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(That’s a mooze muzzle by his left hand..... tan nose on the underside,)
Gunsmithing is basically a subset of being a machinist. The difference is that the range of stock and of tools is dramatically reduced to those needed to create gun barrels and works. So it was a natural thing for dad to do with only minimal education required. In Vernal dad worked as a gunsmith for perhaps a year but I do not know which year nor do I know where the shop was alocated, just that he worked at this profession.
In this image he’s holding an Enfield that he bought after WW II. It was beat up from use so he had to completely overhaul it between jobs he did for his employer. He cut the stock off which normally is full length. He had to change the magazine which normally extended below the stock. The most visible change he made to this stock was to engrave it and then enlay it with silver amalgam in an ornate pattern.
The part of guns which seemed to intrigue him was the muzle break or choke as they are also known. You have probably seen them although you may not have known them by this name on the end of a tank’s gun barrel, an odd sort of device on the end of the barrell which has holes on several sides. The purpose of these brakes is to reduce the amount of “kick” or recoil that the shooter experiences when firing his rifle. (They are not used on hand guns for obvious reasons.) The brake functions by allowing some of the explosive gasses generated by the gun powder to escape out of those holes while the bullet itself is just exiting the barrel. That isn’t a long time but manufacturers claim up to a 53% reduction in the amount of kick with their brakes.
So the concept is simple, but the design is more complicated. Dad had a lot of brother in laws all of whom hunted deer in the Unitah’s so they were welcome guinea pigs for him so he produced half a dozen varieties of brakes and got feedback from the BIL’s which helped him refine the performance. It is unfortunate that this particular rifle disappeared before I could get some photos because I cannot show you how beautiful the brake was that he build for his own weapon.
The basic design was what it had to be, a threaded section of barrell that fitted onto the end of the barrel, which had three holes drilled equally around it to allow gasses out. The holes were elongated like lozenges which made them sort of attractive. To increase the effectiveness of the action and to add to the beauty, he let smaller holes into the four corners of each lozenge, cutting grooves from both sides of each. This description doesn’t do justice to the beauty of the thing.
He did good work but got bored quickly because the scope of the work was so narrow. Making one thing, barrells and works, was boring to a guy who just had to see and do as many things as he could.
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