The profile of the rifle came from an original William Douglas that I own. I used an old Douglas 13/16 x 44 inch .40 cal. barrel I had been saving for many years for myself. I cut the muzzle back to 43 inches in total barrel length. The original rifle had a 44 inch x 7/8 .40 cal. barrel. The lock is a Chambers late Ketland with the tail rounded and the width narrowed to match the original lock used on the Douglas rifle. However, the original rifle has a cap lock on it. I used Davis #4 set triggers with the front trigger modified a bit. The butt plate, triggerguard, toe plate, side plate, nose cap, and rear sight were copied from the original rifle. The grease hole was added later at the request of the customer. The original rifle just had a curly maple butt stock. This is the third rifle I have made like this, and for some reason it has a much better hold than the others. Wish I had kept the rifle for myself.
I drawfiled and finished the metal parts with 220 grit sandpaper, coated it with 44-40 cold blue, and submerged the parts in 100% Clorox (cold) for 4 to 6 minutes to lightly pit the parts. I sanded the scale off, applied the cold blue again, and steel wooled the metal back to the gray color I wanted.
Roger. That is a sleek elegant rifle gun. Everything an iron mounted rifle should be.
ReplyDeleteHeinz