Shot horn

[Lonegun1894]

Ok Y'all, dont laugh too hard as this is my first attempt at making a horn, but what do you all think? ANY and all criticism is welcomed as it will only help me improve in the long run. This is also my first time attempting to post pictures so I hope I get that right too.
http://s1214.photobucket.com/albums/cc484/lonegun1894/shot horn/?action=view&current=P1060021.jpg
http://s1214.photobucket.com/albums/cc484/lonegun1894/shot horn/?action=view&current=P1060020.jpg
http://s1214.photobucket.com/albums/cc484/lonegun1894/shot horn/?action=view&current=P1060019.jpg

 

[Lonegun1894]

By the way, the horn is a old cow horn I had in the garage. The base plug is red cedar with brass nails holding the plug in place. The staple in the base plug is a staple I had left over from the chickencoop I built recently. The spout plug is the tip of horn I cut off to allow me to drill the spout hole itself, and then hollowed out the other end to serve as a shot measure. It holds .91 oz of lead #6s, so just over 7/8ths oz (.84 oz per my calculator). All materials were found in/around house so the only cost was about 10 hrs of time while also working on other projects. The horn itself measures just shy of 7 inches with spout plug in place, and about 5.5 inches without, and weighs (i think) between 2.5-3 lbs overall when filled with #6s. I think I will eventually go back and sand/file down the spout area to make it a smoother transition instead of a stubby looking thing like it is now, and may try my hand at scrimshawing the horn also. But for now, what do y'all think? I dont know enough about this to even know where my mistakes lay and just did this on a whim :idunno: , so please dont sugar coat any of your responses. Thank you.

I also need to do a much better job fitting the base plug on my next one, because lets face it, the fit is horrible.

 

[gus13]

Oh No! another victiom of the Dreaded horn working Bug! :rotf: :rotf: :rotf: you know its addicting right? :grin:
Anyway, my two bigguns as far as comments/critiques were just the two you mentioned really, so your ahead of the curve!
if you look at your base plug you can see how thick the horn is - plenty of meat there to work with.
So, on your next one I'd suggest trying to thin that down quite a bit more, so you have a better fit with the plug and it will flow better overall from plug to tip. and if its that thick at the base it only gets thicker towards the tip- lots of room to work! :thumbsup:
What I personally do is, while I'm filing, occasionally hold it up to the light, I like to see a good bit of light shining through the horn. that cuts down on weight, also lets you see the powder/shot level in the horn, and lets all the pieces kind of fall into place better from base to tip.
Keep it up! your doing better than my first one! keep us posted on your work and check out the horners bench. Lots of knowledgeable and very helpful folks and information in regards to Hornworking.

 

[necchi]

Neat idea to use the cut off as the shot cup.
Ya got it put together, so it is your official first,
Only critic I have is to use the IMG code when posting pictures, just hold the cursor over the "code" left click and it'll blink "copied" and your good.
Go back top your topic then right click an paste;
Viola`

 

[Lonegun1894]

 

[Lonegun1894]

Necci,
Thank you for the correction on the pictures. I was wondering what I did wrong.

Gus,
I know I have too much thickness left in the horn, but was too worried about making it too thin. I guess I should trust myself more and quit worrying. Thank you for the tip there also.

 

[gus13]

you ever have any questions, feel free to hit me up on the PM or e-mail me. be glad to help you any way I can! :thumbsup:

 

[Lonegun1894]

Thank you, I will do that. I have one more horn and already thinking about what to do with it and how to make improvements over this first one.

 

[MSW]

Lonegun, don't beat yourself up too badly about the butt plug. If it really bugs you later on down the road, you can rework it.

I like the idea of the measure also being the plug- that's a cool idea.

You might want to get Sibley's book
http://www.trackofthewolf.com/Cate...tId=1&subId=12&styleId=39&partNum=BOOK-R18CPH

which was what started me out on the addiction.

of course you'll make more horns, and when you do, please post photos!

 

[trent/OH]

I don't especially care for the caramel colored horns, but that's just a personal preference.
I suspect you'll want to enlarge the hole some more, to avoid bridging the hole with shot when pouring. Of course that would never happen until you are trying to reload quickly when a bird or squirrel is laughing at you before skedaddling.

 

[hawkthrower]

Great start :thumbsup: :thumbsup:

It is addicting and as you go along you will get more of a feel for the horns thickness. Just keep at it and expect to make a few offerings ( mistakes ) along the way.

Ron