Just put the major components together tonight.

Prototyping is usually no fun, but this one is really going easy on me.

Let me know what you think, good or bad...







Thanks for looking!!

Farquin A, farquin cool!

Hard to say but it looks fairly demuneitive. Regardless of size very cool.

I like it!
I like the way the tang blends in with the action instead of abrupt 90* up turn as seen on the Hagen action.. That means the butt stock will also blend into the action nicely..

In the photo it appears quite small when compared to the Ruger #1 which is another plus.
I have always thought if Ruger would make a smaller version of their #1 the same size and weight as the Miroku/Win. low wall and chambered for lighter recoiling cartridges such as the 6.5X55 and the 7X57 they would out sell the original sized #1..
Looking forward to seeing more of this project as it unfolds..

I think it's gonna be nice, wish I had your skills.

Low Wall,

It is smaller than the No.1, and I agree with you on the size issue. I modeled this one after the lines of the Holland /Woodward action, as it has the clean lines I like. I am considering chambering this one in 6.5X55.

Ultimately, these will be made for the industry. I want to build and finish my little double rifles, but there is certainly a market for another stylish falling block, so I will sell these for others to stock and finish.

quote:

Originally posted by Bailey Bradshaw:
Low Wall,

It is smaller than the No.1, and I agree with you on the size issue. I modeled this one after the lines of the Holland /Woodward action, as it has the clean lines I like. I am considering chambering this one in 6.5X55.

Ultimately, these will be made for the industry. I want to build and finish my little double rifles, but there is certainly a market for another stylish falling block, so I will sell these for others to stock and finish.

Bailey,
That's great! I will most likely be a customer for one of your little falling block actions.
Will you be taking the one pictured above to completion?

Very interesting. Would like to see a diagram of the internal works.

Bailey,

Excellent work! Can't wait to see more. Will you ultimately be offering actions for sale? Will it be possible to make a "take down" rifle from this design? Thanks so much for sharing the development process with us!

Jeff

Jeff,

I will be offering these actions for sale. I will only complete a few of these rifles, but intend to make the actions for the trade.

Not sure about about a take down, but I am sure it is possible.

I will finish this one, will chamber it in .223 as I made a mistake on the top tang. The trough is too shallow and is angled up, not allowing -06 cases to feed. I already made the necessary change to my CAD file for the next action. That's prototyping.....It will be fun in .223 anyway. Lots of cheap ammo means LOTS of shooting...er.. I mean testing :-)

This little action is really coming together.

I have the cocking bar in place and man does it work well. Most designs are starved for enough movement and room for everything. Not the case here. The block has plenty of drop, cocking bar moves more than enough, and has a ton of force. All with only 27 degrees of rotation on the lever.

The cocking bar mechanics are very similar to Farquharson's 1874 design, where the cocking bar is moved rearward by the underlever, pushing on the hammer above it's rotation point, moving it intot he cocked position. I will be using a coil main spring with rebounding hammer, and in-line firing pin, so the hammer/trigger/sear arrangement will be different than Farquharson's.

You can see the rectangular cocking bar at the rear of the action block



Here is the action fully open, note how far the cocking bar has moved to the rear compared to the first picture



And fully open from the top view. A channel will be filled into the breech block as it typical so the full circumference of the chamber will be exposed. The dummy barrel has a .471" hole to simulate an -06 case.

Wow, can't wait to see the finished product!

I'm cheering you on all the way to the finish line with this one, Bailey... checkbook in hand!

That is very nice....I need one !!

The lockwork is in place and works great. Lots of energy on the hammer. It cocks easily. I can pull the lever with my pinky.

Right now the trigger is hard, but very crisp. It only rotates 2 degrees. I will of course tune up the trigger for about 3lbs. pull.

Here are a few shots....

Dear Bailey,
BEAUTIFUL work!!! I would like to get one for my grandkid when you start selling them. Please keep me [and all of the rest of us] informed.
Aloha, Mark

Bailey- Since you're forgoing the lever latch, how's the cam over feel for positive latch retension in the closed, cocked position? Uncocked?

Looking wonderfull so far!

Ian,

I haven't installed it yet, but I will be using a ball detent for retention. If it works the way I anticipate, by the tme the detent is overcome, the cocking bar will be enguaged on the hammer so cocking should feel consistent. Lifting the lever is very smooth as there is nothing bearing against the lever after the hammer is cocked. There will be tension to seat the lever as the detent is enguaged on closing.

The action feels very precise as there is little if any play in the lever side to side. Compared to my Ruger 1, which now feels very loose, it is a night and day difference.

Bailey, nice to see you have overcome the up hill fireing pin of the farquharson design. As you are using a farquharson type cocking bar, would the rebounding hammer be needed? Typically, a rebounding hammer would not support the rear of the firing pin, allowing primer flow into the firing pin hole.

Of course I need to prove the firing pin design, but I am not re-inventing the wheel. I am useing a rebounding hammer so there won't be a need to have a delay in droping the breech block in order to essentially do what a rebounding hammer will do, and that is to get the firing pin retracted before lowering the block. Farquharson's design uses a slotted hole that allows the underlever to drop a little, lowering the link, which acted on the firing pin. The slotted hole essentially causes delay in lowering the block while the firing pin is retracted.

What that creates is a need for the underlever to rotate more, a taller action to have room for the longer link and so on.

I wanted to compact the action in order to have the underlever blend into the bottom of the action, creating a cleaner look underneath, while keeping the top of the action low to have a clean top line so the stock blends into the action and onto the barrel in as constant an arc as possible.

I want my work to be considered as much a piece of art as well as a functional tool. ( whether I acheive that is up to my customers) I beleive it is the blending of function and asthetics that creates a timeless design that will be well regarded for generations. One that transcends generational fasions. I hope the rifles I build will enrich the experience of however they are used. As I read in a DGJ article whose writer I don't recall...."carrying a fine rifle in good country makes a man feel like a King."

As for the firing pin and primer flow, The pin will only retract to be flush with the breech block, so with proper fit, there shouldn't be any primer flow into the pin hole.

Hope I didn't rant too much....

Voice of experience, rebounding hammers and small rifle primers @ 50+K psi don't mix well AT ALL! That's one reason Remington developed the 7 1/2 primer, the 6 1/2 and 5 1/2 weren't NEARLY strong enough to function with the new rebounding designs of the 223 assault rifles. I ran into this probvlem with the Armalite rifles in the '60s, had to shorten the FP rebound spring to prevent FP crater discs from jamming the action. Not every round blew its disc but the occurrence was frequent.

It'll work if the striker nose is small enough in OD (IMO 0.035"-0.040", maybe 0.045" at most), otherwise IMO it'll need support.
Regards, Joe

Bailey, obviously we were posting at the same time. I applaud your aim in creating a work of art but my own experience with single shots tells me to prefer a mechanically-retracted firing pin or striker nose. This battle has been fought on the Winchester high wall front for about 100 years via the Mann-Niedner conversion, with the debate still raging among the amateurs and, amazingly, even a very few pros.

I'm not familar with the internals of your design but if you're using an over-center toggle arrangement on the link then it's easy to remove all the lost motion to allow mechanical FP retraction with the first movement of the underlever while the block is still passing TDC. I do this all the time on Winchester walls, Sharps Borchardts and similar.
Regards, Joe

Yes, I can set the hammer position to not allow the firing pin to retact until the lever drops.

Thanks for your insight. I appreciate it.

Mr. Bradshaw, I appreciate your skill, innovation and the fact that you share w/ us.
You have now caused me to alter my plans for a custom single shot rifle. Instead of using an already purchased #1, I would rather have a Texas original-Bradshaw.
How long will I have to wait for one of your actions? Any idea on price?
Thanks

I hope the wait won't be more than a couple of months before they are available. The prototype has issues, but they all do. Changes are VERY minor, mainly to the tang trough as I completely missed the boat on the initial design.

Anyway, pricing will be in the $1500 ball park. I would like to build a lot of these, so I will do everything I can to keep the cost down....but still make it a GREAT action.

Please keep everyone posted so when you start a list I want to be on if you need a deposit just say when and where.

Please add me to your interested parties list.

Is it going to have a ejector and will it work with rimless cases?

I am keeping a list for y'all that are interested.

rnb,

It will have an extractor that will be suitable for rimmed or rimless. Will work similar to a Hagn, with a slight modification since the internal mechanincs are very different.

thanks for your reply I am very interested in this action I can see it a 7x57 or 6.5x75 long thin barrel engraved.

Bailey,

Put me on your list as well.

Clarence

Bailey,
Please add me to your list as well. Thanks.

I have the tang safety installed. It works great, and is very simple. As the trigger has the sear integral to it, blocking the rear of the trigger from rising stop any sear movement as well. When the safety is enguaged, there is zero trigger movement. The safety can't be enguaged if the action is not cocked.





I know tases vary regarding safety buttons. I am not married to the one I have on the prototype, but do like it. They can be left as a rectangular block for later finishing.

Bailey,
Please add me to your list also..
Thanks

Bailey,

The safety contour looks great to me, and I won't be wanting to change it on my action.

Will you simply be tapping the bridge between upper and lower tangs for the buttstock through-bolt?

And lastly, a thought about your lever: the look of the lever as it is integrated with the bottom of the reciever and trigger guard in the closed position is a thing of beauty... very sleek! When the lever is open though, my eye is instantly drawn to the sharp inside corner that is labeled position "B" in the marked-up photo below. The generous length of the lever along with the geometry that you've achieved with regard to the cocking mechanics will make articulaing the action a brease, but the downside of that long lever is that it has the potential of delivering a large moment and bending stress at that stress concentrating feature "B" when the lever reaches it's positive stop of rotation. Is there room underneath the breachblock and other internals to ease that inside corner by leaving a bit healthier fillet in the corner? If not, a second choice (and a bit more of a compromise, asthetically) would be to leave a larger radius fillet in position "A." The chance of actually plastically bending the lever by some ham-fisted operator is probably pretty low, but what a shame it would be to have a fatigue-induced stress crack at this location over time. Just a thought...

Ian,

I was worried about the same thing when designing the lever. The part you have indicated as position "B", is where I will have the ball detent to hold the action closed.

If I am not a hamm fisted operator ( love the term BTW) I can mimick one pretty well. I have been rough on the lever, and it's plenty stout. It will be heat treated as well, so you would have to really intend to do damage to accomplish any.

I have the barrel turned down to fit the action, chambered it ( 6.5-06) and tested the action on a couple of primed cases to ensure the action would fire. No problem at all.

Now to get the extractor installed and get the barrel on......then this big strap to a tire and hide inside the shop moment :-)

Got a question is the top edges of the action going to be rounded like the photo of the original?

The top will be rounded. Very similar to this action on the top. The bottom will be rounded as well. I won't have the step on the side of the action like the Gibbs has.

Mr. Bradshaw:

Where you the gentleman I talked to about your single shot action at the ACGG Show in Reno? I was the guy with the Gibbs Farquharson custom rifle.

Regards,

Glenn Fewless