Folks, your advice and assistance is welcome on a long simmering project.
The .62 caliber rifled barrel and stock wood (full stock or half) have been in my possession for five years, as different rifle designs went through my mind over this time. Due to the high heat, today was an "inside" day and I spent hours 'working' on this.
After many hours going through every old muzzleloader book and catalogue I have, the rifle plan went from flintlock to percussion. That is certain. Yep...made a whole lot of progress ha ha.
The plan is to have a powerful traditional rifle for bear, elk, and deer for Pennsylvania's early muzzleloader season, where both deer and bear can now be hunted concurrently. It should be both a stalking gun and quick on the snap shot, and an ambush gun capable of taking longer, carefully aimed shots. My regular rifle is a custom made .54 flintlock, and something more weather resistant and a lot more powerful and robust is desired. Hence the percussion lock.
But I do not know a darned thing about percussion locks, not really. So your help is welcome.
Here is what is already acquired: A 38" Colerain .62 caliber swamped gain twist rifled barrel, and nice curly maple full stock blank or curly sugar maple half stock blank.
Here is what is tentatively on the parts list:
Lock: Davis' Alex Henry percussion lock seems best, because of potential precision trigger adjustment. Want the strongest, fastest percussion lock that will least disturb the stock wood by requiring the inletting of the least amount of wood, so the stock is as strong as possible. Alex Henry lock design appears to fit most flush with barrel, disturb the least amount of wood.
Trigger: Davis single set trigger, adjustable if possible, or another single trigger honed to a 2.5-3# pull by the gunsmith.
Sights: Prefer rear fiber optic sight matched to a fiber optic front sight, like the matching Lyman set sold at Track of the Wolf, with a rugged folding tang or peep sight like the Lyman on the wrist. Is any of this even possible on a percussion rifle? Will the tang sight weaken the wrist? And what shape wrist should this gun have, pistol grip or straight or something in between?
Furniture should be German silver, but I cannot figure out the butt plate or trigger guard. Because old fashioned military style sling swivels would be really nice to have, the trigger guard should have enough metal in the bow for a sling swivel hole.
Any and all recommendations are welcome about all aspects, other than the barrel and the wood. This has been years in the imagination phase, and it is time to begin assembling the parts. Thank you!
The .62 caliber rifled barrel and stock wood (full stock or half) have been in my possession for five years, as different rifle designs went through my mind over this time. Due to the high heat, today was an "inside" day and I spent hours 'working' on this.
After many hours going through every old muzzleloader book and catalogue I have, the rifle plan went from flintlock to percussion. That is certain. Yep...made a whole lot of progress ha ha.
The plan is to have a powerful traditional rifle for bear, elk, and deer for Pennsylvania's early muzzleloader season, where both deer and bear can now be hunted concurrently. It should be both a stalking gun and quick on the snap shot, and an ambush gun capable of taking longer, carefully aimed shots. My regular rifle is a custom made .54 flintlock, and something more weather resistant and a lot more powerful and robust is desired. Hence the percussion lock.
But I do not know a darned thing about percussion locks, not really. So your help is welcome.
Here is what is already acquired: A 38" Colerain .62 caliber swamped gain twist rifled barrel, and nice curly maple full stock blank or curly sugar maple half stock blank.
Here is what is tentatively on the parts list:
Lock: Davis' Alex Henry percussion lock seems best, because of potential precision trigger adjustment. Want the strongest, fastest percussion lock that will least disturb the stock wood by requiring the inletting of the least amount of wood, so the stock is as strong as possible. Alex Henry lock design appears to fit most flush with barrel, disturb the least amount of wood.
Trigger: Davis single set trigger, adjustable if possible, or another single trigger honed to a 2.5-3# pull by the gunsmith.
Sights: Prefer rear fiber optic sight matched to a fiber optic front sight, like the matching Lyman set sold at Track of the Wolf, with a rugged folding tang or peep sight like the Lyman on the wrist. Is any of this even possible on a percussion rifle? Will the tang sight weaken the wrist? And what shape wrist should this gun have, pistol grip or straight or something in between?
Furniture should be German silver, but I cannot figure out the butt plate or trigger guard. Because old fashioned military style sling swivels would be really nice to have, the trigger guard should have enough metal in the bow for a sling swivel hole.
Any and all recommendations are welcome about all aspects, other than the barrel and the wood. This has been years in the imagination phase, and it is time to begin assembling the parts. Thank you!
