My first plank build

[IanH]

A friend recently gave me an unused, 20-gauge barrel he'd had for years and bought a trade gun kit instead of trying to inlet a stock for it. I had a rough sawed 8/4 pecan board in the lumber rack, left over from some 8' Shaker doors I made for my house. I've never built a muzzleloader before besides a Kibler SMR and was not in the least interested in being HC on this one, only I wanted it to fit me correctly and be functional. I ordered a lock, some unplated bolts, and some rammer thimbles and got to work.

I used a Winchester Model 42 as a basis for the critical fit points and connected the dots in a sort of Fusil, sort of trade gun shape, but essentially it's my own whimsy.

I also have an interest in recreating a French Fusil Fin, more in line with what a French gentleman hunter would have owned as opposed to a trade gun and will need some help not screwing it up, but THIS one is mine.

I have made stocks from various walnuts, fruit cherry, black cherry, maple, ash, and mesquite, but never pecan and always wondered about it, so it was time to find out why no one else uses it! I did.

 

[IanH]

Working the barrel down...

Barrel down!

 

[IanH]

Stripped the lock and inlet the plate, here's where I screwed up. I didn't leave enough wood to fill the space behind the pan shield so there is a gap. Oh well, it will stay that way.

 

[Edm]

A guy who lived up the street from me when I was little made rifles from scratch. He had an old pecan tree in his yard that was struck by lightning. He made a longrifle stock from that tree. It looked nice to me and he had no problems that I know of.

 

[IanH]

I have made a lot of furniture, cabinets, and trim out of pecan and it is a little on the heavy side and coarse-grained for gunstocks, but workable. This is a very plain, straight piece but some pecan can have fabulous fiddleback and rarely but occasionally quilting, especially when stump cut but you never see stump cut at the cabinet lumber yard.

One thing pecan does extremely well is take stain and dyes. I also discovered it takes ferric nitrate stain like a champ.

 

[IanH]

I didn't take a lot of photos of the build. Here's the trigger roughed in, unconventional pivot support but easy to inlet and remove from the stock.

Butt plate hacked out of mild steel and installed, and the stock shaped down so I could finish inletting the other furniture.

That's sweat stain on the comb from me checking the mount twice a day for about a week before being satisfied with the fit.

 

[appalichian hunter]

Looks good so far.

 

[IanH]

Skipping ahead, here it is after I test fired, bent on the barrel a couple of times in a jig so it would shoot straight, final shaping, sanding, and finish. Hadn't made the trigger guard yet because I wasn't happy with the angle of the trigger, too far forward. I was going more for a later English fowler profile but with a wide shoe. I eventually corrected it.

I'm a sucker for flared muzzles.

 

[appalichian hunter]

And a lefty to boot.

 

[IanH]

Some shots after finishing it and getting it (and me) completely filthy at the range. I thin I ran 80-some balls through it that day, that's why the rammer is black. It wiped clean later.

I never did finish the lock. Most of the cold blue experiment rubbed off anyway and I've redone the frizzen spring and hardened/drawn the frizzen a couple of times trying to make the lock work like I think it should so it's ugly and unfinished. It might stay that way.

 

[IanH]

And a lefty to boot.

Like its builder. RH flinters don't bother me a bit but I thought why not, left or right locks are the same price and the TH hadn't been drilled in the barrel when it was given to me.