimum charge of about 60 grains or so. I measured the amount to see once and it was something like that. Its a pain to clean, but not too bad. I used a 410 slotted jag and clean the breech face and a regular ML jag for the bore. I also reamed out some of the choke as a full choke makes loading more difficult and I did not need one. I probably have about a IC or skeet choke now. This method was recommended to me by member builders on the American Long Rifles site. Also remember that this was a barrel proofed for modern cartridges and not the normal BP steel.

Northmn

[roverboy]

Well you did a great job. I lke it a lot.