I want to welcome Bill Dunham from Grundy Center, IA. to my shop. Bill works for Fishers in Marshalltown as Field Technical Instructor.  He has also taught many levels of woodworking classes, construction classes, drafting classes, metals classes, and many others.  

Bill was surprised to discover my shop was a separate shop from Toad Hall Rifleshop. 

Little Background:

He became more interested in building rifles as he learned more and more about my family’s genealogy.  He discovered a direct line back to the Revolutionary war were they were in the North Carolina Militia in what is now East Tennessee and were all Indian fighters.  His family was involved with the Crockett family as well as being signers of the Cumberland Compact. His  6^th great grandfather was one of the signers of the Watauga petition on July 5^th 1776 .  He was killed in Nashville around 1786 by the Creek Indians that were on the war path, but most of my other relatives were killed by Cherokees. He and his sons and brothers floated down the Holston River with Colonel Donnellson.  

Bill decided he wanted to build a Lancaster rifle similar to the Dickert rifles his ancestor used during that time frame.  The following are some photos of the progress. I'm sure Bill would welcome any questions you may want to ask him about his family history or the project he is working on. His web address is: William.Dunham@EmersonProcess.com.

In The Beginning: (click on hyperlinks)

Pinning The Barrel To The Stock: 

Making The Lock: 

Installing The Lock:   

Making And Installing The Trigger:

Inletting The Butt Plate: