Yeah. Let´s go Swiss once more. Schuetzen time guys!

[Racing]

Noticed this little gem on that absolutely HUGE French gun site Naturabuy. Being Swiss as far as concept the thing, very common for Swiss made guns of the time, being made to part in Belgium.



Yeah. I know. The pics suck, but ATM it´s all i´ve got. Indeed the lock says "Liége"... Belgium in other words. Thing here is the style of lock, where the lock plate tells that it´s been around a while while the gun does NOT.
Again a scenario not all that uncommon to Swiss guns of the time.



...and whatta ya know! Hexagonal... and approx 45-50 cal according to seller. The basic design of it tells that it´s a mix of parts and most likely made in the 1860´s or so for target use.

Will report back as i take delivery of it.

[Racing]

Lost in transit?
Nah,i finally showed up and.. i sure didn´t see this coming 



Schuetzen style alright. Weighs accordingly. Approx 7kg worth.



Looking the rifle over i´m kind of puzzled as far as the nick it´s in? This is an OLD gun guys.



Now, most Schuetzen rifles indeed sport "bull barrels" but seriously! Look at the size of that thing! 



Indeed a globe front but also note that the ramrod pipes are actually screwed in place. No wonder seeing the dimensions of that barrel 



Yes. Of course fully adjustable set trigger. Most Schuetzen, if not all, sport that.



Might be that the rear isn´t a diopter but tell you what..it´s as solid and adjustable all directions as they come. WONDERFUL craftsmanship! Feels like, to the letter, a block of steel.



As you can see the lockplate has one foot in each era. Sort of..



Then that typical rear pad.. Insane. 



Now. Many Swiss rifles were indeed made in Liege in Belgium at the time. Beuret Freres is a known maker and sure enough..mainly made arms for Switzerland. General quality feel you get is right up there alright, albeit rather massive to the feel.





That rear... Think you appreciate what i´m saying here. Like cut out of a block of steel. Wonderful.

Caliber..just a tad over 50cal. That said..very very slow twist why i presume that this has been a short distance rifle. We´ll see about that..

So all is golden then? No, of course not.



The lock and the trigger assy both show wear, and this needs to be adressed. This is a high accuracy piece of kit, at least intended as such, why stuff like that TO ME needs to be reaaaaaaaal tight. It should be very "click click" and then as you depress the rear trigger it should be possible to make the thing go off if you so just speak loudly.

Then. The stock carries an almost through crack running behind the rear tang and almost into the cutout for the trigger assy. Going to epoxy that shut, as it doesn´t show anyways and i want to reinforce as best as i can.

Rifling twist in turn, although this being a hexagonal bore, is very very slow. In fact.. pointlessly so. Going to look into that and see what comes out of the bag.

So stay tuned...

[Captainkirk]

Oh, we will be tuned in. Count on it!

[Grumpy gumpy]

Oh, we will be tuned in. Count on it!

Second this
Gumpy

[Racing]

Then guys, who am i to disappoint? 

Ripped the thing apart and took a good long hard look at that crack and decided that the right thing to do was to break the stock in half.
Mainly as it makes it way way easier to apply glue all over, have the excess spew out and be wiped off.

That though meant a slight sanding too and.. yeah well. Worth it. N then some....



"Eyes wide shut". Hm. As i handed the stock some slightly tainted oil this is what came out the other end. This is going to turn into one BEAUTIFUL boom stick! I´ll tell you that much! 



Yes. The "original" crack still shows, which is as it should be. Part of this firearms history. But that said guys..DAMN! 



Yeah well..  That said though there IS a bit of an ergonomic issue. As I place my head into that recess i come up wrong vs the sights. Need be i´ll dress that with some leather to raise it all a tad.



Nah. I´d refrain from calling that a recoil pad. Really.



What gets me a bit isn´t the inletting per se but the positioning of some of the furniture? On crack on the job? U tell me, or maybe it was intended like that?
No matter. Gun won´t shoot one iota worse..



Trigger group got a little attention to. Remains to do the lock itself...

[SourMashII]

98% of the reason I tune into this forum is to see another episode of "As the Racing word turns".
Episode #4,712 didn't disappoint, I can tell ya that much.
Beauty...

[Racing]

 
Thx.

I actually pushed forward a bit. Handed the stock even more dye and an even finer polish.
Yes. It turned even better.

Speaking of which as it turns out Pedersoli is fabbing a sorts of take on them. Called Bristlen a Morges or Waadtlander rifle. Half expensive to say the least.



This in 45cal and a 1:48 twist.

Hm...

[Racing]

Nah.
In the midst of night and no pics this time out.

I about got caught in a bundle..as i felt that no matter that rifling is selling this piece of kit short. So.. liner time. To arbor something as long as a rifle barrel though takes a bit of prep..
Have thus spent time turning mandrels with real snug fit vs the bore to be able to dial the barrel in as anal as can on the lathe. Have taken the trouble to, literally, make a rifle drill needed...
Liner in turn is a very fast twist 50cal jobbie and with the install of that liner i expect this rifle to turn some heads performance wise.

This of course also brings that we´ll have to look into CNC cutting a few different boolit molds for it, which we´re all to happy to.

In short this is me trying to materialize a vision of mine and of sorts. A Swiss style permit exempt Shuetzen rifle of sorts that is antique..just with modern day performance capacity.
That liner, haven´t checked yet but believe twist to be around the 16-18 mark or so. Will take pictures..just stay cool...
Will install with Loctite cylindrical fastening and then TIG weld the thing to/at the muzzle. In short nothing to tell the work has been done. Still 50 cal just not hexagonal anymore and WAY WAY WAY more aimed at utter long range performance. 

[Racing]

What´s left is to take the TIG welder to the joint up front. Apart from that we´re good to go.
A 50cal fast twist of 1:16.
Now for a mold to take the heat.

[Captainkirk]

Fine progress, Racing!

[Hawg]

Amazing rifle. The shape it's in it looks like it should have had a case with it. Did you try to shoot it with the original rifling? The lock plate where it's positioned looks a little wonky like it wasn't the original lock.

[Racing]

Thx Capt.

@ Hawg.
Yeah, but TBH results were about like anticipated. Ie; poor by MY standards at any appreciable distances. TBH i even wonder why the hexa rifling with that slow a twist?
Point being that that slow a twist means roundball, and why a hexagonal bore for roundball? Only reasonable explanation i can think of is sanctioning body of some sorts?
If not it just eludes me. What would be the point?

Yes. The lockplate seems a tad out of place but the thing is that underneath, the woodwork show no signs of alteration. Same really goes for that absolutely massive hammer, a hammer that large = slow shutter time.
On my one Sharps i drilled the "internals" of the hammer out, Sharps hammers are rather bulky too, which made for a rather profound difference. As for this one?
Might be. To a large degree i guess that comes down to if it´ll stay or not. Seeing how large and tall it is it would surely help performance.

The new liner i TIG welded in at the muzzle alright, the weld of such a stature that i honestly have a hard time taking to heart to dress it even 
With my current AC/DC TIG such a job takes less current than one´d first think. Believe i ended up at like 50-55A or so and this filling out a "weld ditch" too.

The lock i´ve had a bit of trouble with. Materials involved seems on par alright, just worn and as such ..well.. Main issue IS that the axle end of the tumbler (rest has been sorted), that 4 sided bit, is worn. Like on my Monkeytail where the thing broke off i´m giving thought to cutting a fresh one out of a drill bit and harden. Guess that would stop it right in its tracks and keep the hammer a snug fit.

All is good where we´re at right now though. Golden even, why the thing is to follow me to the range today.
We´re to have a competition at the club coupled with a swap meet of sorts. From the looks of it though the forecast doesn´t exactly speak in our favor.. heavy rains and wind. To pop a few off though is a given no matter.

Slugs, for now, are the ultra heavy ones from the mold we developed for the Hayton double. That reads.. a whopping 650 grains worth but truth be told seeing the downright massive proportions and weights involved i really don´t foresee that as an issue. At all. Fit is.. like the proverbial gloooooooooove... 

Granted though. The thing truly looks a million bux. It really does and i agree that it should really have a box of its own. This is also one of the reasons for the liner. As a 50cal it´ll "class in" around here and that brings that it´ll be put up against them replica offerings. With a fast twist 50cal liner the gun is thus all of a sudden a contender, even with longer/heavier boolits and of more importance.. as distances open up. A 1:16 50cal is a rather "new" take if you ask me and having the experiences i have since previously with 451 guns that just spells winner in my book. Come rain come sleet it´s even to the point where this thing´ll take duplex without breaking the least of a sweat.

Issue at hand a tad down the line though will be to develop a reasonable boolit for it, what i´m thinking as far as that is a 50cal take on the fabled Postell. No reason to reinvent the wheel. Thing is, if we just enlarge a Postell to 50cal i bet that will put it across the 600grain mark too.. Hm

[Hawg]

With all that wear on the lock internals it had a lot of use. If it shot that bad I don't see it getting much use as a target rifle. It most likely was designed to shoot a hex minie ball since minies shoot like round balls, hence the 1:73 twist on Enfields.

[Racing]

Uhu.

We had sorts of a swapmeet at the club as mentioned and i indeed brought the thing and..got to fire it.

This with them 680 grain slugs backed by 90 grains of true black. At that rate recoil is still downright pleasant. Mark, to shoulder like a "normal" rifle i unbolt the upper screw for the butt plate.
With the upper rear bolt in place the "hook" system of the rifle comes into play, rendering that Schuetzen style is the only manner in which to sight the rifle. Ie; it hooks around the upper biceps, not the shoulder.
Many Swiss made rifles especially have this upper bolt instead of it being a part of the butt plate making for that the thing can be used dual purpose.

Anyways.

She indeed works, roars like there´s no tomorrow even. The liner no doubt does its job.

Now for some minor jobs and..oh unlucky me...more range time.

[Racing]

Last update then.
Things evolved such that i got a bid for the smokepole in case i really couldn´t turn down.

I appreciate that the newer replica offerings are both expensive and cumbersome to get a hold of around here (permit and so on), why it felt quite natural to let go of the piece to a fellow club member that about went ape when he saw it in the flesh.

Nice gun tho. Indeed, and i´ll very likely pick up others on the same theme as time pass...