The American Rifleman,January 1935,Elmer Keith, Some Turkey Rifles Past and Present

AMERICAN RIFLEMAN

J A N U A R Y , 1 9 3 5

Some Turkey RiflesPast and Present By E L M E R K E I T H

FR O M the early Colonial period down to the present day, turkey shoots nave always been a favorite American sport. I n the early times the long-barrelled Kentucky rifles'were

the most popular, anifwere usually shot f rom the offhand posi-tion. Some riflemen of today look with contempt upon these fine old rifles, but considering the state of the gunsmithing art of those days, with the crude hand tools that were used and the limited knowledge of metals, one cannot but wonder how there ever was accomplished the manufacture of so fine a shooting weapon. While the early flint and percussion-lock hunting rifles with plain open sights do not compare i n accuracy with our modern match rifles, or with the heavy percussion match rifles of an earlier day, they nevertheless do good work i n the hands of men that understand them. I have seen these rifles consistently beat many of our modern high-power sporting rifles i n turkey matches, when the latter were equipped only wi th open sights. Those long barrels were the thing when open sights were used.

A l l together I have owned more than f i f t y of these old long-barrelled Kentucky hunting rifles, i n both flint and percussion lock, and used them a great deal for small-game hunting. Once one is accustomed to them they give remarkably good results in offhand work, and I have had several that would consistently make one-inch groups at 50 yards. There is nothing so deadly for its weight and caliber as a round ball at the usual velocity of these old rifles. I once killed 29 ground squirrels wi th one of these rifles, offhand, without a miss, taking all shots as they came from 25 to 70 yards range. I used such a rifle for prac-tically all of my blue-grouse shooting for a couple of yearsall standing shots, of course.

I n many places i n the South these old muzzle-loading hunting rifles are still used in all the turkey matches, against all other

.'types of rifles, and the results are not to be sheered at. M y good friend Dr . G. H . Parmenter has recut for me several

of these old rifles that were rusted in the bore. Doc is a rifle-man and one of the gang, and spends most of his recreational hours in rebuilding or rerifling these old-timers, and in hunting. I had a .SO-caliber Hawken muzzle-loader that was in bad shape, and Doc recut and restocked i t . until it now makes one-inch groups at 50 yards with its half-ounce ball^ood enough for competition against open-sighted hunting rifles at turkey matches or for hunting. I have another percussion rifle, of .48-caliber. that Doc made up himself. He had an old rusty heavy percussion barrel, and recut i t and also made the stock and all remaining parts and fittings except the lock, which he cut down from an old musket lock. Fitted *with crude home-made aper-ture sights, this rifle has given each of us one-inch groups at 50

yards. I had a .44-caliber flintlock rifle that Parmenter had recut and that was very accur* ate, i t usually making f rom one-half to three-quarter-inch groups at 50 yards. This rifle was made during the Revolution, and after Doc had recut i t to remove the pits i t would shoot much better than many of our modem hunting rifles.

Some fifty or more years ago a group of New England riflesmiths turned out the most accurate muzzle-loading rifles the world has ever known. These were made primarily for turkey match shooting. They had percussion locks, and were very heavy, weighing from twenty to fifty pounds. They were equipped with either peep sights or full-length tele-scopes, and used a two-piece plain patched

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bullet. The t ip of this bullet was cast hard and the base soft, the two being swaged together. I t was an .upsettage proposition, and the base part-of the bul-let had to be soft. The bullets were cross-patched, loaded through a false muzzle, and were driven by enormous charges of black powder. These rifles were made by a number of different rifle* smithsvand were furnished in various;cali-bers. these usually ranging from AS to .60. Will iam Billinghurst was one of the most celebrated makers of these: fine match rifles, which were described by Walter M . Cline in the May 1931 issue of T H E A M E R I C A N : R I F L E M A N . 1 have owned only one of the better class of these riflesa .48-caliber weighing twenty, pounds, and restocked by Hervey Lovell. This was the finest specimen = of these; old heavy match rifles that 3 have ever used.-Lovell made a beautiful prone stock for i t r with close and f u l l pistol grip/cheekpiece, and shotgun buttplate. The rifle had a very heavy full-octagon barrel, an under ham-mer, adjustable trigger-pull, and the main-spring formed the trigger-guard. The tube being under the barrel, no powder gas or spark f rom the cap could reach the eye. I made a high Marine Corps front sight f o r this rifle, and fitted a long Winchester tang peepsight, as well as blocks for my 5-A scope. The rifle had formerly been used with a twelve to twenty-power f u l l -length scope.

This rifle threw a 480-grain bul-let of pointed shape tapering out gradually to the base, which had the greatest diameter. I t was loaded wi th about eighty to one hundred grains of Fg black powder, poured through a small funnel so that i t would settle closely and uniformly. The bullet was started through the false muzzle wi th a bullet starter, its cross-type patch being made of oiled onion-skin bond paper. The muzzle of the rifle was fitted with a heavy bronze cross brace which eliminated all chance of canting and afforded a solid and even support fo r the barrel on the rest. The rifle was just as pleasant to shoot as a ,22, and was the best-holding rest rifle 1 have ever come in contact with. I have seen that rifle, with scope and f rom a bench rest, place five shots in the same hole at 100

measured yards; so close that i t was only by moving the target on the backing paper that we could tell that more than one shot had gone through. The one trouble with i t was the time and care necessary in load-ing, and the hard work of swaging those bullets and then getting them out of the swage, the latter often having to be warmed up to expand i t . -Of course all bullets were miked, and were graded to within one-tenth grain in weight for fine work, and the powder charge weighed. - I f I had that rifle,nowr-^and;I wish I

hadI should have Lyman make up a couple Of moulds and a more modern type of swage. One mould would be for a 500 or 5 50-grain "grooved bullet of the Pope type, and the other for a plain patched bullet. Then I would experiment wi th different bullet tempers unt i l I found the right one. The bullets would be cast or swaged small enough so that they would go through the false muzzle with-out any unnecessary pressure that might tend to bend or upset them. And then I would have a turkey rifle that could riot be beaten at f rom 60 yards up to and including 200 yards, on a still day.

About ten years ago ;T used-.consider-ably for turkey matches a Sharps rifle, and still use i t occasionaliyi; /This big Sharps weighs 18 pounds, has double set-triggers, and 1 fitted i t with peep sights. The caliber is .45. I t was an old rifle that Hank Waters had used for years in

A S-SHOT 60-YARD TARGET (EXACT SIZE) SHOT FROM REST WITH k3S-CAL. POPE-BALLARD MUZ-

ZLE-LOADER'WITH S-AiSCOPE

Montana, Wyoming, and the Dakotas when buffalo hunting. O'Meara fitted to i t a.new heavy barrel of the same caliber, and a new fore-end. I well remember the first time I tried this big rifle in a match. I t was at a turkey shoot at Mon-tana City, near Helena. I had been shoot-ing the Springfield for some time that day, prone wi th sling, against the best men the country had to offer armed with everything f r o m Remington and Winches-ter hunting rifles, to Krags and Spring-fields. We were shooting at a six-inch black at 200 yards, this bull being divided by two inside rings. Up to that time I had not shot out of the black, but had not: won a single bird, when my mother asked me to change to the big Sharps. 1 had done a great deal; of experimenting with the Sharps at home, and had finally found the best bullet temper and ; thick-ness of onion-skin bond paper for the patches, the old Sharps responding by making splendid groups at 50 and 100 yards. However, 1 did not have the slightest idea at that time as to where to set the peep sight for 200 yards; where-upon they agreed to give me three sight-ing shots. I t was all rest shooting. ; I set the sight by guess, and my first shot ivent a foot high. Coming down, I sent the next slug a foot low. I split the differ-ence on the sight, and the third shot landed center in the black. They shot off seven more turkeys that afternoon, and I

took them all home in spite of their kidding about my old charcoal-burner. I had to shoot off three ties to do i t , however.

The big Sharps is a temperamen-tal gun and requires very careful loading for the finest accuracy. One five-shot 100-yard group is illus-trated herewith. The recoil of the big rifle wi l l shove a person back f rom the rest, but i t is really just a big push, and totally unlike the sharp prod of a modern high-power rifle. This is a really good turkey rif le; holds steady and is pleasant to shoot, to say nothing of the fun that can be had loading the car-tridges. I t is an upsettage load, and the bullet must be small enough, patch and all, to slide up into the throat easily without tearing the patch or requiring any undue pres-sure on the bullet.

6 T H E A M E R I C A N R I F L E M A N

THE HEAVY-BARRELLED DODGE-WINCHESTER S2

Afte r using the Sharps for several years for turkey matches 1 decided to try; the fine old "Ballard Schuetzen rifles, with the result that I st i l l use them as well as the Sharps. I also tried several fine Sharps Creedmoor rifles, with much; lighter bar-rels, but they would not give nearly as good rest groups, owing to their lighter barrels, as the 38-pound buffalo gun.

I had a Zischang .32-40 with a heavy 28-inch barrel on a Ballard action,: and using a 198-grain Zischang bullet and 12 grains of duPont Shotgun I obtained very fine accuracy with i t , often putting five shots under a dime at 60 yards. How-ever, either the shotgun powder, the cor-rosive primers, or^ the bullets themselves wore the throat in the barrel somewhat before I disposed of the rifle. 3 won tur-keys with the outfit , though, and in tough competition, around Baker, Oregon. I never could make No. 80 powder shoot as well i n this rifle as the load of shotgun powder. The barrel must at one time have been shot with a tremendous load of some kind of smokeless powder, as the chamber was bulged and I had to expand cases to f i t i t . I always loaded the bullet ahead of the case with a bullet-seater, using one card wad over the powder. I t was a good turkey rifle.

I next acquired a pair of fine Ballard Schuetzen rifles wi th engraved actions and Schuetzen levers. One, a breech loader, was a Schoyen .32-40 with No. 5 f u l l -ootagon barrela wonderful piece of work by a fine riflesmith formerly i n partnership wi th A . W. Peter-son, of Denver. I secured many fine groups and won a good many turkeys wi th this rifle, using the Zischang 198-grain bullet, a charge of 3 grains of duPont Schuetzen for a primer, wi th 30 grains of black powder on top; then a thin card wad to hold the powder in place. The bullet was always seated a quarter of an inch ahead of the shell with a bullet-seater. The only trouble with this load was that the Zischang bullet was a li t t le too large to seat easily, and I changed to a Pope bullet, which did the business and gave very fine accu-racy. Af ter eroding the fine Zis-chang barrel I was afraid to use a straight smokeless charge in this rifle, though a charge of straight

Schuetzen gives fine accuracy. This rifle has the finest offhand stock (by Schoyen) 3 have ever seen. The cheekpiece; fits completely around the jaw, and the big sun-perch belly rests against the chest muscles. Though uncomfortable i n the prone position, i t cannot be beaten fo r an offhand match, and I also use this rifle a great deal for offhand work on chucks and ground squirrels. The rifle complete

cut all cases in two, and drove the for-ward portion up into the barrel as before. By breathing through the bore until the powder fouling was wet I was usually able to remove these broken cases by pushing another bullet; down f r o m the muzzle. I have never found a rifleman that could explain the cause of this action, but per-haps; some reader can. I spent a good part of my spare time f o r over a year

weighs about fifteen pounds. I f we could experimenting wi th this barrel, but when-have free rifles stocked as this old Schoyen is we would do far better off-hand work in any kind of match.

M y other Ballard has a fine engraved Schuetzen action, to which I fitted a per-fect No. 4 full-octagon Pope barrel. This is a muzzle-loader, i n .35 caliber;-. I t uses .38r55 cases swaged down to straight-taper .35 caliber. The bullet weighs 244 grains and is of the regular Pope form. This is the most temperamental rifle I have ever owned. I t is very closely chambered, and is the most finicky rifle about its powder charge that I have en-countered. A straight charge of Schuetzen would often cut the cases in two about HHnch f rom their mouths, driving the forward portion of the case up into the rifling a foot or more, when I had the devil's own time removing i t without in -juring the fine mirror-polish that Harry Pope always puts in his barrels. Af ter this experience I tried 5 grains of Schuet-zen and 35 grains of Fg blackwhich load

A 5-SHOT 60-YARD TARGET SHOT FROM PRONE WITH DODGE-WINCHESTER 52 AND 5-A SCOPE.

TARGET IS EXACT SIZE

ever I increased the charge to over grains of Schuetzen and 30 grains of black powder, the cases were cut in two. This appears to be the maximum load the rifle wi l l handle. I tried straight black powder,'but found i t so dirty that i t was next to impossible to put the next bullet down from the muzzle without too much pressure on the rod, which upset or other-wise deformed the bullet and caused a variation on the target.

3 have never owned, or seen, a more accurate rifle f o r .its weight than this, when properly loaded. 3 have made many 60-yard groups of five and ten shots that could be covered by a dime. The rifle has never failed me at turkey matches, even against match Springfields and small-bore rifles, i t always getting its f u l l share of meat. I am showing one five-shot group which is typical of this rifle at 60 yards, and I have several machine-rest groups f rom this barrel but on another action, that are all well inside

of a three-inch circle at 200 yards, with many inside of a two-inch cir-cle, and some groups even smaller,

For best results I have found that these Schuetzen rifles should be handled the same as a .22 small-bore. They should have the barrel fouled before beginning a group or entering a match. They do not shoot as well for me i f I clean them after each shot. I like to breathe through the barrel of this Pope after each shot, to moisten the residue; then seat the next bullet.

A t one time I used a heavy-bar-rel Springfield for turkey matches, and with fine results. Owing to its fine prone stock i t was a very com-fortable rifle to shoot, either prone or f r om a rest. As most turkey matches were at f rom 60 to 200 yards I saw no reason to use f u l l -

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SOME T U R K E Y R I F L E S XContinmd from page T)

power loads, and usually used 37 grains of Hi-Vel and the 172-grain 9-degree boat-tail bullet in this rifle. The rifle was equipped with set-triggers, and Lyman 48 and hooded aperture front sight Later I found that by using my Howe-Whelen peep sight and thus bringing the aperture back closer to the eye 1 could reduce the size of my groups; and I found this a better sight for either turkey matches or hunting than the regular graduated target 48. I used this rifle f o r coyote and eagle shooting, and for match work the two years I was at Perry, finally wearing the throat somewhat; but i t was still a wonderfully accurate rifle when I disposed of i t , Anyone is well equipped for any kind of turkey or long-range match /w i th a heavy-barrel Springfield. However, they are at their best with a fair ly powerful load and metal-patched bullets, and when I wish to shoot lead bullets of various tempers I would rather use one of the o ld : Ballard. Sharps, or muzzle-loading rifles.

Some time ago I sent Paul Dodge, of Yreka, Califorhia^ an old Winchester 52 action, and had him f i t i t with a very heavy 29-inch Winchester barrel. Dodge finished the outside of the barrel, cham-bered i t very closely for the 22 l.-r., arid fitted i t to the action without any excess of headpiece. He fitted blocks for my scope, and after getting the blocks i n place he fitted a new beavertaij Winches-ter stock, carefully hand-checking the stock and fore-end. He greatly speeded-up the action, and fitted a trigger-stop screw, which latter is a great help as i t leaves the trigger finger well supported after the striker has been released, with-out any back jerk. Altogether Dodge did a wonderful job on this rifle.

Af te r getting the big rifle home and testing i t wi th the scope, 3 decided that i t was well worthy of the best sights possible to procure. Worthy to be sure, for wi th its own choice of ammunition i t would put five shote on a tack at 60 yards, i f I could hold i t . I have owned and used many fine small-bore rifles, but never one that would shoot wi th this Winchester-Dodge - combination. 1 or-dered a Lyman 4S-J rear and 17-A front sight, and had H . W. Bradley, of Salmon, Idaho, install them. He did a beautiful job, making a long, low ramp for the front sight, which put on the final finish.

Dodge had found that this rifle per-formed perfectly with plain Remington Kleanbore ammunition. 1 was unable to get this in Salmon, but found that the cheaper grade of Remington Kleanbore greased Hi-Speed did all that I could ask of any small-bore ammunition, and even more. I t was purely a matter of holding, and the size of the group was all up to me, for the gun would put ten straight

into a space so small that most riflemen would swear that. I was crazy were I to give the size. Dodge sent me several targets shot by himself with straight Rem-ington low-velocity Kleanbore, and these confirm my opinion of the rifle. I have proved to my own satisfaction that this rifle wi th the above-mentioned amrnuni--tion wi l l consistently group inside of the X-ring of our standard N . R. A . small-bore target on a still day, I include one of my targets shot at 60 yards with 5-A scope. I f I had not made several others like this I would consider i t just one of the exceptional groups that occasionally crop up. However, this rifle has done the same thing too many times to leave any doubt in my mind. 3 wish I could hold this well at all times.

This rifle has a much heavier barrel than the regular Winchester heavy-barrel 52, the barrel also being one inch longer. Dodge made up for his own use another rifle with the same kind of barrel, and used the same chambering reamers, but fitted it to a Ballard action, and he has been getting the same results with it as I have with mine\ which speaks very well for these heavy barrels. He made a high* comb scope stock for his rifle, and fitted a high Lyman 48 and high front base for Lyman 17-A that can be removed when scope is used, thus having both the scope and the iron sights at the same height.

I killed all the ground squirrels and chucks on my l i t t le ranch with this outfit last summer, and then cleaned up some neighboring ranches. I used the scope and held fo r the head. When the scope is used i t is surprising how far the little rodents can be killed with the rifle sighted to shoot center at 60 yards. Of course much of the success is due to the fine ammunition now being turned out, and to the fact that this ammunition apparently fits this particular barrel perfectly.

I took particular pains to sight-in this rifle at 60 yards at a turkey match this fa l l , in a strong wind, and then took the first two birds wi th absolutely center shots, rest shooting. 3 then handed the rifle to a frienda fine riflemanand he took the next two birds with center shots. Such a performance is not accident, but is rather a combination of fine holding and perfect ammunition, plus the most accurate small-bore rifle I have ever known. On still days or in a steady and unvaryng wind 3 wi l l take my chances on this small-bore, but i n a puffy or variable wind any of the other turkey rifles I have mentioned would be more reliable. From years of experience I have found that a sudden gust of wind wi l l kick the little bullets out of the ten-ring when a larger, heavier bullet, even at lower velocity, wil l Stay in.

For all-around turkey-match shooting, day in and day out, a large bore is much

superior to a small, not only on account of wind, but also because of the occa-sional shot that goes' into some other bullet hole. A large bullet wil l cut the hole out larger and leave no doubt as to the shot, whereas a .22 w i l l often go through and leave no trace of its having done so, unless (as is often not the case) the targets are marked as they should be will a clean sheet of paper that is moved slightly behind the target after each shot.

I t is much more convenient to load a modern heavy-barrel Springfield, a small-bore rifle, or even an old Sharps, during a cold day a t a turkey match, than the Schuetzen rifles or muzzle-loaders; still, I would not take a lot for the fun and experience 1 have had with the latter in tough competition. Also one learns much from these fine old pieces that is of help wi th modern equipment.

I consider a properly-managed turkey match one of the finest, cleanest sports we have during the winter months.

A GOOD 1SJFLE (Continued from page.M)

f rom i t . 3 had to take the shot standing in the moving boat, and 3 am not a good shot. The boys slopped paddling, and 3 asked the helmsman to keep the bow of the canoe headed ?tead)iy -in.one ;direction.-.-'Everi.so) how that picket-post sight jumped around! Finally 1 squeezed her off. There was a splash and the head disappeared. When we reached the spot there was a pool of blood in the black water, but the game had sunk and we lost i t , much to the dismay of the natives, who love tapir meat. The terrific amount of blood on the water was conclu-sive evidence of the explosive effect of this 100-grain bullet. The beast disappeared im-mediately after the shotkilled instantly!

Last fa l l , while hunting in the Adiron-dacks, 3 saw a deer Jdlleo' '-deap .wifli.^iie. shot f rom this Peters cartridge. The ani-mal was leaving on the run and the bullet struck just lef t of the tail. When the deer was dressed we found the lungs and heart sadly disorganized. That buck scaled just over 200 pounds, emptied.

As to the 87-grain bullet, the high veloc-i t y does some queer things to smaller game. I t is terribly destructive at times, i f meat is required" for th,e .table, but is very convincing on woodchuck, which is what interests me.

The accompanying pictures show the two scope mountings. A l l that is le f t of the original 8-mm. Mauser is the action but it's a peach!

There must be something fundamentally sound in the .250 Savage cartridge, when we consider how all the cartridge com-panies have recently taken it up and im-proved i t , and when we note also how many rifles are built in this caliber.

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