[Six-Gun]

As far as my wife is concerned, this one fell off the Postal Service truck and onto the porch.

The bottom line is that I now have my squirrel and small game black powder gun.

This .36 caliber lefty flintlock was built by Tip Curtis in Cross Plains, TN:

- 44" Green Mountain barrel (swamped)
- Left handed Siler lock
- Fancy curly maple stock (dark brown stain)
- Iron furniture (still "in the white" - will probably rust brown finish it)
- Davis double set trigger

The wood on this thing looks fantastic and the trigger breaks beautifully, both set and un-set. As you can see by the picture of his signature, Tip ships his guns "in the white", so it will need some steel wool cleanup to knock off light surface rust and ready it for final finishing. Alternatively, I can keep it in the white and just clean up the existing look. A good oil coat after cleaning it up will keep it rust-free, but I will probably just go ahead and brown it to keep the long term maintenance minimal. This Siler lock is FAST, *way* faster than my Lyman factory lock, and the beefy mainspring on it gives a good clue as to why that is.

Tip is an old guy now, into his mid-80s, but he still does great work out of his shop in Cross Plains, TN. I got to shoot it briefly today, and was extremely pleased. The first two shots overlapped at 25 yard and the 3rd shot was just slightly outside of that group. Lock time is excellent as you can see in this brief video clip:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-sA1AxfZoqg

 

[mauser06]

Man that sucker is quick!


Nice looking rifle too! My turkey Fowler started as a precarve done by Tip and all the parts were bought from him.



Are you going to do anything else to the wood?? Could be the lighting and angle but almost looks like it could use a couple more coats of oil..


Could leave the metal bright and let it take on its own patina...or brown it..or blue it..I think it'll look good..wasn't uncommon for guns to be left bright..after a while of shooting and hunting it'll age on its own.. just oil the bore and parts of the lock that need oiled..


I can't believe how quick that thing is lol..

 

[Six-Gun]

Thanks a lot! Yeah, she's definitely quick. Here's a clip of it discharging in slow-motion so you can see the works deploying in a little better detail.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0IYHghEBZ0

The combination of that Siler lock and what appears to be a "White Lightnin'" touch hole liner clearly makes for a seriously fast lock time. After the first shot, I inspected the touch hole and thought that it was plugged. When I looked closer, I realized that what I was seeing was not fouling, but a *single granule of FFFg* staring at me from the main charge! That liner puts you REAL close to the main bang, and that has to play a huge part in the lock time being so instantaneous.

As for the wood, I think I'm going to leave it be. I like the matte look it has and the fact that it's not terribly flashy for practical reasons.

I may do just what you said and leave the metal bright. Tip warned me not to try and take this thing back apart because of how slim and fragile that stock is without the barrel supporting it. Obviously, he'd hate to see me break it. I think I would hate that even more! Since pulling it from the wood is verboten, allowing it to naturally age and patina sounds more and more like a good plan.

 

[bigt557]

 

[tdd]

Nice rifle!

Hard to tell from a couple of pics, but that fore end doesn't look overly slender to me...?

Not disputing what you were told, but there may come a day when you do need to dismount that barrel from the stock. Just be cautious and careful and you'll be ok. It's not like a TC Hawken....

 

[USAF_SP]

Nice! I want a .36 cal. Planning my next build now and it will be a .36 cal. Researching W.PA guns to use as the style

 

[tdd]

I can neither confirm nor deny that I have a 36 cal rifle also in my sights, so to speak!

I've read on ALR and other places that guys running 36's often use buckshot as a source for roundballs. Would sure make for easy procurement...

 

[Retired_Rusty]

I can neither confirm nor deny that I have a 36 cal rifle also in my sights, so to speak!

Good One!

 

[USAF_SP]

I pour my own, so procurement of balls is not the problem. Procurement of the rifle (more like funds for) ...whole nother aminal

Now Six Guns new rifle is going to make me pinch and save my pennies more. See what happens after the show in Morgantown mid Sept. May even come away with some parts or wood

 

[Six-Gun]

Nice rifle!

Hard to tell from a couple of pics, but that fore end doesn't look overly slender to me...?

Not disputing what you were told, but there may come a day when you do need to dismount that barrel from the stock. Just be cautious and careful and you'll be ok. It's not like a TC Hawken....

Thanks! As for the build, the forend on this little gun is definitely...svelte. It's just one of those things where I don't want to test it unless there's a critical reason to take the gun down, especially given how adamant he was about not attempting it.

To the guys considering a small caliber build in the future, all I can say is that if you have never fired one, you're in for a treat. After blasting 70+ grains of 2F under a .54 cal ball all of this time through my Lyman Great Plains rifle, punch off a 25 gr. charge of 3F behind a .350" ball is a fun, low impact experience.

 

[tdd]

70gr of 2f.....

I'm accustomed to 120 of that under a 320-ish grain ball.

I'll have to check if a 36 actually fired!

 

[Six-Gun]

I tried heavier loads in my .54 cal, but none of them came close to the accuracy I get in lower charge weights.

If you're used to 120 gr., trust me,that .36 cal feels like nothing at all. It's all sound as far as the shoulder is concerned. It's almost weird - like a significantly louder .22 LR that packs a bit more punch.

 

[USAF_SP]

Heck, after 10 years with two different .50's then moving up to and using my .54 for the last 15 years, I thought shooting the .45 I built was a dream. I bet I'd have to check the target just to verify something actually came out with a .36.

Dang it Six-Gun, you got me eyeballing my empty workbench now haha. Well, at least I'll be casting ball and bullets this weekend to occupy my time. But you KNOW while I'm casting .50 and .54 balls I'm going to be thinking about that .36

 

[Six-Gun]

The way that you kick that project off unofficially is to buy a .36 cal mold and cast a few. I don't know about you, but I've been known to buy a gun or two because, dangit, I can't have ammo layin' around without a gun for it!

Seriously, though, your expression about having to check to see if anything actually came out is fairly accurate. The range I use won't allow me to do a close sight-in on the 15 yard pistiol lanes, so I had to go straight for the 25 yard lane. When the thing discharged, I felt virtually nothing and couldn't see the tiny hole with my naked eye. I wondered if I even had a strike on paper. I used my laser rangefinder and saw the itty bitty puncture, much to my delight.

Another cool thing you'll notice if you watch that slow motion video that I posted: if you look closely, you can see that correspondingly tiny, white patch go whizzing skyward at the shot.

 

[bushmaster]

Nice Rifle. I have a 50, 54, and 58, but have always wanted a 36. One of these days!

 

[tdd]

I tried heavier loads in my .54 cal, but none of them came close to the accuracy I get in lower charge weights.

If you're used to 120 gr., trust me,that .36 cal feels like nothing at all. It's all sound as far as my shoulder is concerned. It's almost weird - like a significantly louder .22 LR that packs a bit more punch.

That load is being run out of a rifle with a 46" barrel and 2"+ wide butt plate. Recoil isn't nearly what people think it will be.

It bashes the snot out of deer, though!

 

[Six-Gun]

Yeah, and with that long of tube, you're actually getting something significant out of that powder charge, too. My Lyman Great Plains rifle is nowhere near that long, so a 120 gr. load would waste a lot of powder for not much gain. That said, it really does well with the light loads.

 

[tdd]

I have hunted with a 50-cal GPR and a 50 cal Renegade. Well acquainted.

Moving to a long rifle was a "no going back" move for me. They're worse than crack.... lol.

 

[Six-Gun]

Definitely loving the long tube on this little guy. The catch is that I'm supposed to fly in for a squirrel hunt in Georgia in January and the thing it way too long for my airline-rated gun case!

I'm now looking at hardside ski cases that will take a TSA-approved lock.

 

[tdd]

Make sure you can get the same brand/granulation of black powder down there that you get here. You can't transport blackpowder on a plane. Not even in checked bags.

My big gun is 63" long overall. No way that thing gets flown anywhere, lol.