Single Shot Rifle Picures

[dougk]

Please feel free to post your pictures here.

[IOWA DON]

I may be boring folks, but I finally found out how to post photos, and this is king of a repeat. My Thompson-Center TCR's with different barrels make a lot of different combinations, but these are the nicest combinatoins I have. On top is a light .17 Hornet barrel on a set-trigger TCR '83 with a custom stock by Virgin Valley. On the bottom is a .22 Copper Centerfire Magnum barrel on a TCR '87. I paid a little extra to get better wood on the buttstock and the "heavy" barrel is from the old TCR custom shop which burned down. The .22 CCM cartridge is basically a centerfire .22 magnum. It will shoot 40-grain bullets at 2,200 fps.

[IOWA DON]

The one on top is a Stevens Favorite. It is not really a rifle, but a shotgun. See the second photo. The label on the barrel is not ".22 SHORT", but instead ".22 SHOT". It has a smoothbore, birdshot barrel. It's a long way from NIB condition but will not be refinished. The gun on the bottom is a Hopkins & Allen Model 922. I dont know if it's for Short, Long, or Long Rifle. The action seems to be very smooth and tight, and the trigger pull is very good. The bore is terrible. I may just have the bore relinned. However, I think the little falling-block action has a lot of potential. See the bottom photo. I was thinking of a new stock with a cheekpiece and fancy wood, and a new heavier half-round, half-octagonal barrel. The action could be either color-case-hardened, or bead-blsted and nickel plated. I think the two screw holes on top the tang may be for a peep sight, which would be good, or maybe one of the old fashioned long-tube scopes would be better. As for the barrel I was thinking of trying to find an old damascus rifle barrel of fairly large diameter, putting a .22 calber liner in it, and then turn it down and make it half-octagonal. That way the interior could be stainless and the exterior show the damascus figure.

[dougk]

Iowa Don,
glad you learned how to post the pics.  You gave some great guns.  Thanks for sharing...

Doug

[gitano]

I've been working on an 1878 Martini-Enfield for a while now, and it is all but completed. Maybe folks here would be interested in hearing about the process I have gone through to get it back from being a "modern bench gun" to something closer to it's original concept. It's NOT in its original configuration, but rather back to a chambering and look that is consistent with its original concept. I'll start with "the story" of the rifle, and close with the process of making the custom cartridges. Hope you don't mind "stories", 'cause this will be one. I happen to think the art of story-telling is being lost, and while I may not be a great story teller (or even a good one for that matter), I intend to fight the trend to make everything a "sound bite". So, be forewarned, this won't be "brief".

I got the 1878 Martini-Enfield a little over 3 years ago. It arrived chambered in .22/.30-30 and dressed out in the most garrish of stocks. Having the .17 Remington, I have little practical use for CF .22s. I have nothing against them, I just don't need one, and my attention was headed in the opposite direction of "small".

I was looking for something in a "big" caliber, and Jay suggested a .50-90 "look-alike", the .50-.348 Winchester. There was a lot to be said for the .50-90, and I decided that was what I wanted this rifle chambered in. However, getting a new barrel put on the old 1878 receiver wasn't something I was particularly comfortable having done. There are no gunsmiths in Alaska that I know that I would trust to perform the work. Plus I'd have to find someone to match the bluing on the receiver. So I muddled around for a bit waiting for something to 'break'. Then, Ol' John (AKA LLANO JOHN) told me about a fellow in Arizona that rebored barrels, and had in fact rebored a barrel for him. (First-hand knowledge is best in my opinion.) For $285 I could get the Martini rebored to .510, and chambered in .50-90, (AKA .50-.348 Win, and .50 Alaskan). I sent it off for reboring. When it came back, I was very pleased with the results. I started making bullets and working up loads.

Hunterbug had invited me down to Colorado to hunt elk with him, and as it turned out, we were drawn for cow elk. The .50 came back from Cut Rifle with little time to work up loads and get it restocked, but I did my best. I didn't have the confidence in the loads that I would have liked to have had, and the stock was the best I could throw together in a couple of days.



Still, it went elk hunting. Unfortunately, but not too big a deal, I wasn't able to blood the rifle.

When I returned home from the elk hunt, I set to work getting the rifle into the shape I wanted it in. Since my primary purpose for the rifle was to shoot a bison, and since it was a rifle originally made in 1878, I decided that it should look the part. In other words, it should have a "traditional" look. I wanted an express rear sight, banded front sight, and a sort of traditional stock. New England Custom Guns (via Midway USA) supplied the sights. A "traditional" stock would be more difficult to come by. Jay, again, tells me that he has a pattern for the butt of a Martini. (Whooda thunk it.) I had a good candidate (nice straight grain, aged 20+ years), piece of walnut. We decided to get them together.

A couple of months ago, I took my family to Idaho for a little vacation, and on our way there, we visited Jay and his wife. Besides having a grand time, Jay and I cut butt and forearm blanks from my board, and drilled the through-hole in the butt for the bolt. None of which would have been possible without the assistance of Jay. Once back home, I started shaping the blanks into their final form. I finished that last night.

What you see below is the almost finished product. The front ramp has to be blued and installed in its final position, one more mounting hole needs to be drilled and tapped for the rear ramp, and the rear sight needs to be regulated. (It has 3 folding and one standing blade, and I intend to regulate them at 50, 100, 200, and 300 yds.)

This is the first rifle stock I have made from "beginning to end". I have finished many stocks that I got from stock-makers with partial inletting and a "starter channel" for the barrel. I've also re-shaped and refinished several stocks for friends and aquaintances. In this case though, I started with a chunk of wood.

I'm partial to "animal parts", and I wanted to incorporate animal parts in the finished product if I could maintain a "respectable" and "traditional" look. I decided to put a dall sheep horn cap on the forearm. Also, I wanted to put a skeletonized steel buttplate on, but the through-hole for the bolt excluded all of the few of them commercially offered. So... I am making my own. In the interim, I have installed the recoil pad you see. Ultimately, I will install a sheep horn skeletonized buttplate.

The forearm of the origninal .22/.30-30 was jerked from the receiver by the recoil of the .50, so I had to come up with another way to attach the forearm to the receiver. Again Jay has the answer. Use "staples" and pin it to the barrel as is done with muzzle loaders. (Again, whooda thought Jay would come up with a solution from the muzzle loading world? ) So, the two pins you see in the forearm are through pins that pass through staples attached to the bottom of the barrel.

Finally, of course I wanted the stock to fit me perfectly, and it does. As I throw the rifle to my shoulder, the sights align perfectly,.. and I do mean perfectly. Elk and bison (and maybe even a moose) beware!

Here's the whole rifle:


Here's the forearm:


Here's the butt:


Paul

[gitano]

Here's a blow-by-blow of making the cartridges for the .50 Alaskan

Below you will find the steps I use to make my .50 Alaskan ammo starting with .348 Winchester cases and cast bullets. The processes, in general, are applicable to any cartridge, be it wildcat or obsolete, that one would like to make starting with another case.

The first photo is of the .348 Win case marked to length, trimmed to length, and the resulting .50 case.


The second photo shows trimming the .348 case to length. I removed the shaft from a manual case trimmer and chucked it in a 1/2" power auger. There's lotsa metal to remove to get the case to proper length.


The next step is to remove the burrs - both inside and out - caused by trimming the case.


Since this case is going to get blown out essentially straight, the shoulder and neck get annealed first to soften them up as much as possible. I hold the case between my index finger and thumb while I am annealing. When the case gets too hot to hold onto, I drop it. I used to drop it in water, but it seems to me that that might just harden it a bit. I've been told by an internet metalurgist that brass does not "temper quench" like iron/steel does. Still... I'm certain it doesn't harden with air cooling.


Here's what the annealed case looks like.


After I have annealed all of the cases I intend to fireform, I charge them. You can see the components in this image. They are: About 15 grains of Bullseye; enough Cream of Wheat to fill the case about half way up the neck; and some paper towel for wadding. I put a piece of paper towel between the powder and the CoW just so there is no chance for the powder to get mixed with the CoW. Once the CoW is added, I put a wad of paper towel on top and tamp it down just so the CoW doesn't pour out the case mouth.


Here are the powder-charged cases:


Here are the CoW-charged cases:


And here are the cases ready to be fire-formed:


Here are the cases immediately after fire-forming. So far I've done this with 100 cases. Only one has split, and that one wasn't annealed. I fire-formed 40 cases before I started annealing, and only one split. Still, annealing is too easy to do, and even if it only saves 1% of the cases, it's still worth it to me.


After fire-forming, the mouths are very uneven and need to be filed square. I tried to use the case trimmer, Brithunter even made a custom pilot for me. However, the cutter is just too small for the fire-formed case mouth. Filing isn't too tedious - at least not to me.


After squaring the mouth, I remove the burr inside and out and chamfer.


Next, I like to polish the cases. On one hand it's purely cosmetic. On the other hand, I can see any flaws better on a polished case. I polish the cases by using something wooden lathe turners will be familiar with - a jam chuck. I make the jam chick from an 8mm Mag case. The .50 case gets jammed on the 8mm case and spun. I use an artificial abrassive pad that is fine enough that it just polishes. Here is the polishing process in pictures:




Now that the case is made, it's time to make the bullets. I'll spare you the casting process, and start out with the cast bullets in hand. These are bullets dropped from Lee's 450'grain mould. With my alloy, they turn out 439 grains.


Notice that they have no gas-check heel. Try as I might, I have been unable to get un-gas-checked bullets to leave no lead in my bore. Put another way, bullets without gas-checks SERIOUSLY lead the bore of my rifle. I'm sure some casting guru could make an alloy that wouldn't lead, but I am simply not capable of doing so. So, I need to put a gas check heel on these bullets. Another GBO fellow came to my aid. Drinksgin made a little lathe for cutting gas checks in non-gas-checked bullets. (Don is quite a 'fixer'.)


Here is the lathe in operation:


Here is the result with gas check along side:


And here is the finished product.


Now it's time to lube the bullet. Again a THL member comes to my aid. Jay Edwards gave me some of his special lube to use in addition to the gas check, to try and alleviate the leading problem. Here are the GC'd bullets sitting in the melted lube.


Here they have cooled, and along side is a removal die I made by fire-forming a 7.62x54R case to the .50 Alaskan chamber. (It didn't blow the head out enough to use as a suitable case for making .50 Alaskan cases.)


The next two pictures show the die in place and the bullet in the die after removal from the lube.



These are the lubed bullets.


And here is a loaded .50 Alaskan cartridge.


So... if you wanna make your own wildcat, be prepared to spend a little time in 'other' activities. There are easier ways however. You could simply buy the .50 Alaskan cases at ~$1.00 apiece, and load them with Barnes' 450-grain .510 Original bullets. Or... you could buy already-loaded-ammo at $5.00 a piece.

As for me, I enjoy makin' 'em from scratch.

Paul

[dougk]

Paul,
thanks for sharing this wealth of information and the great pictures...
Doug

[A-ALLOY]

Very very nice rifle, very nice story, thank you for the detailed reloading info.

[gitano]

Thanks, to both of you.

Paul

[Woodbutcher]

 That little lathe is the greatest!!! Great pix! Very nicely done! Just for my own info, why not a 50/70? Is it easier to make or get the brass? Does the 50 Alaskan work better with smokeless? Thanks, Woodbutcher

[gitano]

Thanks Woodbutcher.

That little lathe is the greatest!!!

You bet! Don's quite an innovator. He actually first made this for me with a .45 collet for my .45-70 bullets.

why not a 50/70?

Two reasons:

1) I could not find brass for the .50-70 easier/cheaper than this. The .348 brass cost me $0.50 each and the Cream of Wheat, primer and powder cost another $0.03, and

2) The primary purpose for getting and building this rifle was to shoot buffalo. In Alaska, the main free-ranging herd is the "Delta Herd", located in and around the barley fields near Delta Junction.

These buffalo are fairly spooky, and when hunting the wide open barley fields, the only available shot can sometimes approach 300 yards. I 'like' to shoot a 500-grain bullet from both my .45-70 and this rifle. At 1650 f/s, the trajectory of the .50 Alaskan (essentially a .50-90) sighted in for a 12" target, is such that I wouldn't have to aim "off hair" on a bull at 300 yds. It was my initial intent to use black powder, but I couldn't pack enough black powder in this case, let alone the .50-70, to get that 500-grain bullet up to 1650 f/s.

The 435-grain cast bullet shown in the above pictures has a fairly low BC, about .215. A custom made jacketed bullet (500-grains), made by Northwest Custom Projectiles has a BC of about .500. At 1650 f/s and sighted in for a 12" target, the 500-grain bullet is 34" low at 300 yds. I did push the muzzle velocity up to 1850 f/s where the drop at 300 reduces to 24", but the 9.5 lb rifle becomes too unpleasant to shoot. The 1650 f/s MV gives me all the terminal energy I need, and the probability of a 300 yd shot, while real, is relatively low. Nonetheless, I am considering having Bob make some 405-grainers for me to run up to about 2000 f/s, which drops to only 16" low at 300 yds.

Oh yeah, I forgot... Although the Martini-Enfield action can handle higher pressures, I am restricting chamber pressure to a max of 25,000 PSI because of some barrel issues.

Paul

[Woodbutcher]

 Dear Gitano: Thanks for your response. Very clear!
 A few years ago, at a gun show, I purchased 3 cartridges, for my little collection. I still have them, a 45/70, a 38/55, and a 50/70. Got rifles for the first two, and am very happy with them,... still looking at that third cartridge.
 I couldn't answer why I would need anything like that, but that big "pumpkin" is just fascinating. You might understand. And there just ain't many places to try to learn about such matters as this so thanks again.
 I sincerely hope you get your Buff.
                                                                                 Woodbutcher
 
 

[IOWA DON]

Loading for my .50-140 is a pain, especially making the bullets. Here is my lead melter with an adjustable gang mold to cast cylinders to pound into bullets.

Here is the gang mold in an open position along side a conventional mold.

Here are some lead cylinders, 580 grains.

Here's the hammer die, body, plunger and nose forming end.

About 40 hard wacks with a big hammer and the bullet is formed.

A raw cylinder and a formed bullet, both of pure lead.

Then there is the job of cutting paper, wetting it, wrapping the bullet and cutting of the twisty.

Here is a loaded .50-140 cartridge along side a .45-70. Velocity is 1,600 fps. It is possible to get over 1,900 fps but recoil is high.

Another load is three .500 balls (187-grains) at 1,200 fps. They pattern in about 6 inches at 50 yards. I think the balls stay fairly round with the Poly-Patches between them. I also think it would be a good close range deer load.

Here's the gun they get shot out of, a Thompson-Center TCR-87 with a fiberglass stock I made. Recoil split the factory wood stock.

[Woodbutcher]

 IOWA DON, is that bullet making set manufactured nowadays? Or is that a custom made item?
 Boy, this thread is gettin better and better!!
                                                                                Woodbutcher

[gitano]

You might understand.

I do indeed.  Be careful... It appears to me that the "bug has already bitten".

Iowa Don - I'll second Woodbutcher's question asking about the availability of those "hammer swages". If they're still in production, who's makin' 'em?

Paul

[IOWA DON]

My hammer dies came from RCE Co., I think in the summer of 2003. I did a Google search and RCE appears to still be in business. The web site is www.rceco.com. The telephone number is 541/512-0440. The guy I talked with a few years ago was named Richard, and I think his last name is Corbon, and I think he is related to the other bullet swaging die makers. If I recall correctly his hammer dies are more or less custom. That is, he makes whatever diameter the customer asks for. Also, in regard to paper-patched bullets he will offer advice in regard to proper diameter. He also made the gang mold. And the website indicates he sells paper for paper patching. Also, here are some sizes in regard to my .50-140. Barrel groove diameter is 0.507 and barrel land diameter is 0.491. Lead cylinders coming out of the gang mold have a diameter of 0.471. Lead slugs coming out of the hammer die are bumped up to a diameter of 0.494. After wrapping with two wraps of 24-pound paper or three wraps of 16-pond paper the total diameter of the bullets are 0.507. My 24-pound paper is Eaton 25% cotton and my 16-pound paper is Alvin 100% cotton vellum. The twistys seem fragile with the 25% cotton paper and sort of want to break off when putting on the paper. The 100% paper seems to be much tougher and more flexible so the twistys are not a problem. I did a Google seach and it appears the Alvin 100% cotton vellum paper is still sold. I did not mention it, but I apply some soft lubricant to the paper-patched bullets (with fingers) and then some powdered graphite (with fingers). Also, between making bullets and loading them into cases I figure it takes 15 hours to load up 50 cartridges. However, with the recoil they produce one probably does not want to shoot more than five rounds in one day. I hope to shoot a deer with it this winter, both with the paper-patched bullets and with the multiple-ball loads.

[IOWA DON]

Correction  --  After wrapping with paper, the total bullet diameter is 0.509, not 0.507.

[Woodbutcher]

 Let's see now, 40 hits per bullet, for 50 bullets, and you realize..."it aint the hit, it's the lift"!!!
 Yeah, I'll bet it kicks! But still, them big bores are special! Thank you!      Woodbutcher
 

[gitano]

Thanks Iowa Don. I've been talking with Richard Corbin lately. He is indeed the brother of Dave Corbin. They used to be "in the business" together, but had some differences of opinion on which way "things should go", so Richard decided to start his own business. I'll have to ask him about the hammer dies.

I've never shot paper-patched bullets , but I have heard that they are a challenge to get much accuracy out of. What's your experience been?

Paul

[Drilling Man]

When the case gets too hot to hold onto, I drop it. I used to drop it in water, but it seems to me that that might just harden it a bit. I've been told by an internet metalurgist that brass does not "temper quench" like iron/steel does. Still... I'm certain it doesn't harden with air cooling.

  Nice picts and story.....  BUT, the reason you drop the heated cases into water is....  One, they will not harden by doing so, and Two, when you air cool the brass, the heat creeps down and also softens the "head of the case"!!!  This is VERY dangerous on a high pressure round!!!

  You may not get into trouble with the 50 Alaskan, but someone with a modern magnum will!!!  So, i hope no one decides to use your method on a high pressure round...

  BTW, i believe the 50 Alaskan was first made by Bill Fuller in Cooper Landing Alaska, and Bill was a friend of mine....  It was always fun driveing over his way for a day of conversation and BS stories..  He was quite a character!

  DM

[Tom W.]

Here's a photo of my .7&mm Rem mag...





I've got a 30-06 A.I. that looks the same....

[Tom W.]

It works well If I do my part!

[IOWA DON]

The barrel on this rifle was from a .50 BMG and has a twist rate of one turn in 15 inches. I think that is way faster than needed to stabilize the lead bullets I am using, so is probably not ideal for accuracy. Plus the bullets may be slipping in the rifling because the pitch is so steep. However, the rifling is very deep which may be good. And I don't think the barrel is super-smooth either. Anyway, I think this rifle may not have a lot of potential for accuracy compared to one with a barrel better suited to a black powder cartridge. Here are some photos to show some groups.

Above is a group at 50 yards with 600-grain Barnes Originals, their old soft point jacketed bullets. Power charge was 115 grains of AA8700 and velocity was 1,600 fps. It's the typical 4-MOA group I would expect with that load, but I was concerned about pressure because the barrel's groove diameter is 0.507 and the bullets are 0.510. That's what got me started into paper patching.

Above is a group with 720-grain round-nose paper patched bullets. The bullets were cast from an NEI mold I have, which turned out to be too large in diameter, (my mistake). I had them lathe turned to a smaller diameter. The powder charge was 115 grains of AA8700. The same as for the 600-grain Barnes bullets, and the velocity was 1,750 fps. That's 150 fps higher with a heavier bullet. The folks at Accurate Arms told me the reason is because their AA8700 powder is not burning well with the light 600 grain bullets. That is, the heavier bullets let the chamber build up more pressure for a better burn. This was a 50-yard group, again, about 4 MOA.

Above is a 5-shot 100-yard group of about 2.5 MOA. This was with 690-grain round-nose hammer-swaged paper-patched bullets. Velocity was 1,660 fps and the powder charge was 110 grains of AA8700. If it shot that well all the time I would be happy as the smallest animals I will probably shoot with it will be whitetail deer, and that's good enough accuracy to get them at 200 yards. And I think trajectory limits this rifle to around 200 yards.

Above is a 100-yard group of about 2.25 MOA. This was with 575-grain hollow-point hammer-swaged paper-patched bullets. Velocity was 1,625 fps and like the group above it, the powder charge was 110 grains of AA8700. Again reducing the bullet weight resulted in a lower velocity. Again, I think groups like this are fine for this type rifle.

The above group is the same load as the previous one except that the bullets weighed about 580 grains instead of 575 grains. However, accuracy was poor. This is a 50-yard group so it is almost 6 MOA. The only thing I can think of is that the more accurate groups were shot in cool or cold weather. This 50-yard group was shot during August when the temperature may have been 90 degrees F. I had a .22 Hornet that shot under 1.0 MOA during hot weather, but about 2.0 MOA during cold weather. Maybe this rifle and loads behaves in just the opposite manner. I will try it again in a month or so when we get cool temperatures.

The above photo is of a 575-grain hollow-point paper-patched bullet I dug out of the dirt behind a 100-yard target. This was a hot load with AA3100 powder with a muzzle velocity of 1,900 fps. They say one needs to use pure or at least a very soft lead for hammer-swaging. However, I think very soft lead may expand too much at 1,900 fps for use against large game where good penatration is required. Notice how the bullet is almost turned inside out. That is a .380 pistol cartridge inside the back-side of the bullet. If I would ever use this rifle on large game, I would cast bullets out of a harder alloy and lathe-turn them to proper diameter with large flat noses, and then I would paper-patch them.

[gitano]

I dunno Iowa Don, that looks like pretty good shootin' to me. I've been experimenting with different jacket material, using "belted magnum" case heads - like 7mm Rem Mag with the belt turned off - and that's about the precision I get. There's certainly no reason NOT to try to get it better, but as you say, it's probably minute of deer out to 200 yds. You might discuss with Bob Souter of Northwest Custom Projectiles .50 caliber bullets with higher BCs. He's got some good bullets made with pure lead cores and pure copper jackets. The flat-based 500-grainers I got from him were extraordinarily uniform in weight. I just ordered some rebated boat-tail 500-grainers from him as well as more of FBs. I should get them this week. As I said above, I am in the process of regulating the sights on the .50 Alaskan, and a range session on Sunday, while not complete, was productive. My calcs put the flat-based 500-grain bullet doing 1650 f/s at the muzzle, about 32" down at 300 using a sight-in for a 12" target (Plus and minus 6" from LOS). That's my bison load. The RBTs might reduce that drop to 24".


 

the heat creeps down and also softens the "head of the case"!!!  This is VERY dangerous on a high pressure round!!!

  You may not get into trouble with the 50 Alaskan, but someone with a modern magnum will!!!  So, i hope no one decides to use your method on a high pressure round...

Well actually I've been using that procedure for decades including some 60,000+ PSI cartridges, (measured, not "estimated") without problem. While it is certainly true that the heat will migrate down the case, it does not do so sufficiently to soften the head. The proof of that is clear in the case coloring.

It is also my understanding that Bill Fuller was the creator of the .50 Alaskan as well as another handful of cartridges built on the blown-out case of the .348 Win. In my opinion, all of them are worthy cartridges.

Paul

[Fred M]

The two Handi's are very accurate and shoot under a 1/2" with three shots
the 6x47 (222Rem Mag case) bottom is a true varmint rifle grouping
at 3/8. Perhaps you saw my Ruger pics here are the two Handi's. Both guns have 24" octagon barrels. Top is a 257 Roberts with a Sightron 3-9 scope.



Below is my Ruger #1 in 7x57 build from parts with a Burris 6xHBR scope and a modified plex reticule



Below is a Ruger #3 with #1 wood cal 375 Winchester modified finger leaver and custom Weaver bases. The sope is 1.5-5 Leupold in Burris rings.



Below is is my gopher rifle a 1885 Winchester Low Wall in 17HMR a super accurate
rifle all the bigger calibers have taken a back seat. It too has a 24" octgon barrel



This one too has modifoed Weaver bases

[MSP Ret]

Thanks for the great pictures of some beautiful and classic single shots Fred. You do wonderful work....<><....:)i

[Fred M]

Thanks Andi.

I have some good looking models to inspire my work like this english Brooking Arms falling block rifle in 416 rimmed A-Square. This rifle is an absolute Jewel.
Smithed in Eugen Origon by Larry Brace.

I have another candidate for a #1 in 6.5x284 when ever I can talk my friendly reborer doing the 243 barrel. The wood for this rifle is Ruger but extreamly well grained. Its a winter job but --------never enough time??. This summer I build a sea kayak and spend a lot of time one the lake. See if I dig out a pix.

[MSP Ret]

I envy you a bit with that beautiful sounding kayak Fred, we have a couple (+) but they are all some sort of synthetic, they do take a beating with no problems and very little upkeep so there is a good side to them, but they are not classically attractive....<><....

[Fred M]

Andi.
This is an Aleutian design, multy chine, 6 planks each side 17'-6" long, 23"beam made from BS1088 4mm marine Okoume plywood. Weight 39 lbs. incapsulated with 6oz fiberglass and epoxy resin inside and out. Building time 80 hours or so.

I get alot of flack from the war department being out in a flimsy boat made
from card board, she says. As long as I don't get run over by a big power boat
I am save enough.

I christened it "Libella" latin for Dragon fly. Very easy to paddle and fast as
the insect. Now you can see why I don't have time frigging with guns, she is made from a kit by Pygmy Kayaks model "Coho"

http://www.pygmyboats.com/mall/coho.asp

[url=http://]]]

[quickdtoo]

She sure is purty Fred, but who's that old coot in the cockpit!!!

Tim