Black Powder-the Trad Archery of Guns

[Shadowhntr]

The question for you is more...where do you get that much leather?

[Graps]

I have a full cow side of 9 ounce leather.
The trouble is that is some heavy leather and hard to cut.
I usually use 7 ounce for knife sheaths to give you an idea.
If I made a gun case with it, I imagine it would weigh about 8 pounds empty.

[Shadowhntr]

Wow! That would be almost a hard case!

[Graps]

It would protect the rifle

[dhaverstick]

Black powder guns are the only firearm I hunt with anymore. I have several of them, all custom made by my buddy, John Pruitt. Here's a picture of the doe I killed this year on the last weekend of Missouri's rifle season. I was invited to hunt at my friend, Joe Hollingshad's, place and we both spent the weekend dressed in our leathers chasing Bambi with our smokepoles. On that Sunday morning, we both killed does.




Graps, I make the occasional gunsling, cow's knee, and case. Here are some photos of things I've made in the past.





I just signed a contract for a 2019 moose hunt in British Columbia and I am taking my 54 caliber flintlock rifle along with my longbow. Since I've already killed a moose with a longbow, I think I would rather take one with the flinter. We shall see....

Darren

[Graps]

Very nice Darren.
Thanks for sharing.

[Graps]

Close to 30 years ago, I wanted to make a black powder measure.
I red books ( no internet back then ) and found out that there's 7000 grains in a pound.
I then found where the cubic inches on a pound of black powder was.
Ok, I'm ready to do the math.
I crunched the numbers, figured out the volume of 10 grains of black powder and taking a brass tube I was in business.
Made a bushing for the base, a knurled brass knob, made the main shaft, attached the piston, drilled the increment dimples and installed a set screw in the side that would fit the dimples.
And it was finished......
A few hours later as it was sitting on my work bench at work, my boss came in and saw it.
He picked it up, fiddled with it and asked what it was.
I told him it was a black powder measure.
He then played with adjusting it up and down.
Said " That's very neat and easy to use " at that point he put it in his pocket and said " why don't you make yourself one " and walked out of the tool room.

This one in the picture is the next one I made for me.

[Captainkirk]

Sweet! I have one sorta like that but I bought it, didn't make it. That is a real keeper.

[Captainkirk]

Well, most of you know by now one of my passions is collecting black powder revolvers. But I like all sorts of BP guns as well. Here are a few pix of my Lyman Trade Rifle half-stock Hawken-style rifle in .50 cal, 1:48 twist...



Business end...



Some very nice oiled wood for the stock...



The lock



Cheekpiece





Brass trigger guard



Single-set trigger





...and his baby brother, also in .50



These things are a real hoot to shoot, and very accurate. The Lyman Plains Pistol surprised me with it's accuracy. I've hunted several season with the rifle.

[Graps]

Nice