Ugly Sauce
Member
- Joined
- Oct 26, 2020
- Messages
- 6,229
Brown Rosie, Rose of Alabama. I tried to make a Jeager from a TOW kit once. Beyond my abilities. I promptly destroyed the stock. At the time I was in communication with Keith Lysle (not sure if that is spelled correctly) or AKA "Birddog6" of Alabama. I told him my woes, and he told me to send him the left over parts, the Colerain barrel and furniture, and he'd build me a rifle.
A blessing in disguise, as he made a beautiful stock of dark walnut from scratch, and would talk to me about every little detail, and did I want to do this, or that, or whatever. What I wasn't sure of he'd educate me and give me the pros and cons. The TOW kit came with a good Germanic style lock, but he upgraded to a nicer better Davis lock. We went kind of on the theme of a rifle built by a German gunsmith in the colonies, but with some English rifle influence rather than straight from the Fatherland. Some little touches were the nose cap and a toe-plate, as it would be a "working rifle", used in the mountains of North Idaho and Washington state. That is why it is "plain Jane" without patchbox. She's taken three deer and one black bear so far.
Anyhow, with all my new powder I thought I'd try out some 1.5fg Swiss, and up my charge from 110 grains to 120. Also wanted to try my bear grease/oil for patch lube, and some new patch material that I got from an old pair of kakie (?) pants that looked like the perfect weave. To shorten the story a bit, the patch material (after I cut out a bazillion nice round patches) was a total bust. Shred city. And, in the end she shot better with 110 grains of 1.5fg. I really like the way it packs up against the touch-hole. It's a winner. So, I went back to my .023" Wonder Lubed patches, and a .595" ball. The only change in the load was/is 1.5fg Swiss instead of 2fg Swiss.
On one of my shots with the worthless patch material, it went wild and hit one of the steel fence posts that holds my plywood up in front of my bullet trap. I was shooting at 50 yards. It sheared that sucker off, and I found the top about 30 yards from the post/backstop. I think this rifle will get Mr. or Mama Grizz's attention. This was with a 120 grain load, but I sure don't feel any recoil reduction from the 110 grain load, so I think it will do. I think Rosie is putting out some serious hoss-power, smack down, and foot pounds of energy. She packs a punch, I've never recovered a ball...they just keep going.
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