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Goodies , I like to own

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enfield

40 Cal
Joined
Feb 12, 2020
Messages
165
Reaction score
406
Location
Weil am Rhein , Germany
Due to the Corona - virus , I have to stay at home . Therefore I started to make some goodies , I'd for long wanted to have .

First thing to make is the rebuild of an old Ruggles underhammer pistol in my collection of old fire arms .

This entire gun is a fairly scarce piece , having a full metal frame with handle slabs .

Unfortunately , the only material at hand for the moment , is some scrap brass and a cutoff of a Swiss Vetterli barrel in cal. 10,4 mm in mirror sheening state inside . My sample is cal .31 . As I already have told , I have to stay at home , therefore I can't go for other raw material . I'll have to use , like our anchestors had to , what's on hand at the very moment .

Let's start off .


Should there be an interest for this new project , I'll gladly share with You .

Should You be interested , You can also have a look at my previous thread

https://www.muzzleloadingforum.com/threads/ruggles-patent-underhammer-pistol.119504/#post-1636145



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This is the stock material , I'd like to start off
 
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I've just started my new goodie .
Since I have no milling machine , I "misused" my 120 years old lathe . After having bored through the brass stock ( off center by having clamped a 10X10mm steel stock under one of the three jaws ) I turned out the face to same dia as the barrel , then cut off the sides of the round brass and filed it to near the width which I want to have in the end . Then I clamped it on the support table of my lathe and started to mill the recess in which the "system " is to slide in . It worked out pretty slowly , but came out perfect !
I also cut a slot , into which I silver soldered the grip plate and started to bring it to shape .
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Nothing wrong with using a lathe as a mill. The engine lathe is about the most versatile machine one can have in a shop and if your only able to have one machine, make it a lathe.
 
That is coming along nicely. On the hammer did you silver solder a piece of round stock on a piece of bar stock. Or, did you mill the hammer out of a larger piece of stock?

Nope : the entire hammer , as al all other components , are completely hand filed from solid stock . ( Unfortunately , I have no mill 😔 )
The hammer is filed from some tool steel ( C-45 ) , the spring is made from an old sawblade and the trigger will be made from O-2 , all parts be hardened by watching the color only by eye in oil and then annealed twice in my oven at about 200° - 220° C
Since I did that already several times , it works out for me .
With my similar made sear/tumbler in one of my restored old pistols , I've already fired several thousands of rounds with no traces of wear ( and my trigger pull is really crisp and light )
 
I was quite busy over the last two days : I made and installed the nipple and top strap with the integral sight with its screws, a globe front sight , handle slabs with brass bushings and screw , filed the system to shape , installed a trigger stop , and started the finish - and yes , already test fired ( with a load of 80grn Swiss and two (!) hammered in lead bullets . Clamped the thing in my vice , placed two 2" boards of beechwood in front of the muzzle and fired it from outside of my shop with a string . One big booom , the bullets penetrated the first board and stuck in the second half way - no damage to the gun !
Now I'm happy !


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