Stolzer & Son's Gunsmithing

Finished and Ready to ship:

I finished up the rest of the bluing yesterday and this morning. Sorry about the photo quality it's overcast and getting decent light was a bit iffy this morning.

Here's the finished rifle ready to go:

Load development and sighting:

I went out to my range this morning while the weather was nice and calm. I started at 25 yrds working up a load, and then moved back to 60 yards for sighting in. 60 yards was the customers requested distance. Which is actually a very classic distance, 60 yards corresponds to the measurement of 10 rods which was a traditional British distance for big bore rifles.

The Target pretty much speaks for itself:

250 grains of FFG is a little on the light side for an 8 bore, but you'll notice it is sighted in a little low, this will give my customer the ability to work up to a heavier charge and bring it up to the bullseye.

I'll make a long story short here for those who have been following along with this build. I sent this out to be engraved because I felt that the wildlife was beyond my engraving skills, it was shipped the third week of January. The engraver I sent it to had other work in front of it and wasn't able to get to it for a few weeks. When the time came to engrave this action he had equipment problems, and needless to say the company providing him with replacement part made a considerable mess of getting him the correct parts and up until two weeks or so ago he was still broke down. I finally recieved it back today. He did an excellent job, and even embellish the engraving beyond the original drawings I sent. I would be out working up a load and sighting this in today but by the time I got it all back together the wind has picked up and it is sprinkling rain. Not the best weather for working up a load and sighting in a muzzleloader.

Without further ado or rambling on my part here's the pictures:

Left Side

Right Side

Top of the action

TriggerGuard

And then I engraved my signature on the top barrel flat in front of the rear sight base at the customers request.

Hopefully tomorrow the weather will cooperate and I can get the sight work finished and then on to the bluing. My customer has been very patient with the several months delays in getting this project finished and I know he will be anxious to get it.

Checkering:

Some checkering I do in house, others I send out to have done, it just depends on how complex a pattern is desired and how fine a line of checkering is wanted. In this case I checkered this pattern.

Bluing the Small Parts

As I've mention in previous posts, I've been polishing the metal in between finishing the stock. So today since I had all the small parts polished up and I don't like leaving them around to rust in between now and when I finish the rest of the build, I Rust blued them and oiled them today.

These parts are ready as soon as I finish the rest of the build and I don't have to worry about repolishing due to rusting while I work on the rest of it.

Stock Finish part 2

This part of a build doesn't make for very impressive updates, it's a lot of the same over and over again, wit very little change to show for it. With the staining done, I have moved onto hand rubbing an oil finish into the stock. It currently has 8 hand rub coats on it, with probably 10 or 12 more to go. The pictures really don't do justice to this wood. It has a beautiful figure and depth the camera just can't capture. The weather today isn't being very friendly so I couldn't get it out in the natural light.

In between coats on the stock I have continued to polish the steel. Sorry no pictures of the steel at this time, they are just shiny anyways not much to look at yet.

Stock Finish and Polishing

I finished sanding the wood today and applied the first coat of stain this evening. Tommorrow morning I can sand it down and apply the next coat.

In between coats of stain, I am busy polishing the metal getting it ready for engraving.

Forearm and Ramrod:

Yesterday, I shaped the forearm, and this morning I inlet for the eschuteons. Then this afternoon I turned the ramrod tip anf fit it to the ramrod. I then notched the end of the ramrod to create a locking point for the ramrod, so it doesn't work forward from recoil.

Stock Shaping

With all the major furniture pieces inlet, I then went to work on shaping the buttstock yesterday. I started by bandsawing the sides down slimmer. Then I went after it with hand planes, chisels and rasps, then files. It's still very rough right now but it's starting to look like a rifle.

Buttplate

I moved to the back of the rifle today and inlet for the buttplate.

The screws are just temporary fit-up screws, they will be countersunk and replaced with finished screws later. The top is a little proud of the wood still, that will leave me a little metal to shape into the stock as the wood gets worked down.