I have owned a bunch of 'em over the years......

by Otony, Wednesday, July 18, 2012, 09:02 (4306 days ago) @ brionic
edited by Otony, Wednesday, July 18, 2012, 12:46

First was a RH Renegade .54 in kit form. Great shooting rifle. It was followed by a .45 Seneca (NEVER should have sold it...sigh) that also was a good performer.

Later on I went through a string of Scouts, but to be honest I finally lost interest in the design. Great idea in theory, but that long, long flash channel can be a bit problematic at times. Easy to clean, sort of, but the buttstock being attached with a through bolt meant you had to be careful when cleaning up the hammer area. Black powder "drool" could easily migrate into the slight gaps betwixt the stock and the frame. Dissassembly is kinda easy, but NOT as quick or simple as a regular caplock. Parts are non-existent and it took years for me to find a few needed widgets.

I liked the Scout VERY much initially, as it is a close to being traditional as an inline can be. That is if you consider a Winchester thutty-thutty look alike a traditional BP rifle. Still better than the horde of Spanish and Italian (and Chinese?) inlines with plastic stocks and non-roundball twists, ugh. But when it came right down to it, in the end I would personally opt for a light weight caplock. The overall joy I got from the Scouts never matched the zen pleasure of traditional designs.

I currently have a LH New Englander (87 bucks!) which is supposed to get sent off to have a stainless steel barrel from a BT-99 grafted onto it for trap and pheasants (and quail!). Yes, my weird projects never cease. New Englanders, while cool, are on the road to being orphans as well, but most small parts are still to be found. Spare barrels are only NOS or used, no aftermarket and no reasonable way to do custom from a cost stand point. Oh, and the prices on these (entire guns and barrels) are slowly rising out of sight, be forewarned.

I also have a LH Renegade in .50 that was found in a pawn shop completely covered with a light coating of rust. Luckily the bore was OK, so I stripped it completely of finish, both wood and steel. Installed a different trigger guard from the Hawken Shop, along with a T-C hunting peep. End result is a very nice rifle that I have a ton of elbow grease into, along with about a 150 bucks. Very nice shooter, parts everywhere, zillions of sight and barrel options. Same can still be said for the T-C Hawken. Prices are still quite reasonable for used.

One of the fellows mentioned T-Cs as being nicer than the Italian rifles, and in general I would agree. However, I do own a Charles Daly (mostly) that I built up from parts purchased from Numrich and Lyman.

Daly sourced their BP rifles from the same Italian outfit that makes the guns for Lyman. When Chas. D. went belly up, Numrich bought all the remaining rifles and parts. I found the majority of the parts through them, and what was not available was only a phone call away from Lyman and Track.

Built it initially as a .45 in what the Italians consider a Hawken style rifle (very similar to a T-C). Installed Davis double-set triggers meant for a T-C (drop in fit, BTW) and a T-C Vernier ladder peep. As an aside, folks get all crazy over the no-longer-made T-C Vernier peep sights, but the same are not really a very good sight. The design lacks precision and is far too easily bumped out of adjustment. Ask me how I know... A partial fix is to use very fine fishing line in the threads of the adjustment screws (tightens up the whole shebang), along with painting the witness lines to insure you know WHERE your sights are set. Ask me how I know.......

The Italian Job was recently rebarreled, even though the factory .45 barrel shot very well with boolits. I obtained several of the correct LH breech plugs from Numrich, along with a Green Mountain .40 caliber blank meant for round ball. A local fellow here mated every thing up for me, and we chose a Lyman #17 globe front sight. Cut the blank to 34" and it is a tack driver, pure and simple. If I make certain the peep isn't bumped or slips, AND do my job, it usually places somewhere in the top four in our monthly local shoots.

Of course some fellows will say that straight octagon barreled rifles are awkward and handle poorly. In general I can agree, owning quite a few custom made flintlocks, but for target shooting, having that weight out front works wonders for settling down on target. I am shopping for a deal on another GM blank, this time in .50, so I can build a long barrel deer slayer to interchange with the .40 and .45 barrels.