A Tale of Two Little Rifles

May be the coolest little rifle ever. I love small bore guns and this one is just amazing. Definitely a family heirloom!

Simply amazing!

Dave,
Some times in my dreams I do the sort of work that you display on this truly beautiful rifle.

That is going to be a heirloom. al of your hard work has certainly paid off.

Just WOW!!! Well done Sir!

What a great gift for your grandson. I’m sure it will be treasured by him and his family. I hope he grows to enjoy shooting it and think of how much love you have poured into this small rifle. You are quite gifted. Thanks for sharing this build with us.

davec2 said:

Finally finished......a long road on this one.....but finally done....well....except for the case and the accoutrements....

To show scale again....one of my full size rifles and this little one......



This also gives a sense of how slender the wrist is........



More photos....sorry for the quality. Photography is not in my "wheelhouse" as they say....

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You just make me so envious of your skill and talent.

That is astounding. What an absolute beauty.
That little guy is sure lucky. I hope he not only comes to appreciate the rifle and the love and work that went into it, but to truly appreciate the man who made this piece of art for him.

davec2 needs to do some little videos to help keep us entertained.

OK....so I thought I was done with this rifle but the more I looked at the "finished" little rifle the less I liked the browned barrel.....don't know why. It just didn't look that good on this one. So I removed almost all of the brown with 320 paper and then blued the barrel. Since I had not antiqued the brass very much (it will acquire its own natural patina over the next several decades) the barrel looked to "rustic". I like it much better now.

Oh by the way....here is a picture of me shouldering the little rifle. To get my head down to the sight plane I need to get my "snot locker" almost jammed into the trigger guard....and I will probably loose some eyebrow hair when the pan ignites. The pull is only 10 5/8 inches. Nonetheless, it will be 'doable" for me to shoot it.

Excellent work sir!

davec2 said:

Oh by the way....here is a picture of me shouldering the little rifle. To get my head down to the sight plane I need to get my "snot locker" almost jammed into the trigger guard....and I will probably loose some eyebrow hair when the pan ignites. The pull is only 10 5/8 inches. Nonetheless, it will be 'doable" for me to shoot it.

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Excellent.
Can't wait to see the little guy with it.

OK....now I have to start on all the other "stuff" that needs to go into the wood case I am building for the rifle. I will pick up that thread over in the "Craftsman" forum....

davec2 said:

So here is how the project stands right now.......I sent the two stock blanks and barrels to Dave Rase not long ago for barrel inletting and ram rod drilling. One stock has been further trimmed to remove excess wood and prepare for the butt plate installation. The following photos show the parts on hand and I am in the process of making ram rod pipes for 1/4" ram rods, muzzle caps, side plates, patch boxes, etc., etc.

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Wow!