Going Off The Deep End
 

For several years I've had an idea in the back of my mind to build a striker fired drum and nipple caplock underhammer rifle that could mount interchangeable barrels.

Recently the itch became unbearable. So I sat in my man cave with a Scotch, my pipe, some paper, pencils and a ruler, and began sketching the design that had been bouncing around in my head.

I have a Browning 1885 45-70. I like its lines. I like the shape of its breech. I like its stock. So that's what I used as the target for how my fantasy gun would look.

Here's what I came up with.








I am going to build this sucker. With any luck you will be seeing a post on the final results in a month or so. (Sure hope I don't have to report a failure. :s10: )

A few features:

1. The breech will be cut from a block of 3/4" thick steel and will have removable side plates cut from 1/8" thick sheet steel.

2. The striker will be cut from a 3/8" hex bolt. The front face will have a nipple cup. The rear section will be hollowed to reduce weight. It will be powered by a coil spring and cocked by a knob protruding from the right (or left) side plate.

3. The drum for the nipple will be fabricated from 3/8" steel hex bar.

4. The barrel will have a permanent 1" long breech plug that is flat with the rear of the barrel. The rear half-inch of the plug will have a 1/4" threaded hole for securing the barrel to the breech with a one-inch long 1/4" hex bolt.

5. The trigger will be adjustable.

Assuming the prototype works, multiple barrels will be in its future. They can be octagon or round, straight or tapered, and of any caliber or gage. The breech face would work for a barrel as large as 1 & 1/8" across the flats and as small as 13/16" across the flats.

Wish me luck.

Looks like your off to the right start. Good scotch and a good cigar always helps me.
good luck with your build.

Crap Semi! I always thought your pool was drained and now we find you a DaVinci in buckskins!!!:biggrin::lolabove:

Good luck with your build!

HA

Semi it really looks great. Take a look at this link and you can see an underhamer with a profile extremely similiar to yours. I think this style of receiver is quite natty.

what are you going to do about a safety?

http://www.longrifles-pr.com/actions.shtml

very interesting concept. Good luck building it.

Yeah Dutch, I'm familiar with those actions. Actually, I'm a fan of the H&A style underhammer and have one. Their simplicity is a thing of beauty to me, though most people think they are odd, ugly, or both. People don't think of underhammers as "traditional" firearms. But the underhammer percussion gun is a classic American invention dating back to the early 1800's.

There's nothing real practical about what I want to build. I just want to do it, dammit! If it works it will probably be the only striker fired/drum and nipple/adjustable trigger/changable barrel underhammer in the world today. :s2:

As far as a safety goes, it won't have one at first. I do have an idea or two for a safety but will deal with that after the gun is built and proven (hopefully) to work OK. Anyway, the face of the striker will not be in contact with the cap when the action is not cocked, so it should be totally safe in the uncocked mode.

Semi, it sounds really fantastic. I cannot wait to see the pictures. Maybe you till be the next Doc White or Tony Knight!

Can't wait to see it.

The nipple, drum and striker action are very similar to the
Pedersoli Carleton underhammer target pistol.
The Carleton has an extremely fast action with an exceptionally
light trigger pull.

It's the 3rd pistol from the bottom on this page:

http://www.cherrys.com/ped_pist.htm

Wow. Thanks for that link arcticap. I've surfed the Pedersoli web site in the past but don't recall seeing that pistol. It's neat.

I did a little on-line research on the Carleton underhammer. It uses the trigger guard as a spring to drive the action like the H&R and several others, and was patented in the 1850's. Just goes to show that there's little that's completely new in this old world.

I found a good article on the Carleton that has great pictures and some with the barrel/action out of the stock. Unfortunately, you can't see how the trigger mechanism works. The article is linked below. The action pictures are on the fifth page.

http://mp510sd.weebly.com/uploads/4/...i_carleton.pdf