The Volcanic – or – Building A Gun From Scratch
I’ve been a member and a moderator of Paco Kelly’s leverguns.com forum since it was started several years ago. It’s a great place to hang out when time allows and is populated by some of the finest folks on the internet.
Recently a fellow started posting there. He goes by the name Charlie and builds guns for a hobby. Now, a lot of folks do that anymore. They’ll order up a bunch of parts from Brownells or Midway or one of a number of other places and put them together. Some of the guns so produced are fairly easy to do. Put everything in the right place and PRESTO! You’ve got a functional firearm. Others are more demanding, requiring some filing or stoning of parts to get them to fit and function properly. But all these have one thing in common – they rely on mass produced factory parts. Not that I’m trying to take anything away from the folks who build a gun this way, not at all. I’m in the process of building up a Kentucky rifle from a poorly built kit that was given to me a couple years back. It takes time and effort to get it right.
But Charlie does something a bit different. He builds his guns from scratch – and makes his own scratch. The rifle that is the subject of this little piece is his rendering of an old design. The Volcanic was a weapon made by Smith and Wesson before they became Smith & Wesson. It was a lever action design that fired a “rocket ball” which was basically a hollow based lead bullet with a charge of powder and a primer in it. The ballistics left a lot to be desired but the design gradually evolved to become the Henry, then the Winchester ‘66, the Winchester 73 and eventually the Winchester ‘76. The main problem with building a Volcanic today lays with the need to use an available cartridge. The original design makes it impossible to chamber this rifle for anything much longer than a 22 short cartridge, although there’s enough room for the 41 rimfire. So Charlie designed his own cartridge around the 40 S&W – by trimming it down, reaming it out and loading it with a pinch of powder. My friend Hobie did a blog post on the building process of the Volcanic.
What I find interesting in this entire process is that Charlie basically came up with the idea, made some calculations, did some drawings and went to work. The quality of his work has to be seen to be understood. He is a careful craftsman who is very painstaking in his efforts. AND – if he can build something like this, what could NOT be built? All the efforts of the gun banning crowd are useless as long as people have the creativity and ability to design and build machines or tools according to their desire and inclination. Many folks forget our past. Bill Ruger started out designing a machine gun. Can you imagine the trouble he would be in today for building such a tool in his garage or basement? J.M. Browning was constantly experimenting. One time he even converted a Winchester leveraction to full automatic fire. Again, if you do that today you will be in a world of hurt if the authorities find out. BUT IT IS STILL DOABLE. With the wide availability of machine tools in the US and the world as well as the skilled craftsmen who use them, it is impossible to prevent people from building any firearm they so desire.
So, what to do about violence and crime? They do not stem from the availability of firearms. They stem from a mindset that views others as less than one is and the desire of obtaining that which another worked for with as little effort as possible and the decision to impose one’s will upon others by violent means. These things were going on LONG before the advent of firearms – and if by some miracle all firearms were to be destroyed overnight the violence and crime would continue because it stems from the heart, not the tools available.
In my library I have a few books that detail the building of firearms in primitive settings. One is a Firefox book that shows how early settlers would smelt iron and then work it into usable form on the anvil and make some of the most beautiful and elegant firearms ever, the Pennsylvania, Tennessee and Kentucky “Mountain Rifles” or “Long Rifles”. Charlie holds my respect for building such an intricate design as the Volcanic. And I extend to him my gratitude for sharing with us the process he followed.
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