New custom Plainsman rifle

[Adirondack Jack, SASS #53440]

Best I can recall, a little over 2 years ago I had an idea to build up plainsman rifle in Cowboy .45 Special using an original Remington rolling block.

 

With surprisingly little effort, a steel frame #5 roller action (originally a 7MM rimless, circa pre-WWI) was located a few miles away and purchased.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v54/adirondack_jack/001-1.jpg

 

The action was complete, and somebody had started trying to polish it out.

 

Once the "gun" was in hand, it was simply a matter of going into "wonderland" mode and buying stuff. A Douglas barrel and a custom C45S Manson chamber reamer were recommended by the late Dave Higginbotham of Lone Star Rifles, a Lyman front sight and Marbles tang sight, a Treebone Carving walnut stock set and Winchester style steel butt plate.

 

I shipped the action, barrel, sights and reamer to Dave at Lone Star, and he determined the block in the action was too far out of square to true up (a common as-made issue, which is no problem with military rifles because brass is not saved for reloading). Dave fitted a new block from his stocks used in building his own rifles. He then threaded and chambered the barrel, fitted a new "rimmed type" extractor, and did a trigger job, getting the infamously heavy trigger down to 2 lbs. He also installed the sights. The action is now flawless. It is snug, square, and perfectly head spaced.

 

He shipped the barreled action back to me, and I prepped and finished it using Dixie Instant Antique solution (about 6 cycles)

 

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v54/adirondack_jack/004-4.jpg

 

Once the metal work was done, I hastily inletted the wood enough to tack it together with acraglass, and shot it s few times, a process interrupted twice, once by a death in the family, then by a family emergency, but I finally got it on paper about 6 mos later and was happy.

 

Then I was diagnosed with bladder cancer and frankly, my mediocre at best stock finishing skills were not going to be sufficient while I was thus distracted, soooooo, one year ago, I gave the project to a good friend, a HS shop teacher and fantastic woodworker who is a fellow SASS member, Beavertooth. I only see Beavertooth once a year, and yesterday he gave me back my completed rifle.

 

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v54/adirondack_jack/C45Srollerdone.jpg

 

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v54/adirondack_jack/rollerdonedetail.jpg

 

It shoots a C45S case loaded with a 268 grain .455 Webley HB lead bullet (RCBS makes the mold) sized to .452, loaded over a modest charge of Bullseye to approximately .45 ACP pressures.

 

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v54/adirondack_jack/004-3.jpg

 

I have not yet seriously wrung it out over bags, not done any load development, but even in it's current, not totally sighted in state, it was giving us almost touching pairs at 50 yards with no insert in the Marbles sight, using just the ghost ring.

 

Now will I ever SHOOT plainsman with it? Probably not, but I could. It's really just a one-off gun in my cartridge, just because I can.

[Lead Ringer]

It's a dandy! Nice work.

[John Boy]

Jack, ya did done real Good! Next, we going to see some nice groups on targets?