I believe you are referring to the third rifle from the left which looks like this?
This is the result of a piece of wood at a price I couldn't pass up.
At the Western Nationals in Phoenix Vern Davis had his tent set up in the Traders Row and he had brought a large number of pre-carved stocks with him. This guns stock had some of the finest curl of any I had ever seen and he only wanted $125 for it!
I think part of the reason his price was so low is it was cut for a 1 inch straight octagon barrel, and it was a Left Handed rifle to boot.
I looked at that stock not less than 6 times, each time saying to myself, I don't shoot Left Handed guns. I don't like the idea of a 1 inch barrel...Too heavy for packing around or shooting.
Well, of course, finely I couldn't pass it up so I bought it along with a .54 caliber Green Mountain barrel and a Siler Flintlock (Right hand). I later wished I would have bought the .58 caliber barrel he had but, as you know, hindsight is always better than foresight. The .58 caliber barrel would have gotten some of the weight out of it plus it would be (IMO) a better gun for sending those .570 balls downrange than my PH Enfields.
The trigger is a simple single type with some nice fancy decorations cast into it's backside.
The trigger release pressure is about 2 1/2 pounds with no noticable creep.
Because it was a Left Hand stock, the cheek piece was on the wrong side for me so the left side of the gun looks like this:
Without a cheekpiece, I didn't know of a "style" it would fit into but the stock does have a Lancaster straight comb so I got to thinking maybe some of the more Southern guns were made without this feature so, I called it my Southern Gun. (I have sense learned that there are examples from several Penn. Schools as well as Southern Schools which don't have cheek-pieces.)
Because it is brass mounted, I figured that some of the people in the coastal areas might have had access to brass so that was the plan when I put it together.
I also felt that if any carving would be appropriate it should be incised and rather simple.
This is the result:
It is IMO a heavy gun weighing in at almost 11 pounds but I think that weight might be part of the reason it shoots so well.
It's hard for a Flintlock Flash Flinch to effect where it's pointed before the ball has left the muzzle. :grin: :rotf:
Zonie
