Having a couple of people living close by and interested in learning more about gun building, I decided to have them over for a days lesson here and there. I will be helping one, David, make as much as possible here at the shop and guide him in building his own rifle. The plan right now is for him to build an iron mounted Early Virginia style rifle. The lock is a Chambers Colonial Virginia and the barrel is a Rice “C” weight .58 cal 44″ barrel that was cut back to 40″. The wood is a relatively cheap piece of straight grained sugar maple from Freddy Harrison.
I will be showing David how to make the butt plate, trigger guard, ramrod
pipes, side plate, toe plate, barrel underlugs, trigger, trigger plate and front
and rear sights from scrap metal here in the shop.
We are planning on pouring the nose cap and leaving some wood exposed
within the pewter cap. It will have a metal patchbox and we are still thinking
on how he wants it exactly. Carving and engraving along with some other
details still need to be worked out but we can get parts made and the basic
construction started on this build.