Kids size rifle

[Brent Gurtek]

[attachment=0:1agzfc2l][/attachment]SN 83 007.jpg[/attachment:1agzfc2l][attachment=1:1agzfc2l][/attachment]SN 83 006.jpg[/attachment:1agzfc2l][attachment=2:1agzfc2l][/attachment]SN 83 005.jpg[/attachment:1agzfc2l]My wife, Ann, got some photos of the little gun posted.  Here's a few more.  

Brent

[Riley/MN]

Thanks for posting those Brent!

[Brent Gurtek]

Your welcome Riley!  I also have some footage from the latest youth expo of youngin's firing it at the skeet range.  At this hour, I don't know how to get a still photo from it but I'll give it a go.
Like some of you have said, making youth guns is problematic in that the intended users quickly outgrow them.  For that reason, one approach that I'm going to try on the next youth smoothbore is to make the gun with two independent triggers.  The gun will be a single barrel gun but built with a double barrel gun trigger arrangement - as weird as that sounds.  Thus the piece will nave two trigger pulls!
I'll post a sketch of this trigger arrangement soon - but now I've got to scoot.  We're taking a few grand kids to the Lester River Rondy today.

[Geezer in NH]

Riley, could we maybe see some pics of that sweet little shooter ?  I have a .410 bbl. that I want to make a 1/2 scale "starter" gun for kids......Tom

I have a book about trade guns with a gun sized 410 for kids. I will find it this weekend and let you know.

[Captchee]

if it the one in the trade gun sketch book , its a 1/3 scale  . its the drawings i used to make the little NW gun in the vedio i posted

[Brent Gurtek]

Gary Messer, a gunmaker near Hayward, Wisconsin, does make youth-sized Northwest Trade Guns.  He made his own pantograph and may have a pattern to make them.

[Kermit]

When I first got involved with this fun, a fellow in our club who was a machinist made a tiny Lehigh rifle for his children to shoot. It was carved, inlaid, and engraved. It also had interchangeable locks, one flint and one percussion. It stayed percussion most of the time. He used a barrel (round, of course) that was salvaged from an old .22rf whose parentage I don't know. Both locks were made entirely with hacksaw and files and were tiny. The two lockplates were an exact fit. He said most of it was done with files in his recliner in evenings in front of the TV. It always amazed me whenever it came out. After his kids moved on to full-sized rifles, it mostly showed up at our two annual rondys and when we invited the public in. He would load and cap the little feller and with supervision and help let kids as young as 4 or 5 shoot it. The little grins were great to see.

[Brent Gurtek]

One of the best things we, as black powder shooters and gun makers can do, is get the young-ins involved.  It's history, being outdoors, learning useful skills and instilling a love for handmade articles.

[Geezer in NH]

if it the one in the trade gun sketch book , its a 1/3 scale  . its the drawings i used to make the little NW gun in the vedio i posted

I believe that was the book . I have looked all over for but it must have been lent out to never return.

I have lost many that way

[Kermit]

((There's a sign in my shop that says "No tools loaned." My wife says it's rude. Same goes for books. Took me a long time to learn.))