Ohio Halfstock

[Crewdawg445]

Finished up this 1857 J. Hefner Ohio halfstock a few weeks ago.

What I found on this particular rifle was during the early part of the 70's it was refinished which to my knowledge was a popular thing to do with older muzzleloading arms. By who I was unable to verify but they did a horrible job on the stock finishing...

The rifle made it into my hands in ruff shape to say the least. The biggest problem was a crack that had migrated from the tang area towards the shoulder area near the breech.

At any rate, I wasn't to concerned about hanging this on the wall. I wanted to restore this rifle to a functional state. The barrel is a 1" octagon and was originally .40 caliber and shot out. I had the barrel bored to a .45 smoothie and is excellent with shot and roundball now.

Stock was repaired and maple pins were used in conjunction with acraglas to fix the existing crack. Stripped completely down and finished with aqua fortis. Followed by sealer and a tru oil finish.

The rifle maintained its original lock that was a flint conversion and easily visible was were the pan had been filled and the drum drilled. The sear arm and tumbler notch were badly worn as was the hammer. This piece now is displayed.

A new R.E. Davis Goulcher lock was inlet and it turned into one of the most tedious inlet jobs I have done to date... but it was worth the hardwork. A new powder drum was also indexed and installed.

All hardware was replaced with brass flathead screws... A pain to find! Original handmade furniture was and still is in good shape, just needed a good cleaning and polish as did the hand poured pewter nose cap.

Overall, I'm VERY pleased with this beauty! She's a dandy shooter and one that will certainly be passed on.

 

[PeteDavis]

Beauty.

 

[Crewdawg445]

Thank you sir, photos don't do it justice I'm afraid. Upon inspection, she's beautiful. I've had a few offers from some fellow friends of my dad's, not for sale!

 

[Zonie]

Looks like the old girl is rearing to go!

Good work. :thumbsup:

 

[Crewdawg445]

Thank you! She's a shooter for sure. Haven't the opportunity yet to take her into the woods for squirrel or rabbit, just plinking around the yard. It likes 40 grains of 3f so far with a tight ticking patched ball. With shot it throws a decent pattern for hunting with an ounce of #4 and 50 grains of 3f. I'm still playing with my shot load and wadding, but so far so good.

I will say it's heavy... one consideration that opted me to bore the barrel to a smoothie. While you obviously need to aim, by no means are we precision shooting! So the old point and shoot method does apply a bit. Just enough to hold on target and pull the trigger. Offhand it's a chore for me to keep her on point I will say. That old 1" barrel is hefty...

Another thing I wasn't thrilled about was messing with the drum... I had to throw the hammer in the forge to obtain the correct geometry. Alignment of the hammer to the nipple for a perfect 90 degree relationship was rather easy with the aid of an indexing jig. Luckily, my planning of the lock and inletting of the bolster went as planned, the powder drum is seated and supported dead nuts. This is the second percussion gun I've delt with and I will say, give me a flinter anyday though!