Traditional Chunk Gun Advice

We are about to begin planning and building a traditional chuck gun, Plain, not yet sure of igition, style, etc. but do have a barrel, .45 caliber x 1 inch atf, x 42" long. Would like it to look like a fullstock long rifle without a permanent block on the forestock. I do want to build it from either a precarve with a big wide butt, or from a blank with only the barrel and Ramrod hole drilled. Pecatonica has a Virginia style precarve with a 1 inch barrel channel offered, Not sure what other precarves are to be had in 1". I've never shot chunk before, so all ideas are welcome. Thanks in advance for your advice and insight, George. P.S. The barrel weighs about 8 lbs, more or less.

AFAIK, "chunk gun" shooting was started as an informal shooting match @ rondy's, and not a formal target shoot.

Folks shot whatever gun they had, and eventually found that a heavy gun/barrel (usually too heavy for field use) worked best to "hit the mark" - so, you're going in the right direction.

I would suggest you use whatever stock method that floats your boat, but IMO a fullstock is/was meant for relative light barrels, more suited to a sporting/hunting rifle than a chunk gun.

I also suggest thinking about how thick a full stock needs to be to accept a heavy barrel.

The 1800's saw target/40-rod rifles ("chunk" is a relatively modern term) with half stocks or only a buttstock.

These are chunk guns. https://d31029zd06w0t6.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/49/2018/07/web1_DSCN8781NEW.jpg

The rifle in the previous post was made for a false muzzle. Bullets were swaged and patched with paper cross patches. They were the unlimited bench rest rifles of the time. Well in to the era of cartridge guns nobody could achieve finer accuracy than rifles pictured in the previous post.

Chunk gun shooting goes way back before the mid 1900s. Our ML club has a barrel dating to the Civil War era that has been re-breeched, re-stocked, and rifling re-cut many times. All the flats have multiple dovetails on them as it’s had under lugs and sights at every position possible. A good medium weight for a chunk gun is 16-18 pounds. Mine is 26 pounds. A club member has a 46 pound bench/chunk gun.

True chunk matches are shot prone. So you need a stock that is comfortable on your shoulder and cheek. Almost as important as the chunk gun rifle is the chunk it rests on. Good chunks have bubble levels and the capability to be adjusted. The fore stock needs a flat spot to rest on the chunk.

Then you need the proper spotting target. You want a target that gives you a consistent sight picture while there is an impact area that doesn't destroy the aim point. Set the sights so the impact is about 4" above the aim point.

Chunk gun shooting isn't just about the rifle.

Chunk guns are unlimited in their weight and must have open sights at the rear that are "at least" 6" in front of the breach. Front sights can be whatever you like and both sights can have shaders over them. The top shooters (and many other wannbes) use a post and bead front with a round sighter target. Cant blocks that rest on the chunk can be incorporated into a full stock gun or attached to the barrel of a half stock or butt stock only gun. Actions run from traditional side hammers, side slappers, underhammers and both flint and percussion. I don't know where you are located but with all the variables in chunk guns I would recommend you try to attend a few matches and pick some brains. You are going to be up against some of the toughest shooters that there are. 60 yard groups at major matches have been as short as 3" to 3 1/2" for the 10 record shots. Create the best equipment you can and burn a lot of lead.

Be aware that the rifle pictured by Pietro is NOT a chunk gun but a 40 rod gun. There is a big difference in the two matches and the guns that are used.

Mark you know this stuff big difference between chunk & 40 rods . I cant speak for the 40 rods but I did shoot chunk .I found it the most fun crowd as I've known the rifles are as oft plumb UGlee by intention & useless for any other purpose though there seemed no objection nor could there be to any more elegant rifle . Wearing bib & brace Overalls seem both the style and had the virtue of being able to stick the barrel under the braces while freeing both hands to load . It also seems to involve ' Hawg' rearing . (Probably part of the mystique? ) It was shot on a Mr Coons place he reared 'Hawgs', So might explain it( Even had a hawg on his powder horn .) The Rifle was made up by a Mr Bill Irons in the' Soddy' style long full stock cap lock of 45 cal. I borrowed it from a Mrs Pepioit of Greenville the Barrel made by Bill Large bore the typical humour of his ''Old Maids a thinkin " Mrs P was'nt an old maid I hasten to add if she's still with us . I recall I shot against "Old Scaley' so called because it was never dressed off and the forge scale was still left on it . It is a famous rifle & I think it typifies the outlook of Chunk devotees . A' reverse vanity' is how ide describe it . The target had an X but you couldn't see it at 60 yards so a paper "bud' was pinned as the aiming mark which bore little relation to the X but the shooter knew that . The prizes where meat various and the whole affair was carried on with much good willed banter . I never shot another but still regard Chunk shooters in the highest esteem .
Regards Rudyard

Rudyard,
Your thoughts are right on the Mark regarding the rifles and the people. If you've done nothing else you have shot on the farm the THE GENTLEMAN and godfather of chunk shooting. They don't come any better than Allen Coon and his wife, Miss Julia. I have to say that if you shot against Old Scaley it must have been a while ago. I have a collage of pictures of targets shot in the 20's that include one by Old Scaley. We still shoot at Allen's range 5 or six times through the spring and summer. Once again I enjoyed your comments.
Best Regards,
Mark

I have done well in over the log matches with my Early York County style flintlock longrifle. It has a 48”, 54 cal. swamped barrel with 1-72 twist, deep groove rifling. The butt stock is flat and 2 3/8” wide. It weighs just over 10#. My shooting has been better with my purpose made chunk gun with a 54”, .48 cal. barrel. It is full stock with a built in rest block. The front sight is a tiny pin head, hooded. The ignition is a percussion mule ear side lock I made. Fast, sure ignition every time.

your .45 should work well with the right sight set up- open rear with fine, hooded front.

I built a 45 cal flintlock that I'd planned on using in chunk gun matches in 1980. I has a 1" x 38" barrel and is too off balance for me to shoot offhand very well even though it only weighs 10 lbs. I'm going to sell it and get something better for offhand. A chunk gun is a dedicated rifle in that shooting prone over a log or off a bench is all it's good for. When you get too old to get up off the ground repeatedly or to hold it up off hand it's only good for benchrest shooting. But then, we do what we do for fun while we can.

Mark Herman said:

Be aware that the rifle pictured by Pietro is NOT a chunk gun but a 40 rod gun.

Click to expand...

Just as I said, right above the pic I posted......

Mark Herman said:

Rudyard,
Your thoughts are right on the Mark regarding the rifles and the people. If you've done nothing else you have shot on the farm the THE GENTLEMAN and godfather of chunk shooting. They don't come any better than Allen Coon and his wife, Miss Julia. I have to say that if you shot against Old Scaley it must have been a while ago. I have a collage of pictures of targets shot in the 20's that include one by Old Scaley. We still shoot at Allen's range 5 or six times through the spring and summer. Once again I enjoyed your comments.
Best Regards,
Mark

Click to expand...

Dear Mark Thank you. Yes Allen Coons place with big painting of a prize pig. Give him my regards . Date would be about 1983 Old Scaley's owner I can picture his eager face & There was Bud from Indiana was there . I may have notes in my travel diary. They are indeed a most agreeable group.

It is heartening to find forum members like my add on's . My memory is quite good and I have written a lot of articles mostly gun or steam related and of India & African wanderings . seemed fitting to recount some .
Thank you & Regards Rudyard

Rudyard, I hope you keep on writing, you've seen a world some of us have only glimpsed, and things some of us have never seen. Perhaps you could accumulate your notes and diarys into a book; I know I'd buy one. Thanks for your advice on chunk guns and matchlocks. Life has become crazy around here, wife just got put on dialysis 3 times a week, lots of running and so forth. I will build and shoot when I can. Be well, George.

Dear George Sorry to hear you are having difficulty's life throws curve balls and Googlies at us. I've had a few like Malairia, Black water & tick bite fever, . burst appendix non of them much fun. .Thank you for the compliments re writing I did get as far as a draft about my first big over land ing trip , life in Morroco Algeria then over the desert to Mali to a place called Gao just 140 mile from Timbuctoo but got some hellaisious gut rot & there is just a track & no trafic the Niger was low so steamer not running . pity so wanted to reach this fabled city . Had to take a' Courier' which was just an overladen cattle truck with 45 natives & me over the worst 'pistes' to reach Mopti . & so on to Sierra Leone via Ivory coast & Liberia . only called for expected mail ere I trecked throuh the roads east through into Ghana promptly arrestesd for suppose spying at half Assiny ere taken to Accra & not being sure of me they decide to deport me to Nigieria but it cost 7 pounds I flat wouldnt pay it & they wouldnt so we settled on a' Mammy waggon' to Togo land where I woke up with malairia still hitched through Dahomie to Lagos . Your Piece Corps hostel doctor found what it was 102 degree tempreture is a good guide !.Then through what became Biafra to West then East Cammeroons . but the killings in Gongo (Still at it it seems ) So flew an old Dakota to Fernando Poo Spanish colony Down to 10 pounds I worked for 100 Pesatas a day ere I took the supply & troupe ship ' Ciudad De Oviado' to Cadiz & hitched north to Bouloine . Only roof I had was culvets a part built house & a Guardia Civil lock up in Vittoria . Not because I trangresed the law , it was a chance friend I met in a bar who knew a Gardia & he let me stay in the empty un manned lock up . it was like some Western set bars & straw but here where two hard bunks & a few blankets 'Luxury '! way better then camping in the Piranean rain . till early hours some drunk gets thrown in he ramble on as such fellows will then lamented he had no ' Manta ' blanket so I gave him one & told him to pipe down . .Next wet morn some other guardia ushered us both out & I made Bayonne next day .9 days & no sleeping bag since Ide ditched that in the tropics . 10 mounths struggle (5 days to cross the Sahara from Adrar to Gao on top of a Berliet truck ) outlay of 130 pounds . After than overland to Karachi seemed a doddle made it Milan To Karachi on 15 pounds owed a French hippy a pound in Bombay but had funds sent to Grindlays bank got me by rail to Rameswarem a Hindu shrine ere I took the ferry to Ceylon lived six weeks on 4 rupees a day till got a passage to Freemantle West Australia landed with a whole 3 pounds to my name had to sleep in the park near two nice bronze 6 pounders ex Waterloo I believe nice view of the Windmill flats & Swan river .Bit of a pinch but I get sorted & went up to Dampier 6 & a half mounths so .a big "Phew" at least I knocked that trip off !!. Meandering again. This was 1964/5 & 1966. Didn't run back till 1969 .but that Sahibs is another story !.
Regards Rudyard

Rudyard,
Sounds more like a Steven Speilberg movie than a real live trip through he'll. Had to be interesting though. Sounds more like we should be calling you Indiana Jones.
Mark

Shoot ! It do's read a bit exotic but missed out a lot of stuff . But to use a line from Kipling

"The wildest dreams of Kew , Are the facts of Kathmandu" Was two mounths up there with blackwater fever. later rented a push bike & went round knocking on antient doors of what once were clearly grand houses asking if they had any old guns and they had some real bueties but in 1969 you couldn't get them out real time warp of Victorian goodies . Enjoyed it all ( except the fever) .Breakfast was a clay dish of Himmalli curds with tiny packets of Indian corn flakes soaked in Kashmir honey . Fond memories of the town & my convalesing by the Swayanboonath Monkey temple over looking the rice paddies that the Gorkas used as a rifle range " Jia Nepal " ' Praise Nepal.' Saved my bacon.
Regards Rudyard

I have a feeling that of all the he'll you went through from time to time that the excitement of the good times had to far exceed the bad times. A life well lived.

Thank you for your kind words Mark You are correct I often said if they shot me tomorrow ide have still lived three normal lives Ime not there yet but I like the poem.

"Under the wide & starry sky ' , dig the grave and let my lie, Gladly Iv'e lived and gladly Ile die ,And I lay me down with a will. "
This be the verse youl'e grave for me .' Here he lies where he longed to be.
Home is the Sailor Home from the sea and the hunter home from the hill" .
Not sure I entirely subscribe to it But sounds classic .
Regards Rudyard