doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Help build a try gun

The modern adjustable combs have elevation and lateral adjustments. The modern adjustable buttplates have LOP, lateral, twist, and elevation adjustments. Some of the traditional try-guns can't do all of those.

I searched google patents, there is a beautiful try gun patented by Winchester in the patent archives. And with detailed drawings and instructions! Go to google.com/patents and enter try gun in the search area.

The use of a dedicated try gun will enable the fitter to arrive at a set of stock dimensions that suit and fit the Gun at the plate, on that day.
It will not replicate the handling and the Guns ability to shoot with a gun made to those dimensions, due a total difference in ergonomics.
A trygun is merely a tool to assist the fitter in arriving at a set of stock dimensions which MAY? be near ideal.
It is necessary to shoot the finished stocked gun at the plate or targets, and then to finalise the dimensions and then finish.
This very often is NOT done due to the high expense encountered.
Very often the gun purchaser is 'fobbed' of with technical jargon, otherwise known as 'bull***t'
If the customer already as a gun that they shoot well, it may provide a baseline stock setting upon which to work.
Remember the human form is highly adaptable and changable.
Many men (and ladies) look good in off the peg clothes, but they 'feel' better in custom gear.

Tom Martin, as I recall, the Smith try gun is the A.P. Curtis design. The Curtis Try Gun allows for cast adjustment of the entire stock, not just the butt and the comb/heel areas. However, that feature is unneccesary because the body doesn't know that the stock hasn't moved to the side as long as the comb/heel and butt are adjusted. Unfortunately, most adjustable butts don't go sideways. Maybe someone makes one that does. The most glaring defect in a try gun fitting is that the thickness of the comb/heel will seldom be the same for the try gun and the stock to be fabricated from the try gun dimensions. A try gun fitting is only a starting point. The customer should shoot the heck out of the new stock before it is finished. Mr. Curtis' try stock is a wonderful design as are most of his designs. For more than thirty years, I have used a Parker try gun that Mr. Curtis built in 1914. It does everything, except compensating for differences in comb shape. There is a picture of the Curtis Try Gun in the Elliot book on Lefevers. I saw that gun last year and it is pretty much identical to my Parker.

Jeeze Bill, you can't just tell us about a piece like that. Pictures please.

[img]http://[/img]

Here you go. Just buy this one at G&H.

Chuck, I just can't post a picture, not within my pay grade. In Elliott's revised book, page 154, you can look at the Curtis/Lefever. You will see that all dimensions are adjustable. The screws in the bottom picture adjust the entire front and back of the comb side to side, individually, to bring the whole stock, butt and all into cast on or off adjustment. When the "wheels" are snugged up, the gun is rock solid and can be shot without any problems. The Lefever is Curtis #4. My Parker is Curtis #5. He also made at least one Ithaca Flues single barrel try gun. It may be in Walt Snyder's collection. Curtis worked for several gun companies, either as an engineer, designer, or superintendent. He wrote some technical articles for the American Rifleman before the war. I believe he was plant superintendent at Ithaca and Hunter Arms.

Agreed on all counts, especially with Salopian:

"A trygun is merely a tool to assist the fitter in arriving at a set of stock dimensions which MAY? be near ideal."


My thoughts below, worth about what you folks are paying, which is nothing:

The best try gun in the world is useless unless a skilled fitter is present. My guess is the number of skilled try gun fitters in the world may be counted on one hand.

If, and this is a big IF, I were building stocks for hire, which I do not and never will, the try gun would be used for approximate measurements (Again, if a skilled fitter obtained the measurements). The approximatel measurements would be used in constructing a test stock using inexpensive wood. Then off to the new owner for trials and necessary adjustments. After all are satisified, including the fitter, the owner, and hopefully a shooting coach, a final stock would be made.

As this would be an expensive process, it likely would not happen!

So much for my unproven theories.

Altamaha, the method you suggest "would not happen" is the way it is done by many stockmakers today. In fact, the last half dozen stocks my friends and I have had made in the last few years have been made exactly that way, using a donor stock pumped up with bondo cut down to shape, then duplicated. I will use that method rather than my try gun for my next stock. My try gun is just an expensive toy, not a stock fitting tool. The donor stock that I designed for my prewar Midas Browning was so great that my stockmaker begged me to let him keep it for future projects. I reluctantly agreed to let him have it.

I've done two using the "bondo to fit, shoot to verify, modify as appropriate, then duplicate", method.