Slug Guns and Muzzleloaders

[Kermit1945]

I"ll tell you what I can. The rifle is about 23 lbs, with a stainless barrel .54 x 36" x 1-5/8" dia, 1:72 twist. The stock is curly maple with nice stippling at the grip. The receiver is machined from aluminum! Yup. Trigger is not a set trigger and there's no safety and no halfcock. The ignition is sealed and uses percussion caps rather than the more usual rifle/pistol primers. I've been using .535 balls and some .018 prelubed patches that were lying around. Goex FFg, but I think I'll get some Swiss or Olde Eynsford to try. I think there are a lot of teflon patches used by the serious.

I bought the rifle with little known about it. It came with no sights, but was drilled/tapped for scope and irons. I first mounted my 16x Fecker, but what you see on it is a long tube sight, homemade. Started with a 3' piece of heavy stainless tube and bought some old Fecker scope mounts. There is a removable aperture at the back and a modified Lyman globe at the front, reversed so the inserts load from the front. The bubble level was on it, so I left it for no good reason. I'm using Champions Choice clear plastic inserts. Unlike the old externally adjustable scopes, there is no rail to keep the scope oriented when it moves on recoil. Ahead of the front mount I put a 3/4" Weaver rimfire scope ring, inverted. I filed a "v" in a piece of aluminum flat bar to fit the ring so that when the scope is returned to battery the "v" orients the scope to vertical and stops it in the right place. This sight is considered an iron sight--no lenses. Inside the tube are three faucet washers as light baffles to constrain light from straying.

In the photo is my Belding and Mull powder measure, a brass ramrod/wiping rod with bore protector, and a drop tube I made with 3/8" brass tube and stock plumbing fittings. Also shown is a starter that Joe Gussenhoven made from aluminum. Joe also did the machining for the tube sight.

The rifle was made by George Berry of Ohio, now deceased. I've talked to some who knew him. He apparently worked in a hardware store and was a self-taught amature machinist who made other rifles as well. He did all the work on the rifle, including rifling the barrel. I feel privileged to be the rifle's current keeper. I bought it not knowing much, and not knowing much more now. I plink around with it at my club at 50 and 100 yards, and refuse to embarrass myself with accuracy data. I have more photos, but thought I'd spare the bandwidth. Feel free to ask questions. Always willing to share my ignorance!