Recently completed rifle

[KurtHuhn]

Some of my other hobbies include gunsmithing. This is a rifle I just completed using an old beat up Thompson Center stock, and a new Green Mountain .58 caliber barrel. The stock was an absolute wreck when I got it, so I sanded it all the way back to bare wood and refinished it with my own mix of oils and wax. I used mostly Thompson brass bits, but I had to make escutcheons for the barrel wedge because the inletting was AFU. Gonna take it hunting this fall - I suspect the game won't know what hit them.

[danilo]

Guns are a hard item to have in Brazil legally specially old ones. If i could, i would .

This job looks amazing.

Sent from my MI 8 Lite using Tapatalk

[Scap]

Absolutely beautiful.
Love how crisp the brass fits into the stock.

[KurtHuhn]

Thank you - the inletting always takes the longest, but there's no fast way to do it. I always wondered why traditional gunsmiths seemed to have more chisels than any other tool. Now I know why!

[Scap]

Thank you - the inletting always takes the longest, but there's no fast way to do it. I always wondered why traditional gunsmiths seemed to have more chisels than any other tool. Now I know why!

It also explains why the high end double guns cost as much as a car or house!

[KurtHuhn]

Oh hell yeah - I've seen some Italian doubles that made me consider whether I actually needed a car... or house.

[n80]

Beautiful work and love the gun.

Your eyes must be better than mine. I'm 56. A couple of years ago I tried iron sights on my older bolt action deer rifle. Killed a couple of hogs and a doe but shot placement was not what it should have been and if the light wasn't perfect I just couldn't get things lined up. So I went back to a scope.....but to keep it in the spirit of things I put a 1950's scope on my 1950's rifle.

I have a friend who is a professional shooter and has shot for Beretta and Kreighoff. His competition doubles start around $50,000 and then he gets custom made stocks by some wizard in Florida that cost no-telling-how-much. The custom stock world reminds me a lot of the high end pipe world.

George

[KurtHuhn]

Your eyes must be better than mine. I'm 56. A couple of years ago I tried iron sights on my older bolt action deer rifle. Killed a couple of hogs and a doe but shot placement was not what it should have been and if the light wasn't perfect I just couldn't get things lined up. So I went back to a scope.....but to keep it in the spirit of things I put a 1950's scope on my 1950's rifle.

LOL! My eyes are trashed! I have a prosthetic lens in my left eye, set for distance. Unfortunately, I am left eye dominant, so my right eye just goes with whatever it's told ("oh, we don't focus inside 6 feet? Okay!"). Sight picture can be a real chore since I'm right handed, but I have found some good ones. Williams Fire Sights are good - fiber optic red and green, tough to not see those. And buckhorn rears with blade fronts - in decent light, I can line those up without trouble. I tried globes, and they were just an exercise in frustration.

[EpicDragon7]

That is a nice rifle Kurt. Gunsmithing is something I have wanted to get into for a while.

[UnderShade]

Beautiful work, Kurt.

[LatakiaLover]

If you do take it hunting, do the full-meal-deal patched round ball experience.

For the last few decades guys have rules lawyered their gear so they could qualify for black powder season. "Where's the fun in that?" has always been my reaction.

Much better to keep things as legit as possible: 2F, iron sights, cast your own lead, etc.

And yup, Bambi will NOT know what hit her. The wound channel cavitation caused by a round ball makes them a LOT more effective than people who haven't seen it would believe. Plus no blood-shot meat like that new-fangled high speed stuff creates. A .58 round ball at 800-1000 fps just punches a nice neat hole.

[n80]

Agreed. I have never understood the idea of "primitive" hunting using primitive designs with hundreds if not thousands of dollars of space age technology applied to them. Seems to defeat the point.

Not moralizing. To each his own.

But after many years of hunting and many deer and hogs killed, my m.o. now is one clean shot, dropped in its tracks, preferably near a road or path so I can get to it with the tractor with little or no dragging. My nod to the past is a fine 1950's era bolt action with a 1950's era scope. The end result is that I watch a lot of deer walk away without taking a shot. And at this point in my life that suits me fine.

The main thing to keep in mind a primitive weapons is to know and abide by the limits of its range and the limits of your ability to perfectly place a shot with open sights. The first time misplaced a shot with iron sights that required a second shot I gave up and went back to glass.

One thing I wonder about Kurt's beautiful gun (not knowing a great deal about black powder) is can it be loaded with shot? I'm assuming so, and that would be an absolute blast for turkey hunting (my favorite game). You'd have to call him in close....but that's where the fun is.

George

[KurtHuhn]

Much better to keep things as legit as possible: 2F, iron sights, cast your own lead, etc.

I agree completely. I have cast some .575 Minies for this, but the accuracy didn't match my needs for hunting. I expected that, since the twist on this barrel is 1:66 - perfect for round ball, but not much else. Using round ball I can cloverleaf at 150 yards without problem. And you're right - a .58 round ball will do a DRT on any deer we have here in the Northeast.

One thing I wonder about Kurt's beautiful gun (not knowing a great deal about black powder) is can it be loaded with shot? I'm assuming so, and that would be an absolute blast for turkey hunting (my favorite game). You'd have to call him in close....but that's where the fun is.

The rifling is very slow, but still there. I wouldn't feel comfortable doing it. For that I actually have a 12ga frontstuffer! I should post pics of that one too. It's similar to this one, but the barrel is left in the white with a satin polish, and all the hardware is nickel or nickel plated. It's a life altering experience when it touches off!

[n80]

[ For that I actually have a 12ga frontstuffer! I should post pics of that one too. It's similar to this one, but the barrel is left in the white with a satin polish, and all the hardware is nickel or nickel plated. It's a life altering experience when it touches off!

Would love to see it. I have a hard enough time with turkeys using modern shotgun shells and tight chokes but that sounds really cool.

George

[Old n stinky]

Bad ass toy! Nice work.