Best guns you've made up?

[cpileri]

not the level of talent as you guys, but here is the tri-folding 10/22:

http://www.thehighroad.org/showthrea...43#post1344043

[Ballistics in Scotland]

Unlike mine, that sounds like the kind of work someone could earn a living at, instead of needing his head examined for trying, and being in a fair way to getting it. Still, what else could we be doing? Watching TV or reading about politics or something.

[LAGS]

This is a Belgian made British Bull-Dog that I got, and it too was missing the hammer.
Like you, I made a hammer out of wood for a pattern, and then duplicated it in steel.
This pistol chambers a 38 S&W cartridge, But, the front of the Cylinder is only .350 diameter, and the Groove Diameter is .340.
I have to size 9mm 125 gr cast slugs to .342 in a homemade sizer die, and then do a roll crimp to neck the case down to hold the bullet.
I have the gun shooting and now it is time to build a Shadow Box to display it on the wall.
This one is my " Sherlock Holmes " theme.
A Scottish plad background, a Ivory Dip Pipe, and Antique Magnifying Glass, and maybe a Old Glass Hyprodermic Syrenge.

[Der Gebirgsjager]

Ballistics in Scotland--Now that, Sir, is truly a gunsmithing accomplishment! Excellent work, and a bit of history restored. Certainly something to be proud of.

[Blackwater]

Lags, being a fan of Sherlock's, I'm green with envy! Now THAT is the kind of one-off stuff that I've REALLY come to appreciate! Ingenuity and symbolism do really yet live! Thanks for a great post.

[LAGS]

@ blackwater.
I did a old top break Forehand Wadsworth .32 S&W that was used by the Union Pacific Railroad police back around the turn of the century.
I did the Shadow Box with a replica Union Pacific railroad police badge, an battery mini lantern, a old railroad spike and a Leather Blackjack.
I sold it to an old retired guy that had worked for Union Pacific for 40 years.
He paid $300.00 for it.
The gun in Perfect condition was only worth $50.00 at best.

[Ballistics in Scotland]

Ballistics in Scotland--Now that, Sir, is truly a gunsmithing accomplishment! Excellent work, and a bit of history restored. Certainly something to be proud of.

Thank you for those kind words. LAGS reminds us that when it isn't for profit, we can do just as fine gunsmithing work on a cheap firearm as a valuable one.

Ah, Sherlock Holmes, and the days when you could make a murder thriller with just the one murder, and Holmes and Watson never did shoot anyone, except a beastly Andaman Islands pygmy with poison darts, who didn't really count.

Watson's old service revolver would have been a .450, and although an officer normally bought one of his choice for the service cartridge, was most likely the cartridge Adams. But Holmes never said "always carry a firearm east of Aldgate, Watson."

[Artful]

Watson's old service revolver would have been a .450, and although an officer normally bought one of his choice for the service cartridge, was most likely the cartridge Adams. But Holmes never said "always carry a firearm east of Aldgate, Watson."

Scan of G&A in 1976 Concerning the Holmes Firearms







http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0536970/quotes
The Creeping Man as part of the TV Show - The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes (1991):

Dr. Watson: You go armed?

Sherlock Holmes: Always carry a firearm east of Aldgate, Watson.

However, in the original Sherlock Holmes stories, Holmes never asks Watson to carry any arms when travelling east of Aldgate.

Aldgate is mentioned very prominently in the story - The Adventure of the Bruce-Partington Plans
but Holmes doesn't talk about any arms there.

[oldred]

I have posted pics of this rifle before and so was a bit hesitant join in but here goes anyway, this is a two thirds scale "Mini" highwall built from scratch with a switch barrel setup chambered in 22 WMR/17 HMR. I don't have decent pics of the barrel attach system but it has a lug machined onto the front of the receiver under the forearm that holds the barrel(s) in place, basically I just copied the idea Ruger uses on the 10/22. It may not be a true switch barrel in the sense that tools are required but nothing more than a common flat screwdriver and an Allen wrench, one screw drops the forearm and two Allen head capscrews hold the barrel wedge, it takes about three minutes to switch the barrel.



Picture0526141736_1.jpg

[rbertalotto]

Love working on old guns and building new ones!

Here is my Benchrest rifle


And lots of articles I've written on rifles I've built and saved are on my web site:

http://rvbprecision.com/firearms

And loads of pictures here:

http://public.fotki.com/Rbertalotto/...-that-go-bang/

[Bodean98]

Here is an old Elsie I refurbished for my uncle. This is one of my favorites.
Before:
and After:
This thing started out with a broken butt stock and severely dented and bent barrels. Story goes it was leaning against a manure spreader(with steel wheels) that moved, running over the shotgun!
I learned a lot redoing this piece. I did the CCH myself. Raised the dents in the barrels with a homemade dent raiser. Straightened the bends in the barrels. Repaired the broken butt stock and the over sanded areas from a previous rehab. recut the checkering to original. Deepened the 2 5/8" chambers to 2 3/4" and polished the bores. In the end she was nearly new!
Of course we had to take it out for a test drive!
I didn't want to give this one back!

[KCSO]

A Tennessee long rifle in 40 calibre that I made in my old shop. Maybe not the finest rifle but this gun was made all by hand using only period tools most of them hand made in the shop. The lock was assembled from a kit and I didn't rifle the barrel myself that was an Orion, the trigger guard is a modified casting from somewhere. But the rest was done with planes, post drill breast drill chisels and scrapers. The stock was scraped and boned and then given coats of home made French oil. The bone and antler on the butt stock were harvested here. The screws were all taken from antique sewing machines I salvaged and the pins were forged and turned with a file. I would guess that between the tools I had to make and the hand forged parts there is well over 100 hours here and it was a match winner too.

[Blackwater]

WOW! I've long sensed an AWFUL LOT of talent here, but few really good examples of your work have been posted, which is why I started this thread. I have to say that it's been even better than I'd hoped. Old Red, you really touched my heart with that little jewel, and KCSO and you other muzzleloader builders, you really spur my passions with the results of your work. The one rifle that I've always wanted to build, and just haven't ever had the time to really give my best to, is making my own KY/PA long rifle. You guys REALLY make it hard NOT to start. I have a full length stock blank a friend sent me some years back. It's straight grain, but I figured I'd try the rope trick to make it look like curly. There really IS an awful lot of artistry and talent in wood and metal here, which is why I've been reading this section for years. I have some neuropathy in my hands now, and just can't do some things like I used to, but I knew an old dentist and WWII vet that used to collect and restore (authentically) 1890 Winchesters, and he had the same thing, only worse. He just took longer, but when it's a labor of love, that's not that big a deal. I'd really like to leave at least one good old flinter for my son and grandboys one day.

I also have an old Elsie that's mainly due to my eldest uncle. He was "de shootinest gennamin" in our family, and I honestly believe he could have given Bogardus a run for his money. The last time we shot together, he was 81, and didn't miss a single shot all day long on his nephew's dove field. He was an old Fla. cowboy, back when Fla. had more real, working cowboys than Texas did. I still miss him. I just can't bring myself to redo that old Elsie, since it's almost a mirror image of Uncle Titus's old Elsie. He had his custom made to his specs in 1932. Unfortunately, he had 3 sons, and 3 fine shotguns, a 10 ga. Greener, the Elsie, and an A-5. He was simply the most awesome shot with a shotgun I've ever known, and I've known some really good ones. Back when he was young, neighbors would buy a box of shells and give them to him to bring them back a nice quail supper, and he'd often bring back 30 or so birds (sometimes more on a good day) with his old single barrel, single shot that he had at the time. He was right popular in those days, and all he wanted was the joy of doing the hunting.

Keep 'em coming, guys! THIS is the essence of what we all really and truly love, and the little things we've made, like LAGS' Sherlock shadow box are things we don't often think of, but really make an impression on a lot of us, including ourselves. I'm in the process of tying flies for my daughter in law to put in a shadow box for their river house. She showed it to me and it's bigger than I'd thought, so now I've got to go tie up some more and maybe some bigger flies that I think she'll be able to appreciate. Craftsmanship isn't lost these days, it's all too often just simply hidden from view, so keep showing off your handiwork. Creativity, for me at least, gets as many points as sheer beauty, like my friend's 12 ga. "double rifle" he made up for those swamp hogs.

[Ballistics in Scotland]

The Webley Metropolitan Police model isn't very different from the smaller Bulldog or the slightly larger RIC (Royal Irish Constabulary) revolvers which preceded it. Elmer Keith called the RIC the best police pistol ever made, although he might have been thinking of detectives, who need a concealable weapon which fires a biggish soft bullet and is reliable, and doesn't need enough ammunition capacity to do a lot of missing. A rare and very interesting Webley is the Army Express, a sort of giant and longer barreled RIC, which was at least sometimes chambered for the .45 Long Colt.

All of these revolvers, except the Army Express, were copied in a full continuum of sizes in Belgium, and the best Belgian production was about as good as anybody's. Their worst was frightful, although due to their proof regulation, seldom dangerous. The cheaper bulldogs commonly had a hand spring of clockspring, simple secured by centrepunch in a slot in the hand, and scraping up and down against the rear of its tunnel. If they wanted to copy a full sized military revolver it was generally the French M1973 until the hinged frame Webley-Pryse came in.

I'm currently working on my cap and ball Tranter, which is an Adams in all except the secondary cocking trigger, acting through a slot in the trigger guard, which was invented by his contractor William Tranter. It is such a good device that I wonder people don't reinvent it every couple of decades, although Heckler and Koch did with a a squeeze-grip cocking semiautomatic. If you just panic as the Dervishes are coming at you with large choppers of native make, and squeeze everything, it is about as good a double action as any.



Mine came from Australia, where some member of the intellectual classes had replaced the tip of a broken sear with brass. The little circular lugs on the top rear of the trigger had also broken off. If you look at my picture, you may see a line of silver solder where I have grafted in new lugs. What puzzled me most, though, was the hand spring, which had become slightly deformed and needed to be removed for annealing, reshaping and retempering.

At first I thought it simply had a square rear section for a better fit in its little slot. But it simply wouldn't come out, or even move. At last I found a tiny stud on the top of the hand. when this was filed flat, a long pin, integral with the spring, could be driven out. That pin was slightly curved, to make it a tight fit in its round hole. These early revolvers were anything but crudely made.

I think the airgun used by Colonel Sebastian Moran would have been pneumatic. Some of the period, and indeed earlier, were much more powerful than the spring operated type in the article. They would have been far from silent, but much easier than an ordinary gunshot to confused with all manner of other city noises.

[Von Gruff]

There have been a few but this was one I really enjoyed doing but have since sold it on. I have been in the habit of making a pair of rifle to cover light and heavy duty (so to speak)
The 404 Jeffery on FN 98 was the heavy


and the 7x57 on 1908 DWM covered the light end of use.


stepping back in time I did a full restock on this Martini 577-450 (with a case to carry it)


and the same for this Martini Enfield in 303



Another pair is this Lee Speed stocked 303 and 400



These 6 would top my list but there are others that I am quite partial to as well.
Presently working on a mannlicher stocked sako

[waksupi]

A few of mine.

[waksupi]

A few more.

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[nekshot]

Awesome talent here but I have a thread drift question. Was there a real Holmes and Watson??

[TXGunNut]

Not nearly on a level with most of the guns here but I took an ugly old Winchester 670 with a screwed up bore in a crappy plastic stock (Ol' Ugly) and did something I think was pretty remarkable. I sent it to JES for reboring to 35 Whelen, bedded it into a new prefinished Boyd's walnut stock with checkering and an ebony fore end tip. Topped it of with VX-3 scope and went to work building hunting loads. My pictures don't do it justice but I'm pretty proud of her, she's my first center fire hunting rifle and still one of my favorites.

[Bodean98]

WOW!! Great examples of workmanship!
I hope I'm not lowering the standards already established!
Another of my favorites is this little Mexican Mauser I made up for my grandson.

This is my first attempt at carving a stock from a blank. Custom dimensions for a youngster. It fits me surprisingly well although that was unintentional.
250 Savage caliber, recontoured barrel, all metal work and wood work was done by myself. Weighs in at approx. 7 1/2 lbs.
As you can see in the second pic we had to take it for a test drive. 250 yard shot and the buck went down.