Sports Publications

An American first: the birth of the sporterized military rifle

Guns Magazine, July, 2009 by Jeff John

It so happened one of John King's better customers wanted a Spencer Sporting Model built around his original action. King opined how impossible the stock was to carve because of all the parts needing to come together exactly. I pointed out the originals were mass-produced during a war most likely on waterwheel driven equipment. And every original we've encountered was perfectly fitted.

That was enough. King sat down with the original Spencer and my "Spencerini" as he dubbed it, and figured out how they were made. It helped to look at the Spencerini and see how not to make a Spencer stock. For all the good work on these guns, the otherwise decent wood of my Italian copy was ill fitted and actually broken inside.

King made the pattern for the Gemmer on my Italian stock and welded the center of the military Spencer buttplate with all the magazine tube retaining hardware to a Hawken crescent buttplate from Track of the Wolf. King installed a 28" Green Mountain .452" barrel, 1" across the breech and .865" at the muzzle, chambered with a reamer ground by Dave Kiff of Pacific Tool and Gauge.

The fore-end has the twin keys favored by Hawken and Dowels on Demand provided a wiping rod of Orange Osage, which gives a colorful accent to the front of the gun. Sights, entry pipe and steel rod tip were from Track of the Wolf.

In preparing to do the final finish, I tried to think like Gemmer might have, while adding my own accents. For one, I figured Gemmer wouldn't have browned any parts if the case hardening was sound, so I left the hammer, trigger plate and lever with their case hardening intact. I doubt Gemmer would've heat or nitre blued any parts, but I love the look of highly polished nitre blue parts against the flat brown finish, so my breechblock, screws and keys were all nitre blued.

The brown finish is basically the old Zischang formula as made by my friend Roger Renner. It is also available from Track of the Wolf. The metal was polished to a 220-grit finish, ensuring no deep scratches were present (they'll etch deeper as the acid works). Then I simply wiped on the chemical and let the gun rust. It took about a week to achieve the dark brown applying chemical in the morning and evening. I did not card between applications and let the rust slowly build for a coarse brown finish. All of the case hardening must be removed for the acid to work (I learned that the hard way). After I was satisfied with the color, I washed the gun in hot water with a little baking soda and wiped it down with Rig. Oil is necessary, but don't use a corrosion fighter. They'll try and remove the rust you've just spent so much time creating.

I finished the interior of the stock's inletting with Permalyn and gave the exterior a hand rubbed oil finish with Pilkington's Golden Brown stock finish, both available from Brownells.