Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Muzzleloaders Muzzleloader Project in SE Az.

You dear sir are the man.

Just read this thread and I keep looking for the page 2 button. Hurry up so i can see your vision!!! :-)

Okay,....Griz

Nothing bespeaks vision like a half decent set of sights,....and the original "lollypop" that would have accompanied this was long gone, an long time ago, a HORRIBLY bodged barrel sight had been retrofitted by some hack.
Several aborted efforts to match the original super fine pitched threads in the VERY hard tang saw the place littered with tufts of pulled out hair and broken or dulled taps,...It wasn't 1/4-80, and it wasn't 1/4-100, and the original catalogue for Smithing tools that tap was ordered outta' went up the chimney, or under a still as kindling long ago. Maybe it was used in the outhouse behind George Leonard & Sons emporium.
The original threads were ground out / removed with little stones, and some kinda' creative alternative pursued.
Got this one right on the third try, though I'll own up to the "staff" leaning off to the left like a drunken pirate with his peg leg stuck in a gopher hole.
There just ISN'T any way to get hold of this thing and dial on a flat, it's ALL radii !
The soapstone "Spud" was used to dam the solder, and also to get the best vertical alignment I was gonna' get.
This is not a Purdey, or a museum quality resto,...the rifle's going back into competition, and until it's shot a bit, "close enough" is just that,...
There's a thread over in the gunsmithing forum that has some more detail re: this stunt, along with some serious campfire dialogue ranging from intelligent tech to serious blither and butt-hurt feelers.

I have a fairly good sized stash of parts and pieces in raw form, ....spooled up many years ago by some old duffer who was making several different sizes of Soulle tang sights.
Given the embarrasing list off to the port that the new recess evinces, it seemed that providing some windage adjustment just migh be in order
Once some O1 drill rod was threaded to the new 1/4-40 TPI
chosen the goody box was raided, and this widget counterbored slightly @ .250", than tapped 10-32"



Those of ya' owning Soulle replicas will likely recognize the raw stock chosen, crap there's a LOT of fooling around goes into building those lash ups !



Sight, bottomed out, that should be plenty low enough



Maxed out,....should be about right for a "40 Rod gun", ..if not, spooling up taller one will be short work, I can probably wring another .250" out of the clearance below without hanging it through the trigger plate



Horsing this barrel around from vise to vise is fatiguing,....everybody has to believe in something, I believe I'll have a beer, and put the day's tools away.

Nice to see this one get the love and attention she needed so bad.
It would have been a shame had she gone to the scrap can if she hadn't found you.
Nicely done Sir!

The front end of this job was pretty damn challenging,...the Rifle was broken clean in half at the wrist, the breech cap's vent completely trashed / eroded away, the lock in rags and tatters.
As time allows, I'll post a few pics of the remediation of those woes.
From what one can learn about Leonard's rifles, it's more than likely this one went to war,...a LOT of Berdan's guys brought their own equipment.

GTC

"I see", said the blind man.

Shush, Helen Keller's Cat might hear you !

SOOooooo,....The first pic below is the classic, nay,...SUPREME example of the well worn theorum, "Do NOT cut that little widget loose without first completing ALL of your machining operations.
Pretty much all freehand milling, and from here a leather glove and a file is all ya' get. Maybe if i drag it over to the feed store and back on the end of a log chain it'll look a little more "finished".?
Actually kinda' GLAD that the original raw stock was so roughly machined,...the height of the bar is already set, as it were. Any complaints and I'll just blame "duffer", ....he's dead anyway.

Anyhoo,....the sight's "Tunnel" will wind up being a little bit longer component than pictured, and the lower dovetailed block will be sculpted a bit, too.



Let as much light into your rear aperture as you possibly can,....after reading a great article in one of the "Accurate Rifle" pubs, regarding this, I started doing it,...bore the thing out to a tapered SHELL, and polish the dickens (or crap) out of the ID,...regardless of how small a final aperture hole is chosen, the sight picture WILL improve.
I damned near need Braille on my irons any more,...so focusing
( ) on how alla' this plays is important.
My crack about Helen Keller's dog er, CAT went unappreciated, there's now a mob of what looks like blind, crazy people demonstrating in front of my place,...I better go bring them a beer, or something,...

Later.

GTC

I thought her cat was a seeing eye cat and was deaf. Mercy, the things I learn....and what happens when you give the deaf the silent treatment anyway?

I like the way this unfolds. Ups and Downs, lefts'n rights...looking very functional it is.

Does the carriage come with it? It's obviously a heavy gun and all.


D

Looked like Gracie was not planning on it leaving. miles

Naw, she was warning that little cattle dog, Nip to stay away from it.

I'm thinking that a couple of wee holes tapped right at the outside edge of that dovetail wind base,....lined out so's the radii on the upper slider engage some wee screw heads will keep the aperture and slider from falling of, ....getting lost.

Working with that same raw stock, one could easily have a nice windage lead screw tucked up underneath, between the two components,... # 4 or 5 40 TPI would be just the ticket.

GTC

I concur.

I did NOT want to De-Solder that widget,...
.....really,....and yet had not the heart to live with the drunken pirate staff alignment..
Dismantled the gun (yet again) and judiciously heated one side of the 56% silver soldered joint,......and lifted one side off, just slightly. Came REAL close (no cigar) so WTF,....did it again. Pretty pleased with the end product, 80% of the joint is still flooded with a SS formula TOUTED as having superior "Gap Filling" characteristics, and there's no forces loading on that component.
The threads have a wee bit of lash, ....I''ll dope that miniscule opening created with some acraglas,....grease and release compound on the staff,...that should give some decent extra friction, and drag on the staff's threads.
The new "tunnel" was SS'd to the little mortised base, than beaded.
The first pics give you an idea as to just how Skookum the perpendicular to bore axis this FINALLY achieved. and the centered tunnel LOOKS right, now.
No big deal to make up a wider base with more wind travel, if needed.
Couldn't resist spooling up an eye cup,,....pictured as well.
A decision is pending, regarding wee changable apertures, or just a small borehole through a fixed plug in the tunnel. If changables are the order of the day, some 10-40 TPI Tap and Die tooling will have to be brought in / procured.

To late / Dark to shoot, dammit .

Cheers, GTC

Yer makin' my trigger finger itch....

Greg, it might be an illusion, but from your picture looking from back to front - it appears the tang is crooked (bent to one side)
True or false?

I saw that as well, A little Cast Off for a right hand shooter?

25 lb "George Leonard & Sons" stump gun.

George may have made good barrels, but I'd venture his sons enjoyed Laudanum in their morning whiskey,and addded Hemp to their pipe tobacky. Some of the original work encountered left me pretty much convinced of that.

GTC

Pics above
....it became evident that I was going to drive myself around the bend (further ?) trying to get a truly PLUMB orientation on the sight staff,...some creative "fixturing " was clearly in order. To have the rifle assembled completely WAS going to be the only way to ensure that a cut into the tang was in skew. Small shop, small mill, BIG rifle.

Corners got cleaned out, in the quest for sturdy blocks, chocks, and other misc. ballast. Getting this all Skookum did NOT happen in 5 or ten minutes, more like the better part of a morning, and well into the afternoon.

The actual cut ?......the work of maybe 2 minutes, max

A white brass "alignment boss" was generated, and Silver Soldered in its' hard won niche.