My Squirrel & Turkey rifle...

Darkhorse

Handloader
Mar 14, 2014
800
149
I built this rifle 12 years ago mainly to hunt Turkeys with as ML rifles are legal in Georgia. But it has also seen a bit of squirrel hunting also. Lately not so much as the knee and hip problems have really slowed me down.
Rice .40 caliber 38" barrel, LH large Siler lock, Davis double set triggers.
It is meant to portray what the average rifleman might have had hanging over the mantle so it is light on decoration, excepting I did include a poured pewter nose cap.
Iron mounted browned very dark and the maple stock is also stained dark with the shine knocked off to satin. So hopefully it will escape the attention of a gobblers eyes.
I was hoping to be in the turkey woods but it I'm just sitting here at the keyboard recuperating from hip replacement and they tell me it will be some time before restrictions will be lifted.
So talking and thinking is the best I can do right now.
An interesting note is I was watching the American Rifleman the other day and they had a segment on Revoloutionary war rifles. They showed one almost identical to this one with nearly the identical incised lines. The line was the squirrel rifle over the mantel the American farmer went to war with. Or something like that.
 

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Very handsome. Must feel as though you are reaching back to ancestors who obtained our freedom as a nation.
 
That sure is a beauty. I always had a sweet spot for the old rifles with out a lot of brass and polish on them.
This is mine from when I was building and selling them it's the last one I built. I would buy the lock and trigger parts fit and finish them myself. I bought rough sawed stock blanks and then shape them by hand with out the use of power tools just like was done back in the day. The nose cap on this rifle is cast pewter which was poured right on the wood while it was still molten and no screws holding it in place. I also made the hard ware from steel plate and slow rust browned all the metal.
 

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This nose cap was also poured directly onto the wood using a form with no hardware to hold it on. Instead it mechanically locks due to holes drilled through at angles into the barrel channel. The barrel was heated prior to the pour to allow a little more time before setup as the barrel itself acts as a heatsink.
I'm not sure of the historical accuracy. I have an old video of Hershall House building a Virginia rifle in which he poured a nose cap like this. I liked it and decided to try one.
 

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Most interesting and very impressive. True craftsmanship in that.
 
Darkhorse,
That's how I was showed by the Smithsonian gun smiths at Williams burg VA back in the 1980sto do it. By drilling the holes at a forward angle is what causes the mechanical lock and as the pewter cools it shrinks drawing everything up tight and it will never loosen or come off with out destroying it. The Smiths also showed me how to drill the hole for the ramrod using the thimbles as a guide for the drill bit and was done after the nose cap was poured with the barrel in the stock.
When I get a chance I'll try to get better pictures of my work.
It is believed the Southern Mountain rifle was the pattern for the Hawken Plains rifle which was more robust.
 
Scotty, funny you should ask. Most of them if made with a quality barrel will shoot bug holes and that's with open sights. I used mine for competition target shooting as well as for hunting when my eyes were good and didn't need glasses. I could take the head off of a Grouse at fifty yards with mine easily and squirrels with ease. Mine has a Douglas XX air gauge barrel on it.
 
Wonderful rifles guys. Far nicer than my percussion .50 cal Thompson-Center White Mountain Carbine.

Guy
 
Only one problem with it. The lock is on the wrong side!


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That is a beautiful rifle. Very well done!

Hard to tell from the pics, but it looks like it might be a straight barrel?

That nosecap is interesting. I've never seen one like that before.
 
The barrel is a "B" profile swamped 38" barrel with round bottom rifling.
The rifle can shoot better than I can hold with iron sights. Bugholes and shots touching are not uncommon, especially off a bench.
My best 100 yard group was 3-4" off the hood of my truck using 60 grains of Goex 3FG. My eyes were better then.
I ordered this barrel from Mr. LC Rice and he later coached me through lock tuning. The rifle is a shooter.
 
That's very cool. I wasn't sure from the pics if it was swamped or not. That must be a very nimble and well-balanced rifle.

My next flintlock will be a 40. Allen Martin was tempting me with a beauty of a Bucks styled 40 cal recently, but the funds weren't there to acquire it at the time on my end. I want a nice Lehigh/Bucks similar in weight to yours, although I like the longer barrels.

I like the iron mounts, the finish on that wood, and pewter. It all ties together really nicely.
 
truck driver":1idtb4h3 said:
Darkhorse,

It is believed the Southern Mountain rifle was the pattern for the Hawken Plains rifle which was more robust.

I've long thought so myself. It seems like a natural progression to me. I've been on the verge of building a southern rifle several times but from looking at them I'm not sure how I would like that amount of drop. But at my age I don't really need another ML that basically does the same thing as something I've already got.
That said, I did seriously consider building a .50 with the same B profile barrel to try and cut down on the weight compared to my .54, still thinking about it.

I would love to give an Allen Martin rifle a home over my mantle piece but they are way to rich for my blood. Besides I just have a desire to build them myself.
 
Just re-read this...

The Hawken brothers' lineage goes back through central/southeast Pennsylvania and back to Switzerland. Their ancestors moved to PA and were well known long rifle makers under the names Hachen and/or Haga.

This got "updated" to Hawken that we know now. Their training and background would have been rifles a from the Reading/Christian Springs styles and possibly as far west in PA as York.

I'm not sure how a SMR style rifle would have influenced them, but I suppose anything is possible. :)
 
I'm not sure how a SMR would have influenced the Hawken either. Not sure what I was thinking. My theory is the Harpers Ferry model 1803 half-stock (also made in fullstock) was the inspiration for the Hawken.
Jacob Hawkens worked at Harper's Ferry until 1818 before moving to St. Louis, Mo. And was surely very familiar with the Model 1803. When the need arose for a specialized rifle the 1803 was likely easier to redesign for the current need.
 
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