Making a 366 Rigby

As an engineer I call it "prototyping", if you only knew how many "prototypes" end up in production

I've tried to find some pictures of another "prototype" we built back in 84-85 somewhere, but those were Polaroid photos and seem to have disappeared.
For those of you, who like my kids, haven't got a clue what I'm talking about, we had a "magic box" with a little imp inside who draw a picture of what you pointed it at and delivered it from a slot in the front after a few seconds.

If you think that my disk sander is scary you would have had a heart attack from those pictures.

We built a motorcycle from a collapsible bike and a 40cc chainsaw.




My older cousin attached a hard rubber roller from some random farm equipment to the tip of the bar and we attached the saw to the bike with hose clamps so that the roller drove the rear wheel.
As a bike chain wouldn't fit the saw's sprockets we used a saw chain, not a new one, duh!, we were safety minded so we used an old rusty one from the scrap heap.

One hand on the handle bar and one on the throttle and away we went at warp speed, often with someone on the luggage carrier.
For a glorious afternoon we were bikers, then we were discovered and the bike impounded

Spot on Dave!
You are obviously an upstanding citizen.

Actually my Pratcher favorite is not one of the discworld books, it's Dodger.

And I love the bike, but most I love the picture of your dad's contraption, it looks so much more engineered than ours did

Today I've started to re-convert my 1815 musket back to flintlock.
I found a complete lock in need of some TLC.

Yeah, those are proper gun turnscrews. They're still made in Sheffield.

Next step is to make a threaded collar to be brazed in the barrel and then I have some stainless touchholes to ease cleaning

There aren't many flintlocks left of this model, they were converted to percussion in two big batches in 1845 and 1849, mine seems to have deserted the army early on and been bubba converted by cutting off the pan, adding a generic hammer with an 8-pointed hole to fit any nut and the touch hole d&t for a nipple.

The factory converted versions are harder to restore. They also had new locks fitted, so I'm lucky to have 1½ lock.

Caliber is nominal 18.55 mm or basically 12 bore.

m/1815-45
The various locks all have a half cock notch but the army didn't care for it and kept the old fashioned dog as a more secure alternative.


m/1815-49 a simpler (probably cheaper) conversion and the dog is gone.

They were quickly getting outdated even with the conversion models and was replaced by the m/1860 rifle in the odd caliber of 12.17 mm (.41 swedish inches of 29.69 mm) which was the last muzzle loader.
I have a sporterized 1860, it was on a pic earlier in the thread.
They are very good rifles for target shooting but not for battle conditions as they foul easily due to shallow rifling.

The 1860 was replaced only seven years later by m/1867, a Remington rolling block in the caliber 12.7x44R

Should you happen to own one of these, it might be good to know that the barrels was mainly reused 1860 barrels.

Do not use .50 jacketed bullets as the smaller caliber will raise the pressure.

And do not use .50-70 ammo, they look identical but they are not.

Today I took a look at the hole for the drum.
It is very nearly M8 in size, a bit coarser thread and there is a very slight wriggle room. I can almost thread the bolt through by hand..

I was thinking of welding on some material and drilling and tapping for M8x1.25 and then using a stainless liner.

The hole however is in the threads of the breach plug and if I weld it I will almost certainly screw them up and those are like no standard I have ever seen.

Could I use a helicoil insert with some proper high temp Locktite instead?
What pressures are were talking about?

The barrel is just over 1/4" thick from the outside to the top of the threads.

The rifle is home again!
I've put a drop of red oil in the checkering and brushed it in with a toothbrush, maybe another coat tomorrow as well and then I have some minor adjustments to make.

It's beautiful and it feels really good, gives me a great grip.

No idea, I haven't shot it once yet.
But I've paid this year's membership at the range so just at this flippin slush melts away and we have some dry weather I'm going to put a couple of dozen round through it.

The case is an old Allen, Montana blanket I think is called and I really like it.
It's far from tacticool and much better looking than the brown vinyl case with orange zip and stitching I inherited from my grandpa. <shudder>

It's not wool, might be a blend, it keeps producing those little fabric balls on the surface (the reason I've not responded to your post before is entirely up to the fact that the word for those little fuzzy things is not included in any curriculum of English taught in the swedish educational system up to and including university level, in Swedish they're called "noppor", so I've just given up and posted anyway) that i associate with polyester and that you need a gigantic electric shaver to remove.

One bedding is made by a professional with emphasis on keeping the rifles balance point and fast handling ability.

The other is made by a semi crazed, half drunk Englishman with ears at right angle to his head and a free supply of black epoxy, of which half a pound had already been removed.



Can YOU spot the difference!?

It turns real brittle under a heat gun and can be scraped off, but the fumes are extremely noxious
I won't try again until I can work outside.

But that stock will have to wait, if I can sell the bottom metal it's free walnut to use for whatever.

I spent two whole evenings cleaning the barrel before I took it to the stockmaker.

Tonight I spent a couple of hours cleaning again.

And it's just as dirty as it was when I bought it, I give up!


I've worn out three bronze brushes, they're down to .30 now

This is the last wet patch with MC#7 after up to 10 hours of cleaning, not even my FNG was ever this dirty!

God knows what the former owner's been up to. The outside of the rifle is in good shape.

No me time this weekend, my wife's kid brother just got their third child so we volunteered to have the other two for a sleep over.

They are adorable, but they are clearly a handful.

When they left my youngest daughter had to go lay down in a dark room. I reminded her that we had three like them only 24/7 for 365. But she just says I'm exaggerating, no one can be as much trouble as those two and certainly not she and her siblings.

Well I have the scars to prove it

I got a little sight, and I also got someone who has the machines to mill and drill and weld and spark and pound it into shape with a 12 pound hammer for all I know.
So the bolt mounted peep sight is going to happen!

A quick test shows that the peep sight will work perfectly mounted on the centerline of the firing pin, at the lowest setting it's just under the line of sight of the original sights.

And I want to extend a big thank you to someone whom unfortunaly I can't name due to the immensely tiresome angry rhinoceros. It seems that iron sights are a restricted item.

I've also managed to find some more accessories. I especially like the clips, I think they must be made for the civilian market so that's fitting the profile.

It's not really visible in the picture, but I've put a round hood on the sight and although the bead is not exactly centered I think that will work out to my advantage, it's a fraction low and if I sight the rifle 2" high at 100 meters the bead will be sighted for 200 and the hood for 100.

So for quick shots at close range the peep and the hood centers over the target and for measured shots at greater distances the bead is used

In theory