Friendship Commercial Row

[52Bore]

With nearly 30 years of attending Friendship, one thing I've learned - one never knows what will appear and many things are for sale.
Mid-week I was not feeling so good, so I opted to just walk around thru gunmakers hall and commercial row.
Saw this upright in a vertical rack and grabbed to to take a closer look - relieved to see that no one had messed with it (1 exception), original finish with some dents and knick marks, clean checkering with a few dents, metal all patina - just like it should be.
It reminded me of my small Charles Piper as it felt like it's 7/8 scale, certainly smaller than my Alex Henry.
This 1/2 stock British Sporting Rifle was made by Mills, London. Never heard of them, so I'll have to do some research..



Love the rear sight.

 

[52Bore]

I thought for sure it would be Damascus - but it doesn't seem the case..
The underside of the barrel reviled the original bore (25). For now, I'll just shoot it and play as is..
The 1 exception is that it has been lined to 40cal.

 

[Idaholewis]

AWESOME looking little Rifle!! What is the Twist Rate? Lots of good .40 Cal Pistol bullet molds available if it’s a fast twist

 

[52Bore]

AWESOME looking little Rifle!! What is the Twist Rate? Lots of good .40 Cal Pistol bullet molds available if it’s a fast twist

Twist measured 1:48
Should be no problem with a RB and fun to shoot.

 

[52Bore]

This has turned into a project of "Hiding the ram rod"
With a 40 cal liner and a ramrod for a .577, it needed something. The rod with the rifle wasn't the original, so I made one out of ebony - which is more correct to me.
Hard part was drilling a hole thru it..

 

[52Bore]

Needed to come up with a way to keep the 1/2 diameter ebony rod in place.



With the fit in the thimbles, the rod will not come out easily.

 

[52Bore]

Re: Friendship Commercial Row - hide the rod

Now for the 40 cal rod.
Used Horn for the rod handle and made a taper fit to hold it in place in the ebony rod.

 

[Idaholewis]

AWESOME Work Rick! :yeah:

 

[52Bore]

Found this about the maker.
Mills, Holcomb, London is on the barrel.

 

[Idaholewis]

Found this about the maker.
Mills, Holcomb, London is on the barrel.
Mills 1822 1843 copy.jpg

Some neat History!

 

[52Bore]

Decided to send to barrel off to the engraver to redo the name before it was lost.

 

[52Bore]

Just before sending barrel off, I found that the rib was loose - part of it anyway.
So, off it came and took some effort getting it back - I hope for another 175 years or more...

 

[52Bore]

And of course lots of work removing the excess solder - no matter how hard one tries to keep it to a minimum. Also, new thimbles would need to be made - might as well make one with an integral sling eye.

 

[52Bore]

Decided to try Wahkon Bay Tru-Brown.
After 6 days of application, carding, reapply.... and about 8 applications I found a Damascus pattern! I stopped at 10 applications - Too bad this is not the solution for Damascus because it's barely visible - but I'm not redoing.

Typical of how it looks after each application. I hung it from the sling eye outside to rust.


Carding off the rust.


How it looked after 10x. It's only on my lathe so I could easily card.

 

[52Bore]

All assembled..

 

[52Bore]

Back to Friendship in 2 weeks - maybe I’ll uncover another??

 

[shguns]

Good restoration work. Looks great!
Does it shoot?

 

[Idaholewis]

AWESOME work on that Old Rifle Rick! Looks AMAZING!

 

[52Bore]

Good restoration work. Looks great!
Does it shoot?

Thanks and of course it shoots. I have not shot it since the restoration, but will soon. I'll post.

 

[Browndogz]

Thanks for sharing! Nice work