Saturday night in Toledo, Ohio... is like being nowhere at all (it's a John Denver song)

[Wildrangeringreen]

Hey all, an Ohioan Here, started shooting ML'ers when I was 15, when my parents gifted me a traditions flintlock (old model PA Pellet). ML'ers are pretty much all I've shot since the army, don't really miss the modern guns all that much. Don't get me wrong, they're useful, but there's something about muzzle loading guns...

All in all, I've built about 30 guns over the last 8 years or so, most of them were sold. I generally make hunting Germanic/Austrian architecture rifles and Smoothbores (although mid-1700's and 1850's-70's inlines, SMR and scheutzen styled guns are worming their way into my interests, lately). The rifles are normally Bullet-rifles, and many of the Smooths were reamed and tapped for modern chokes (why not?). Most of the Stocks are my own laminates (Hey- Maple, with Bloodwood and Ironwood looks nice lol). I'd guess you could say I mostly make old-school type guns with a modern twist?

Wife and I moved up to the Toledo area a few years ago, started our own veg. and fruit farm, been primarily focused on getting it up and running. Had to leave a lot of the tools I was using with my family, as they were theirs lol; and hopefully next year (2022) I can get my shop set up and start turning out guns in the winter months (has to be better than working at Amazon or Fedex over the winter lol).

Current personal rainy day project: reprofiling that 26", 1"Oct Traditions barrel to Oct-round, tapered; making a cheap stock for it (an experimental $23 plywood stock, just to see how it'd go, it's turning out pretty good, not pretty by any imagination lol), and getting it up to my standards (original lock placement was horrible, ended up gas-cutting a gouge in the bottom of the pan lol). Barrel's inlet, Rammer's channel's inlet, Stocks mostly shaped. just need to get/make furniture, useful sights, and finish inletting the lock parts!

Been curious about smokeless ML'ers, off and on, as well, looks like this may be the right place to learn a bit about it.

Had been involved on another ML forum, but I suspect that I'll be hanging out here more. Too many "traditional extremists", as Doc White put it, can't have a decent discussion of Non-Disney-Davey-Crocket guns without at least one of them trying to commandeer it. This site seems to have enough room for everyone, or at least everyone has enough room that they walk on by a conversation that isn't their thing. Happy to be here, there looks like there's a lot of good people!

 

[HC]

To the group.

 

[03mossy]

Welcome aboard! Yes, plenty of room here for discussions on every style of muzzleloader! Post some pics up of your work when you can. I'd love to see that maple/bloodwood stock!

 

[Wildrangeringreen]

Welcome aboard! Yes, plenty of room here for discussions on every style of muzzleloader! Post some pics up of your work when you can. I'd love to see that maple/bloodwood stock!

Thanks, It was made for a customer, had pictures on my old laptop (along with pretty much all my builds). Around the time my son was born, it decided to take a nosedive down 3 flights of concrete stairs at the hospital... it was either me or the PC... so I grabbed the handrail lol. It was pretty though.

 

[deermanok]

Welcome from Oklahoma.

 

[snapbang]

Familiar with any of the Imlay City, MI vegetable farms????? Ive been in agriculture in one way shape or form for 40 years. Are you retailing, going to market?????

 

[Hatchet Jack]

Welcome from Maryland!
The family and I were just up your way a few weeks ago to go to the Rock-n-Roll Hall of Fame.
There is plenty of room for all kinds of front stuffers here. I love talkin' and reading about sidelocks one day and smokeless ml's the next.
Great group of guys here.

 

[michiganmuzzy]

Welcome. Cant wait to see some pics.

 

[deerlessbob]

Welcome. Sounds like you’ll be bringing a lot of expertise with you.

 

[gman57]

Welcome from NC to the group

 

[Paul33]

Welcome

 

[UndeadPoet]

Welcome, from NC!

‘Poet

 

[Danaidh]

Hi from Alabama.

 

[Matthew323]

Welcome to the forum.

I can sympathize with you and traditional muzzleloading forums.

For some time now, I have been trying to find a competent builder of traditional muzzleloading rifles, that is willing to look far enough outside of the 18th & 19th boxes that most of those builders lock themselves into.

Because of my terrible near-sightedness, I require a scope sighted muzzleloading rifle in order not to be constricted to only stick bow length shots. Which is to say, 35 yards, or less.

I started out with a flintlock longrifle in 1971 at age 17. And, now at age 67, I wish to continue to shoot a flintlock rifle. Only, with a modern, variable power riflescope mounted to the top of the barrel.

In my ideal world, my dream rifle would be modeled after a traditional English Sporting Rifle. The departure from tradition would come in the form of....

GrovTec, flush-mounted, sling swivel bases

Spartan Precision Equipment, flush-mounted, brass, neodymium magnet, gunsmith adapters

Push button, 1.5", sling swivels

Custom, 1.5" wide, Rhodesian sling

Rice, 19" long, swamped octagon, T.W. Pistor style, .66 caliber, Jaeger Stutz rifle barrel with a 1.330" octagonal breech

Integral, Talley, scope ring, dovetail bases with recoil shoulders that are machined directly into the top flat of the barrel's breech

Talley, 30mm, Q-D lever, scope rings

Leopold, VX-6HD, 1-6×24mm riflescope with a FireDot Duplex, illuminated reticle

Kick-eez Magnum recoil pad installed at a 13" L.O.P.

The howls of metaphorical dismay, the slamming of the metaphorical doors, and the emphatic "NO's!!!!" that have come from every builder that I have contacted thus far have left me with a somewhat sour taste in my mouth.

 

[Wildrangeringreen]

Welcome to the forum.

I can sympathize with you and traditional muzzleloading forums.

For some time now, I have been trying to find a competent builder of traditional muzzleloading rifles, that is willing to look far enough outside of the 18th & 19th boxes that most of those builders lock themselves into.

Because of my terrible near-sightedness, I require a scope sighted muzzleloading rifle in order not to be constricted to only stick bow length shots. Which is to say, 35 yards, or less.

I started out with a flintlock longrifle in 1971 at age 17. And, now at age 67, I wish to continue to shoot a flintlock rifle. Only, with a modern, variable power riflescope mounted to the top of the barrel.

In my ideal world, my dream rifle would be modeled after a traditional English Sporting Rifle. The departure from tradition would come in the form of....

GrovTec, flush-mounted, sling swivel bases

Spartan Precision Equipment, flush-mounted, brass, neodymium magnet, gunsmith adapters

Push button, 1.5", sling swivels

Custom, 1.5" wide, Rhodesian sling

Rice, 19" long, swamped octagon, T.W. Pistor style, .66 caliber, Jaeger Stutz rifle barrel with a 1.330" octagonal breech

Integral, Talley, scope ring, dovetail bases with recoil shoulders that are machined directly into the top flat of the barrel's breech

Talley, 30mm, Q-D lever, scope rings

Leopold, VX-6HD, 1-6×24mm riflescope with a FireDot Duplex, illuminated reticle

Kick-eez Magnum recoil pad installed at a 13" L.O.P.

The howls of metaphorical dismay, the slamming of the metaphorical doors, and the emphatic "NO's!!!!" that have come from every builder that I have contacted thus far have left me with a somewhat sour taste in my mouth.

Sounds like you're a bit like me, you look at it as: "if I were a gunmaker in the 1800's, and had the knowledge/accessories/access to parts we do today, how do I build my best gun" While I have a thing for small-bore, as far as large-bore rifles go, I do like a 20 bore with a 1:74" twist, slow enough to shoot a ball hard, but just fast enough to stabilize a 500gr slug. good for about anything short of elephant, I'd think

Flintlocks do fine with scopes, you just have to have the objective in front, and the eyepiece behind the pan, otherwise, you get a lot of soot on the lenses in a few shots. Depending on your lock and barrels, you might have to opt for a 3/4" tube though for clearance (which is more "historical", anyways lol). Don't know about that mount though, I prefer something more akin to the "rabbit-ear" mount Hi-Lux makes for their "Malcolm" reproductions (lots of easy elevation adjustment... and with BP, it doesn't hurt to have if you like to shoot very far ).

If you want to kick a hornets' nest, just start a thread on the original inlines (flintlocks starting from the 1730's, and percussion guns from at least the 1850's)... they come crawling out the woodwork lol. Same for choked rifles and smoothbores (note: some were being made at least in the 1600's on high end guns, but it wasn't until the early 1800's that someone patented a method for producing some-what consistent results). I wish I could find someone who would do progressive-depth rifling for a reasonable rate (deeper at the breech, shallow at the muzzle .006" -.003"), those are about the best ML barrels out there.

Since .22RF is never going to go back to anything close to what it was when I was a kid (you could get a 550 box of Rem. Golden Bullets for around $5, lol), I've thought about making a light .22 version of a Babcock open-frame. It'd be cheap shooting, lead is about $2.20/lb, makes 200 35gr bullets ($0.011/bullet)+ 5gr of 4F powder (original .22LR load), makes for 1,400 shots/lb ($0.015/shot +-), add some roll caps and foil. you'd be shooting for what, $0.025- $.03/shot? sounds good to me ! Makes it even cheaper if you go down to a 25gr air-rifle style-bullet and a 3gr charge lol.