GunLab (KnownHost) » single shot rifles

Werndl model 67 rifle

Chuck — Wed, 05 Oct 2016 08:00:37 +0000

During the Austrian Prussian in 1866 the Austrians took a heck of a beating from the Prussians due to the Dreyese needle gun. The Austrians were still using the excellently designed muzzle loading model 1854 Lorenz rifle. While at the peak of muzzle loading rifle development it was no match against the faster firing Dreyese rifle.

The Austrians decided to adopt a breach loading metallic cartridge rifle. What came about is the Werndl rifle. This weapon shown here today is a M1867 Jeager, light infantry, rifle. The rifle was design by Karel Holub and with Josef Werndl, the director of the Steyrwerks, made the rifle.

This interesting rifle uses a rotating drum action breech.

Top view of the drum.

The drum is rotated to load a cartridge.

The extractor is actuated when the drum is pushed all the way down.

Not the metal pistol grip

Brass butt plate

bayonet support

They were numbered to the rifle

On February 18,1868 the United States patent office granted a patent to J. Werndl , No. 74,737.

This the US patent for the rifle.

This is a great color plate of the Werndl, from the book listed below.

You can find this book at Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/Experiment-Trial-Prototypes-International-Military/dp/B00BN6VF3Q/ref=sr_1_12?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1458488593&sr=1-12&keywords=Experiment+and+trial

This is also available at Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/The-International-Arms-Review-1/dp/B001GNZZG4/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1458488670&sr=1-2&keywords=international+arms+review

Also at Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/potpourri-single-shot-rifles-actions/dp/B0006F2FXY/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1458488764&sr=1-1&keywords=A+potpourri+of+single+shot+rifles+and+actions

This book can be found on line at:

https://books.google.com/books?id=iyosAAAAYAAJ&pg=PP9&lpg=PP9&dq=ordnance+memoranda+no.+15&source=bl&ots=5DlK5DWDmP&sig=CCd54NdO95VPFbUIyZUijtqnnkE&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjUwYvE_6nJAhUH8j4KHfIrCAw4ChDoAQgjMAE#v=onepage&q=ordnance%20memoranda%20no.%2015&f=false

Timberline Hawk survival rifle

Chuck — Mon, 19 Sep 2016 08:00:28 +0000

Not much is known about the company Timer Line Hawk. So this is as much of a history as I could gather. The registered agent of the company was John A. Mc Gerty and the filing date was March 29,1983. It was a company formed initially by four men to take over the assets of the old Armalite company when they closed their doors. Initially they did the warranty work for Armalite on the AR-180 and 18. What is not generally known is that they also design and built guns other than the AR180 series rifles. This article is about such a rifle. This is the 2 shot rotating barrel 22lr survival rifle.

There are a few draw backs to this rifle. The first is that the point of aim is different for the two barrels. The second is that you have to be careful when loading as it is easy to get the cartridge not properly placed to allow the action to close.

The side of the rear barrel support. You can see the pins that pinned in the barrels to the support.

The barrel release latch on the bottom of the frame.

Looking at the end you can see the machined area for the extractor.

The barrels are actually AR-7 barrel liners.

The retaining notch is cut in behind the made in USA. Looking at the machining of this notch you can see that these were prototype weapons only.

An interesting logo used by Timberline Hawk.

The storage tube that was also the stock. To be used to store survival items.

The rubber cap that acted as a butt plate

The rifle taken apart and next to it’s storage bag.

As it would be stored in the back pack.

This is a limited prototype weapon that I don’t think ever went into serious production. The number on this rifle is 42 and it is the only one that I have ever seen or heard about. There were a few spare barrels assemblies made, I have one in my collection.

This rifle came out during a time period when small light weight survival rifles were all the rage.

I want to thank Pete, a friend of Gun Lab, for letting me photograph his very rare rifle.

Weapons man has an interesting write up on the original derringer that was the initial idea for this rifle here.

http://weaponsman.com/?p=34197

Zulu Shotgun

Chuck — Tue, 30 Aug 2016 08:00:28 +0000

A while back I picked up an interesting single shot shotgun with a bronze receiver. A little research showed it as a ZULU shot gun.

The history of this weapon goes back to the end of the muzzle loading era. With the civil war ushering in the era of the breech loading metallic cartridge firearm. With large stocks of muzzle loading weapons on hand countries needed a way to convert these weapons to a breech loading weapon. One of the first methods was the Snider or Tabatiere conversion.

By the late 1870’s large quantities of French converted rifle were on the surplus market with no buyers. A decision was made to convert them to a inexpensive shotgun. This was accomplished by reaming out the rifling in the barrels to make them smooth bore, scrubbing all the original marks off the rifles and then proof them with Belgium proof marks, cut down the stocks to a sporter configuration and removing the rifle sights and installing a front sight bead.

This example is a bronze receiver that was made during the Franco-Prussian war from French church bells that were donated because of the material shortage at the time.

Right side view

Left side view

Close up of the receiver area

Belgium proof marks on the breech block

Marking on the inside of the breech block

The spring that acts as a breech locking device and firing pin retaining pin.

The angle of the hammer and the lack of a gripping surface make it very difficult to pull the hammer back and to drop the hammer by hand. The spring pressure on the hammer is quite high

The trigger guard is from a M1857 rifle musket

The standard butt plate from a M1857 rifle musket

The front barrel band looks like a piece of copper pipe hammered to fit.

Looking at the Stevens Little Krag rifle

Chuck — Thu, 11 Feb 2016 08:00:53 +0000

The little Krag rifle made by Stevens gun company is a 22 caliber boys rifle. The Krag name was chosen because the Spanish American war was still in the recent memory of most Americans. It is a simply design single shot rifle that came out in March of 1904. The rifle came with a standard 20″ round barrel and oil walnut stock. For a short time there was a scope that was available, it however was dropped after being made for only one year. By 191o the rifle has run it’s course and was discontinued.

Close up of the receiver in the stock.

Out of the stock.

The barrel is a slip fit that is held in with a screw on the bottom of the receiver with a screw.

As you can see from the pictures this is a very basic receiver.

Even the trigger and extractor are of a very simple design.

The bolt as well is very simple in design and function. The bolt handle is what keeps the action closed when the rifle is fired.

There is an interesting design with this rifle. It is the design of the extractor. It is a spring loaded design. Here are a few pictures of the spring and extractor set up.

As you extract the cartridge out of the chamber the extractor springs forward to all another cartridge to be fed into the rifle.

This is a video of its operation.

Quite often I am e-mailed about I am interested in making my own rifle but I don’t have the experience or the tools. This rifle can be made with a very little experience and tooling. There is no or minimal heat treating involved with this design and steel selection could be basic scrap steel.

Things that go on at Gun Lab

Chuck — Sun, 29 Nov 2015 14:24:43 +0000

I just got back into my office area this morning and looked at the pile of parts that had been studied last night and thought it would make a good what is it picture. As anyone that has been here knows we are interested in any thing gun and study everything gun. So see if you can guess what all the parts are and for what gun.

First the full size picture.

Now for closer up pictures.

Better close ups.

Single shot rifles, Book Review

Chuck — Sun, 25 Oct 2015 14:54:37 +0000

I am a big fan of single shot rifles. I enjoy there design from the simplest boys rifle to the most expensive British falling block design. I also have a number of single shot rifles in the Gun Lab reference collection. I feel that the pinnacle of the gun making craft is single shot rifles and double guns. For the most part the rifles are well design and beautifully manufactured. Some of my favorite rifles are the rook and rabbit rifles made in England and the small bore rifles made here. With this intro I just received my new book “British Single Shot Rifles Volume 8″ from Amazon. Once again Wal Winfer and Tom Rowe have out done themselves.

The pictures are superb, I am a little jealous as I wish my photographs looked that good. The detail is excellent.

There line drawings are detailed and informative.

Volume 8 is an excellent reference book on the subject of small bore single shot rifle and a great addition to the library at Gun Lab.

Unique 22 single shot rifle

Chuck — Sat, 08 Aug 2015 08:00:16 +0000

Our friend in Germany, Axel, knows that I am always interested in weapons of all styles and calibers so with today’s e-mail came some interesting pictures. I have a number of different types of single shot weapons and find them all interesting. Here is one that I have not seen before, not that that means much. It is a single shot with a lifting breach action.

Right side view of the rifle.

Left side view. Interesting shape for the receiver.

Close up of the receiver.

The action open. Lifting breach block and a very simple extractor.

Interesting front sight.

New Section, Cut Away weapons

Chuck — Wed, 18 Feb 2015 08:00:01 +0000

For me, part of the process of learning about small arms includes photographs, manuals, manufacture boards,studying the actual weapons them self and studying cut away weapons. So I have decided to start a section on cut away weapons. I do own a few cut away and I take pictures of others when ever possible.

This first weapon is a Belgium Rolling Block rifle that was at the Belgium Military Museum. I strongly recommend that you visit this museum. I spent an entire day there and am looking forward to going back.

A close up of the same action.

Sorry about the blurry picture. I was just starting with the digital camera and to this day still have a great deal to learn.

Building a Stevens Single shot rifle video

Chuck — Tue, 17 Feb 2015 08:00:13 +0000

I like gun building and that should be no surprise to anyone that comes to this sight. I also like any type of weapon. I found this series of videos on building a Stevens single shot rifle. There is a great deal of information in his video even though it is not a how to. His web sight is interesting as well. This is part 1.

Part 2.

Part 3.

And his site.

http://tomstechniques.com/

Shooting the 410 Enfield shotgun

Chuck — Thu, 05 Feb 2015 08:00:58 +0000

After working non stop for almost two weeks my friend Mac and myself decided to take a break and do a little shooting. I needed to test the 410 Enfield shotgun for accuracy, so off we went with that and 3 other weapons. We had a great time with the little Enfield. The accuracy is what you would expect with a smooth bore gun using ammunition that was made in what looks like in 1960.

The target was shot at 30 yards.

This is after two strings for grouping.Not much difference.

However, I would not want to be hit by one of these slugs. It had not problem going through a 2×4 at all.

And was a danger to close up cans.

It also put a heck of a dent into a 1/4″ steel plate.

I actually had more fun shooting this then the two machine guns that were taken or the sniper rifle.