broken grip on Lyman Plains pistol

[flibuste]

Hello,

I built a kit of this pistol and at the first shooting session (5th ball) it broke.
Load was normal ( 35gr BP and 530 patched ball).

After close examination it appears that the fiber of the wood is not parallel to the barrel ; in addition some stain seepage is visible at the crack which indicate that it was present before the shooting.

My question is : is it normal that the fiber of wood is that way (the crack followed the fiber direction) ?

http://www.thehighroad.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=113421&stc=1&d=1263626627

http://www.thehighroad.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=113422&stc=1&d=1263626655


http://www.thehighroad.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=113423&stc=1&d=1263626745


http://www.thehighroad.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=113424&stc=1&d=1263626784


Thanks for your experience

Regards

 

[BHP FAN]

That my friend, is a flaw in the material.The company ought to give you a new stock.If the don't you could probably order one from Dixie.

 

[Oyeboten]

Defective Stock - the Grain should run paralell, or nearly so, to the long axis of the Pistol, running parallel to the Barrel...and not at 45 degrees to it, as that one had done.


Someone was asleep-at-the-wheel when that Stock Blank was chosen, let alone, allowed to proceed.


Looks like 'Phillipine Mahogany' also...which would be a fairly poor Species choice for a Stock, even if the Grain orientation had been correct.

 

[messerist]

I think that Dixion Muzzleloading shophttp://dixonmuzzleloading.com/ still does warrenty work on Lyman's products. Try them. I have used them for issues with my GPR.

 

[arcticap]

Despite how good they shoot, the Lyman Plains pistols suffer from more cracked stocks than any other model that I've ever heard of.

Maybe they use rejected wood from their rifles to build their pistol stocks with?
And they have a flawed way of cutting their pistol stock blanks?
And the design of the stock needs to be beefed up?

But you're certainly not the first person that this has happened to and not likely the last either. And 35 grains really isn't a heavy load.

I've read about folks loading up to 65 grains of powder in a .54 Lyman Great Plains pistol and recoil starts to get very stout and stocks have been known to crack. So how much powder you choose to load depends on how much that you want to punish yourself and the pistol.

http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?t=322589&highlight=plains+crack+.54

 

[flibuste]

Hello,

I have informed both Dixie Gun Works and Lyman of the problem ; After they have seen the photos they sent back a replacement grip without any difficulties.

However I am reluctant to start again all the work with inlays so I will try to reinforce the broken grip........

The replacement grips (one from DGW and one from Lyman) are much darker than the original one which was almost white and the grain is alongside the barrel

Regards

 

[arcticap]

I'm glad that they took care of you.
Good luck with the fix.

 

[TheRodDoc]

I am sure that a lot of stocks are cracked or broke on kit guns.

This isn't always the fault of the wood. It can happen because of poor fitting of stock to barrel. This is a pretty time consuming job to do right. The wood should touch the barrel everywhere without any high spots. This is done with lamp black or candle smoke on barrel. Cut and scrape, try barrel, cut scrape, resmoke barrel try again and etc. till wood is solid black everywhere.

A lot of people that buy these kits just set the barrel into the stock the way it comes from the company. And the company just used a machine to roughly cut the stock for the barrel. You have to finish it.
There can be a lot of stress on the wood when the barrel is screwed down on a high spot in the barrel channel.

On a stock like this one the grain running with the barrel will make it stronger under the barrel but weaker at the grip area.

I have a couple of old guns like this one that have the grain running like his that broke. If the barrel is fitted perfect there isn't much strain on the stock under the barrel. The barrel is making it stronger being fastened to wood at both ends.

The pistol grip with the grain running like his broken one is really better. It runs from the butt to the tang and can't break in the grip area as easy for that reason. And the grip area has nothing to make it stronger. (no metal fastened to it.)

 

[higene]

GPP Loads

Lyman Plains Pistol
Caliber: 54
Rate of twist: 1:8"
Depth of groove: .0095"
Projectile: .530" 225 gr. Denver Bullet Co. round ball
Powder: GOI
patch: .013" pure linen
Lube: RIG
Ignition: CCI No. 11
Powder Measure: Uncle Mike 120

Vol wt mv me energy (50 yds)
30 FFFg 30.9 860 370 753 283
40 FFFg 41.2 952 453 819 335
30 FFg 29.6 743 258 650 211
40 FFg 39.5 856 366 749 280
50 FFg 49.5 926 429 803 322

Muzzle 50 yds
Vol FFFgr Vel Energy Vel Energy
30 860 370 753 283
40 952 453 819 335
Vol ff gr
30 743 258 650 211
40 856 366 749 280
50 926 429 803 322

The Lyman manual lists 50 Gr as a max load.

 

[flibuste]

I have repaired the broken grip as follow : first the parts have been glued with "wood glue" ; then I have drilled the wood and screwed some brass rods that had been threaded before ;

To test the strengh I have shot very heavy loads :

90gr of FFF BP, 30gr crisco and 300gr Lee REAL bullets ; recoil is very very important ; my knuckel got bruised but the grip is OK !

The pistol is accurate whatever the load ; you can notice that some holes are as punched in the paper (faster bullets with heavier loads) and others less neat.




After some shot with 90grs, I decreased the load until 45grs ; recoil is still strong but managable. I will have to protect my knuckle with some strap. POI is quite the same but it is difficult not to flinch

This is real magnum !!

 

[4v50 Gary]

Did you inlay the acorn and silver wire yourself?

 

[Deltaboy1984]

Nice shooting and good wood working skills.

 

[arcticap]

Now that it's all finished, the color of the stain really looks stunning.

 

[higene]

BP Magnum

Fulibuste

You are a magnum shooter of note in my book.
I hereby award you the 'Make My Day' trophy of the week as consolation while your shooting hand heals. I have always suspected that the GPP would withstand that kind of loads but the recoil has always stopped me from trying.

I personally like a Hornady 425 hb hp and 60 gr fff. There is another conical with a plastic butt. The .54 Hps go 405 and they shoot well. As you demonstrate the REAL bullets shoot well also.

I may take the trigger guard off mine and try some real powder charges with the REAL bullets.

Higene

 

[Ratdog68]

Congrats on the success of the repair !!! Before I realised this was a f/u to an old post, I was going to suggest some "Smooth On" epoxy (used in bow making). Very good stuff and flexible too... it's also a wood filling product. A fine repair, and some rewarding range time too. Nicely done.

 

[DrLaw]

As Curly would say,

"Oooooooh, Toimites!"

The Doc is out now.

 

[Ratdog68]

As Curly would say,

"Oooooooh, Toimites!"

The Doc is out now.

Soitenly !!! Nyuck-nyuck-nyuck.

 

[Oyeboten]

Outstanding!

 

[flibuste]

Detailed pics of the repair

 

[frontiergander]

personally anyone with a cracked stock needs to call or email lyman and let them know that they are selling defective products with known problems of the stocks cracking. I'd be pretty upset if i bought one, put my time and hard work into building it and the thing broke in half on me.

 

[junkman_01]

personally anyone with a cracked stock needs to call or email lyman and let them know that they are selling defective products with known problems of the stocks cracking. I'd be pretty upset if i bought one, put my time and hard work into building it and the thing broke in half on me.

Read post #6

 

[flibuste]

The repair is still strong and here is some shooting at 25 meters with a new tigerstripe finish :

Load is 33grs BP with REAL bullets













regards

 

[Rojelio]

OK now your gonna hafta tell how you accomplished the tiger stripe treatment. That looks fine.

 

[flibuste]

OK now your gonna hafta tell how you accomplished the tiger stripe treatment. That looks fine.

here is the topic on tigerstripe :

http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?t=708533