The Things You Do When Bored

[Cliff Roberts]

Firstly, forgive the 1 long paragraph. I dont know why but THR glitches out when I use the enter key on the phone. I'd rather not have to rewrite this again because THR crashed. Anyway... I got an old 62 Cal flintlock trade gun (among others) from a buddy before his passing. It's a pretty cool old girl! (First picture) I mainly shoot shot out of it for turkey but I have a round ball mold and about 5 dozen RBs made up for it. I'm about minute of deer at 50 yards with it but I'm not well practiced shooting ball from a smoothbore long gun so my elevation leaves a lot to be desired. I've thought about getting a rear sight for it but everything I have been able to find looks like it would require drilling another hole in the old man's gun (which I'm not a fan of) and none of the one's I found wouldn't muck up the look of the rifle. Browsing around a few weeks ago, I saw that someone had the same idea and made one in his shop (2nd picture). I like the look of it!! I've been home sick for a few days so, thinking "anything he can do..." I set off to try my hand at doing the same. What a pain in the butt! I only had 1/8 steel at my disposal and boy wouldn't it have been nice to have some 1/16 on hand! I made out a template out of a strip of aluminum cut from a coke can and, once I had a decent idea of what I wanted, I got to work. Laying out the holes was no issue - 3 holes on the drill press and I was good. The biggest hurdle came in bending the steel (3rd picture). I tried heating and hammering the steel but I'm no blacksmith. Eventually I decided to take a cut-off of steel (no, it wasn't the first failed attempt at this sight... shut up...) and just threw it on the arbor press and cranked it until it got to the point where I could hammer it over on itself. At that point, it was ready to mount up to check to see where it set on the gun and where the apertures (yes, plural. I wanted to try something like an Arabic Jazail with a close- and long-range aperture) placed vs my cheek weld (4th picture). It feels like the lower aperture is still a little high so there's a good chance I may need 1 more aperture a little lower. Feeling fairly good about the sight thus far, it was time to get to grinding, filing, and sanding. I think I could have stood to take a little more time suring up the curves and getting the decorative rounds around the peeps cleaner but I think it turned out alright (5th, 6th, 7th pictures). I still need to brown the steel but I think I'm going to mess around with it a little more. If it works like I hope, and assuming I don't need another hole for 50 yd shots, I might get the burrs out and do some decorative engraving before either browning the sight or (depending on how ambitious I get) case hardening it. What do you do when you're bored?      

 

[Frulk]

Nice metal work and first time I’ve seen apertures stacked like that. Kinda cool.

 

[Cliff Roberts]

I believe they were popular on Jezail rifles, or at least that's the first time I saw stacked apertures. Ian from InRange had a good video on it

 

[hawg]

You did a good job.

 

[kje54]

Things I do when I'm bored.

 

[kje54]

Firstly, forgive the 1 long paragraph. I dont know why but THR glitches out when I use the enter key on the phone. I'd rather not have to rewrite this again because THR crashed. Anyway... I got an old 62 Cal flintlock trade gun (among others) from a buddy before his passing. It's a pretty cool old girl! (First picture) I mainly shoot shot out of it for turkey but I have a round ball mold and about 5 dozen RBs made up for it. I'm about minute of deer at 50 yards with it but I'm not well practiced shooting ball from a smoothbore long gun so my elevation leaves a lot to be desired. I've thought about getting a rear sight for it but everything I have been able to find looks like it would require drilling another hole in the old man's gun (which I'm not a fan of) and none of the one's I found wouldn't muck up the look of the rifle. Browsing around a few weeks ago, I saw that someone had the same idea and made one in his shop (2nd picture). I like the look of it!! I've been home sick for a few days so, thinking "anything he can do..." I set off to try my hand at doing the same. What a pain in the butt! I only had 1/8 steel at my disposal and boy wouldn't it have been nice to have some 1/16 on hand! I made out a template out of a strip of aluminum cut from a coke can and, once I had a decent idea of what I wanted, I got to work. Laying out the holes was no issue - 3 holes on the drill press and I was good. The biggest hurdle came in bending the steel (3rd picture). I tried heating and hammering the steel but I'm no blacksmith. Eventually I decided to take a cut-off of steel (no, it wasn't the first failed attempt at this sight... shut up...) and just threw it on the arbor press and cranked it until it got to the point where I could hammer it over on itself. At that point, it was ready to mount up to check to see where it set on the gun and where the apertures (yes, plural. I wanted to try something like an Arabic Jazail with a close- and long-range aperture) placed vs my cheek weld (4th picture). It feels like the lower aperture is still a little high so there's a good chance I may need 1 more aperture a little lower. Feeling fairly good about the sight thus far, it was time to get to grinding, filing, and sanding. I think I could have stood to take a little more time suring up the curves and getting the decorative rounds around the peeps cleaner but I think it turned out alright (5th, 6th, 7th pictures). I still need to brown the steel but I think I'm going to mess around with it a little more. If it works like I hope, and assuming I don't need another hole for 50 yd shots, I might get the burrs out and do some decorative engraving before either browning the sight or (depending on how ambitious I get) case hardening it. What do you do when you're bored?      

I was almost afraid to look but that is a great idea and doesn't detract from the aesthetics.

 

[doubleh]

Firstly, forgive the 1 long paragraph. I dont know why but THR glitches out when I use the enter key on the phone. I'd rather not have to rewrite this again because THR crashed. Anyway... I got an old 62 Cal flintlock trade gun (among others) from a buddy before his passing. It's a pretty cool old girl! (First picture) I mainly shoot shot out of it for turkey but I have a round ball mold and about 5 dozen RBs made up for it. I'm about minute of deer at 50 yards with it but I'm not well practiced shooting ball from a smoothbore long gun so my elevation leaves a lot to be desired. I've thought about getting a rear sight for it but everything I have been able to find looks like it would require drilling another hole in the old man's gun (which I'm not a fan of) and none of the one's I found wouldn't muck up the look of the rifle. Browsing around a few weeks ago, I saw that someone had the same idea and made one in his shop (2nd picture). I like the look of it!! I've been home sick for a few days so, thinking "anything he can do..." I set off to try my hand at doing the same. What a pain in the butt! I only had 1/8 steel at my disposal and boy wouldn't it have been nice to have some 1/16 on hand! I made out a template out of a strip of aluminum cut from a coke can and, once I had a decent idea of what I wanted, I got to work. Laying out the holes was no issue - 3 holes on the drill press and I was good. The biggest hurdle came in bending the steel (3rd picture). I tried heating and hammering the steel but I'm no blacksmith. Eventually I decided to take a cut-off of steel (no, it wasn't the first failed attempt at this sight... shut up...) and just threw it on the arbor press and cranked it until it got to the point where I could hammer it over on itself. At that point, it was ready to mount up to check to see where it set on the gun and where the apertures (yes, plural. I wanted to try something like an Arabic Jazail with a close- and long-range aperture) placed vs my cheek weld (4th picture). It feels like the lower aperture is still a little high so there's a good chance I may need 1 more aperture a little lower. Feeling fairly good about the sight thus far, it was time to get to grinding, filing, and sanding. I think I could have stood to take a little more time suring up the curves and getting the decorative rounds around the peeps cleaner but I think it turned out alright (5th, 6th, 7th pictures). I still need to brown the steel but I think I'm going to mess around with it a little more. If it works like I hope, and assuming I don't need another hole for 50 yd shots, I might get the burrs out and do some decorative engraving before either browning the sight or (depending on how ambitious I get) case hardening it. What do you do when you're bored?      

My compliments on a very nice job even without tools to make it easy. Where there is a will there is usually a way and you might have come to regret making it from 1/16 or 14 guage (almost the same thickness) steel as it is much easier to accidentally bend.

What do I do when I am bored. With a wife that isn't in the best of health I fill my time with boring house work. She has a month to go before she can even bend over or lift anything and being chief cook and bottle washer, laundress, floor sweeper, driver, duster, and myrid other little chores I have very little spare time right at the moment. At least we have a robot floor sweeper and a dishwasher to help me keep up as I am not exactly a fast mover anymore. As it is now spring I have to add lawn mowing to the list and and even though the bermuda grass isn't doing much the weeds are running wild. Anything concerning guns is just going to have to wait.


PS: She is worth every minute.

 

[hutch51]

PS: She is worth every minute.

I tell the docs "She's gotta last me a while yet".

 

[woodnbow]

My compliments on a very nice job even without tools to make it easy. Where there is a will there is usually a way and you might have come to regret making it from 1/16 or 14 guage (almost the same thickness) steel as it is much easier to accidentally bend.

What do I do when I am bored. With a wife that isn't in the best of health I fill my time with boring house work. She has a month to go before she can even bend over or lift anything and being chief cook and bottle washer, laundress, floor sweeper, driver, duster, and myrid other little chores I have very little spare time right at the moment. At least we have a robot floor sweeper and a dishwasher to help me keep up as I am not exactly a fast mover anymore. As it is now spring I have to add lawn mowing to the list and and even though the bermuda grass isn't doing much the weeds are running wild. Anything concerning guns is just going to have to wait.


PS: She is worth every minute.

This is love…