By Fred Stutzenberger
There are many dealers out there who sell ready-made caps, but anyone who shapes one rifle to fit a muzzle cap must be a little touched in the head
Of all the hardware used in the stocking of a muzzleloading rifle or pistol, the muzzle cap (or fore end cap on a halfstock) encompasses the widest range of materials and methods of manufacture. Most of the 17th Century wheel-lock rifles were capped with carved or scrimshawed bone, ivory or stag (3). The Germanic Jäger rifles of the 18th Century were often capped with horn, exotic woods or with highly decorative castings (Fig.1) of brass or gilded iron (4). The 18th-19th Century American fullstock longrifle was generally capped with soldered two-piece or swaged one-piece sheet brass (2) except in the Southern Appalachians where rifles were capped with hand-forged iron grooved for the ramrod or sometimes with bone (Fig. 2).
I remember seeing only two old original American halfstock rifles without a fore end cap (perhaps readers can help me out on that one). Most of the old halfstock rifles that I have seen were capped either with the common two-piece sheet metal cap a la’ the Hawken (Fig. 3) or caps cast of pewter, tin or other low temperature-melting (250-300oF) metal such as CerroSafe (see suppliers’ list). The ability to cast low temp metals into any conceivable cutout area generates some flamboyant designs (Fig. 4). British gunmakers of the late muzzleloading era were much more conservative in the capping of their fore stocks, using horn with a distinctly shaped schnabel (Fig. 5).
From the strictly utilitarian point of view, the purpose of the muzzle cap is to protect the vulnerable tip of the stock and prevent it from splitting. The simplest restraint to that purpose is a plain metal band (Fig. 6) wrapped around the fore stock an inch or two back from the tip. Cheap-but-sturdy trade guns were turned out by the thousands and peddled to the First Americans by the Hudson’s Bay and Northwest companies during the fur trade era (5).
Most of the muzzle caps on American longrifles were made of sheet metal (examples in Fig. 7). Making such muzzle caps is fun and rewarding if you are creative and experienced with working metals. If you are not, it is best to buy a commercially made cap if you can find a source for one that closely fits your barrel. Commercial caps are available in 1/16” increments from ¾ to 1- 1/8. If you find a cast brass cap that is very slightly larger than the muzzle, Keith Lisle (custommuzzleloaders.com) suggests carefully squeezing them a bit in a vise, then filed & shaped to fit a muzzle that is slightly smaller than the casting. Also, the cast caps are usually quite thick, thus you can square them off & make them appear as a hand made cap, rather than the rounded generic cap as it was cast.
In Part I of this series, the procedure for installing a commercial cap will be described. In Part II, with insight from Keith, we are going to show you how to make several styles of metal caps using different methods. Part III will describe the making of caps from horn and exotic wood.
Before you decide, be sure that a muzzle cap is appropriate to your style and period of rifle or pistol. Some of the most elegant pistols I’ve seen (the best British, French and Flemish pistols come to mind) made their striking appearance sans muzzle caps. So if you have a commercial cap that is appropriate for your rifle or pistol, let’s get started.
It is easier to get your commercial cap fitting closely to your barrel by taking the barrel out of the stock. With a barrel/cap combination of standard dimensions, fitting the cap to barrel is pretty easy. Usually they go together nicely with little filing. The fitting of the cap to the stocked barrel is a different matter.
1.Remove enough wood from the tip of the fore end to allow for the installation of the cap with about a 1/16-1/8” of the barrel protruding out beyond that. With the barrel clamped tightly in the channel, slide the cap onto the muzzle in reverse and press it up under the barrel for a tight fit. Pencil a line around the circumference of the cap onto the fore end. That will be the dimension of the cap when installed. Hopefully you have left enough wood on the stock to accommodate that.
2. Measure the inside length of the cap. It is easy to do that with an adjustable square. Add 1/8” to that measurement to allow for the thickness of the end cap and to allow a bit of barrel to protrude beyond the cap. Lock the square and set the base against the muzzle. Draw lines on the side of the fore stock to determine how far back the wood needs to be removed from along the fore end (Fig. 8). Using a thin-bladed saw (a 24-tooth hacksaw blade works well), carefully make a series of shallow cuts around the fore end. Be careful not to saw into the barrel channel . . .that would seriously weaken the fore end. Those cuts will determine where the back edge of your cap will mate to the wood.
3.Using the cap outline and length as reference lines, remove the wood between. That will be the first stage of wood removal.
4. The first stage of wood removal has left the outside dimensions of the cap when installed. Now measure down from the flats of the end plate to the curvature of the inner surface of the cap to determine the shape of the wood that will be left when the cap is installed. In this second stage of wood removal, mark lines the same depth down from the bottoms of the barrel channel flats (a dial caliper is a good measuring tool for this). That will give you references as to where to draw the outline of the end plate where it fits under the barrel (Fig.9). Alternatively, you can make a template of the end cap and use it to make the outline for stage two. In either case, make sure that the flats of the end plate and the flats of the barrel channel line up closely.
5.Carefully remove the wood back to the saw cuts described in Step 2 (the wood will be getting pretty thin). At this stage, the muzzle cap should start to slide onto the wood. Coat the inside of the cap with inletting dye, grease, lipstick or other visible indicator. Slide the cap on until resistance is felt, remove and carefully file off any marks from the wood. Repeat fit and file until the cap slides on back to the shoulder and does not rock from side to side.
6.Coat the rear edge of the cap with inletting dye. With the barrel and cap in place, give a gently tap on the front end of the cap and remove it. Shave off any black marks on the shoulder, removing little slivers of wood until you get a close fit all the way around (Fig. 10).
7.Even if you have doing a good job of fitting, the wood encompassed by the cap is thin and fragile. It needs to be reinforced. The old timers used hide glue. Epoxy barrel bedding compound is much better (see suppliers). Coat the inside of the cap and the barrel with release agent if you want to be able to remove it later. If you want to do a permanent installation, Keith suggests that the inletting black, lipstick etc. should be removed with Acetone or Brake Drum Cleaner on a rag, wiping the surface clean prior to applying the AcraGlasTM or other epoxy bedding. If you have access to a bead-blasting cabinet, give the inside of the cap a light treatment; a light sanding with 220 grit sandpaper will also improve bonding. Coat the barrel with release agent or paste wax. You don’t want the barrel to be permanently fixed to the cap.Fill the cap with an excess of bedding compound to prevent voids. Slide the cap onto the wood, clamp the barrel into place for proper alignment and give a few gentle taps on the end plate to make sure it is seated against the shoulder. The compound should squeeze out all around. Keith pulls the cap back firmly to the shoulder and up against the barrel using a combination of rubber bands and A-frame clamps (Fig.11).
8.After the compound has set up, turn the assembly upside down with the corner of the butt plate on a solid surface. Tap the butt against the surface and the barrel will lever itself out of its channel.
9.Anchor the cap into place using a small flat head machine screw; a 2-56 or 3-48 works fine (Fig. 12a, 12b). I have made soft copper rivets from 2 gauge electrical wire. They work fine, but it is awkward holding the stock in place (sans barrel) when riveting. The underside of the barrel can serve as the “anvil” when peening the rivet on the cap outside. When you peen the rivet on the inside of the cap, make sure you have a firm support under the rivet on the outside. Keith Lisle is better in this than I am; he will describe his procedure in detail in Part II of this series
10.Finally, level the ramrod groove to eliminate any “step” between the bottom of the groove and the underside of the cap. When replacing the ramrod, you want a flawless smooth entry ramp into the thimbles.
Installing a commercial cap takes time and patience even if you have the proper cap-to-barrel fit. But what if your muzzle dimensions fall between increments of commercially available caps (as swamped or tapered custom barrels tend to do)? One size is too small, the next size up is too big, so you are left to make your own. Part II will describe making a cap that is custom fit to your barrel.
Acknowledgment
Thanks to Keith Lisle (Custommuzzleloaders.com) for his helpful suggestions and to John Cummings for his impeccable editing.
Suppliers
Brownell’s Inc., 800-741-0015, Brownells.com, for Hi-Force 44 low-temp silver solder, AcraGlasTM epoxy bedding and a wide range of gunsmithing materials.
Track of the Wolf (trackofthewolf.com/List/Item.aspx/800/1) for a wide range of sheet metal and cast muzzle caps
References
1.Alexander, Peter A. The Gunsmith of Grenville County. Scurlock Publishing Co., Texarkana, TX, 2002.
2.Buchele, William, George Schumway and Peter Alexander. Recreating the American Longrifle. G. Schumway, Publisher, York, PA 1999.
3.Gusler, W.B. and J.D. Lavin. Decorated Firearms 1540-1870. The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, Williamsburg, VA, 1977.
4. Wolf, Erhard. Steinschloss-Jägerbüchsen. DWJ Verlag CmbH Publishers, Blaufelden, Germany, 2006.
5.Hanson III, Charles E. Trade Gun Sketch Book. Track of the Wolf, Osseo, MN, 1978.
This article was featured in Muzzle Blasts Magazine in November 2017
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