Southern Hunting Rifle

[jonathan butcher]

I bought this rifle from a fellow member and it's become my favorite. The maker listed as 'Hunting Rifle .54', but to me it has the same simple grace as some Southern Mountain Rifles I've seen. He spec'd it thusly; ' The specs on this gun is a 38 inch 54 cal Charles Burton C weight swamped barrel. Lock is a Caywood wilson english lock that sparks really well and is like all Caywoods lock fast as lightning. The Red maple stock came from pecatonica. The brass hardware an trigger came from track except for the strap buttplate an sideplate which I made but was allowed to copy by Don Bruton. The front sight is a 1962 silver quarter.'
The rifle is light in weight and perfectly balanced and, to me, begging to be hunted.

 

[LawrenceA]

What a beauty. I am a real novice.
In my humble opinion it has great lines and a beautiful chunk of tree holding the metalwork in place.
I would be happy to have that to look at.
Must be great to take out.
How well does it shoot?

 

[jonathan butcher]

The trigger is light though not a 'hair trigger', it breaks cleanly and smoothly, small groups at hunting range- 30-60yds. i'll post pics the next time out to the range.

What a beauty. I am a real novice.
In my humble opinion it has great lines and a beautiful chunk of tree holding the metalwork in place.
I would be happy to have that to look at.
Must be great to take out.
How well does it shoot?

 

[LawrenceA]

please do

 

[olskool]

you rifle is a real beauty! I love the dark wood. a southern rifle fits me physically and location wise, as I am a southerner and in SC LOL, here is my southern rifle. although I like darker wood better, I dig this lighter curly ash wood. mine is also a 54, it has a 38in. rice swamped barrel, Bob roller lock and was built by Matt Avance of TVM it will shoot one hole 5 shot group off the bench at 50yds. very consistently. i also bought this one from a member,,,,,,,,,,,,

 

[jonathan butcher]

Nice looking rifle, love the crescent moon stock inletting, I think I see sling hardware, did you mount that yourself ?

you rifle is a real beauty! I love the dark wood. a southern rifle fits me physically and location wise, as I am a southerner and in SC LOL, here is my southern rifle. although I like darker wood better, I dig this lighter curly ash wood. mine is also a 54, it has a 38in. rice swamped barrel, Bob roller lock and was built by Matt Avance of TVM it will shoot one hole 5 shot group off the bench at 50yds. very consistently. i also bought this one from a member,,,,,,,,,,,,
View attachment 38525

 

[olskool]

thanks! no the sling hardware was already on it. I have a nice homemade leather sling i made from a horse rein on it now. it functions well,,,,,,,,,,,

 

[tnlonghunter]

Those are beautiful, both. I'm kinda jealous of your swamped barrels. I've my own SMR Tennessee rifle (bottom) is about to become a .54 in the next couple of weeks. It's got a .50 straight barrel, so I'm taking it to Bobby Hoyt to have it bored out to .54 to make it a little lighter.

 

[LawrenceA]

They ar rite purty

 

[MSW]

I really like your SMR!

 

[Muddly]

Yet more gun porn...
Never saw an ash stock before. More proof that " Only God can make a tree".
Gorgeous rifle Sir!

 

[tenngun]

My SMR.... please excuse the German lock

 

[hanshi]

My goal is to get a Kibler kit for a .45 SMR; as if I truly need another one. The rifles posted are extremely easy on the eye, beautiful, actually. I have two, a .32 and a .36; they are quite different. Both, especially the .36, are featherweights, 38" barrels and a German lock on the .36.
This is the .32 with a swamped Rice barrel.

And the .36.

 

[rmann]

Wow, really nice! I hope to build a .40 along the lines of your .32. I also expected to eliminate the entry thimble, or simply match the other straight pipes, and leave a touch more wood there, rather than thinning it down so much as in the inletting of my first rifle.

 

[rmann]

Are you comfortable with the crescent butt plate?

 

[tenngun]

Wow, really nice! I hope to build a .40 along the lines of your .32. I also expected to eliminate the entry thimble, or simply match the other straight pipes, and leave a touch more wood there, rather than thinning it down so much as in the inletting of my first rifle.

I saw one design in plans that had a regular pipe as an entry and a flat piece of metal pinned at the flat of the fore arm. Looked great.
This gave a good hold on the fore stock and still have a slim profile forward of the entry pipe. It was crescent moon shaped.

 

[tnlonghunter]

Are you comfortable with the crescent butt plate?

Not sure who you were asking, but I'll answer for myself. I don't mind the crescent butt so much, but you do have to be sure you shoulder it correctly. The butt has to go just off the shoulder, right where the shoulder and upper muscles meet. If you try to shoulder it further in, like with a shotgun style butt, it'll bite. Mine is a bigger bore than was traditional for SMRs, but in a ligher bore, like a .40 or smaller I doubt there would be any recoil at all.

 

[rmann]

Thanks tn, for your reply. The crescent butt plate configuration is different from anything I've ever shot, so it does make me a little hesitant to build one, But I'm going for it. I'm a skinny old carpenter, so figure my shoulders should match....

 

[hanshi]

Crescent butt plates on small bores (.40 & under) don't hurt no matter how you shoulder them. But if you have one of those in a larger caliber it does have to be seated on the right spot. Think of the shoulder as a ball. Most guns are shouldered in the "hollow" on the inside of the shoulder ball. But crescent butts must be seated just on the outside of the shoulder ball. Some refer to that as "mounting the butt on the arm"; but that can be misleading for the rest of us. It should be thought of as either "inside edge or outside edge" of the shoulder ball. Hope this helps.

 

[tenngun]

I put it more on the space above the biceps with the toe running beside my arm pit.