Does  anyone have background information and particulars to share RE; the Maynard Model 1 carbine reproduction that was or is available from Daniel R. Sheetz ?  My understanding is these repro Maynards were or are available as both .36 and .50 caliber.  They are apparently N-SSA approved for competition, but I take that subjectively and with a grain of salt.

Responses greatly appreciated.  Purchase opportunities welcomed.  Hope you have a very successful 130th. Fall National

Creedmoormatch

Mr. Sheetz and I grew up about 5 miles from each other and went to high school together. He is a retired tool and die maker with a fairly nice shop at home. I use his shop sometimes for equipment that I don't have. He shoots in the N-SSA.

He has built one 1st Model Maynard from scratch complete with a working primer feed mechanism. It is impressive work. I supplied his barrel. He is currently working on 4 more but they are all spoken for. I've made up the barrels and I made the hammer and trigger blanks for him. He is a one man shop and has recently taken a part time job as a consultant that takes a week or two each month. He does not know when any of the rifles will be complete and he has said that he may never build another one.

I am that guy who built the couple Maynards in that old thread.. Coincidentally I this morning pulled the Maynard I built in .45 ACP out of the closet and will put better sights on it  and smooth up the trigger to use it in a pistol cartridge silhouette match next month. Fun little gun. That and I have a gobzillion .45ACP cartridges already loaded up. 

Gone Fly Fishing wrote on Sep 26^th, 2014 at 6:43am:

Alpha W.  Thanks for coming out with that info on the Maynard projects.  Would it be possible to see one or both of the projects in their finished state?

I don't think that Doctor Maynard would mind one bit that you copied his design.  Rather, I would think it would please him to know that you appreciate the design as much today as he did in his day.

Keep up the good work !

C.M.M.

P.S. I'd really like to see several more photos of your reproduction J.Stevens Model 44 1/2 !  What caliber is it chambered for ?
.

In which state is your shooting club located ?

CMM

It is the Benton Arkansas gun club...

And per your Stevens 44 1/2 question.. I built one in .22 , one in .17 HM2, and another in .38-55...And I built one in .32-20 but I musta been drunk or fighting with the wife when I built it , it is really awful..


Gone Fly Fishing wrote on Sep 30^th, 2014 at 6:24am:

  
Alpha Wolf --- I am setting here absolutely amazed by the EXTREMELY talented work that you performed to bring the rough cut block of steel for the Maynard to the finished assembly I see in your photo-bucket album.

My first impression upon seeing your blank for the Maynard was " Yea, Right ! "  Well I'm happy to say you have made a believer out of me.

I do happen to believe in miracles, and have seen several during my life time -- well I'm here to tell you that I do believe that I've seen one here today in your work product.

Am I correct that you do your own case hardening ?  Or was what I saw a heat treating furnace?

Later,   

CMM

Yes CMM I do my own color case hardening ..It is a hobby for me so I do everything that I can. I make every spring and bolt and carve stocks. I would guess that it takes 25 or 30 years to get real good at gunsmith-ering and I only been puttering with it 10 or 12 years so I am still fighting with it here and there. I have built a few purty guns to my credit and a few stinkers that I built earlier on........Yeup, I like them before pictures showing roughed out pieces that scarcely resemble anything that could function in a rifle but every one of my projects go through that same ugly phase.
  I don't know anybody round here who shoots N-SSA but I am only little more than a year into the shooting sports so I don't know many people yet..

  I pull every picture I can find off the internet and bring the better photos into AutoCAD where I scale them and trace them and guess at whatever else isn't obvious.....I and a whole lot of other people  can build virtually anything merely from photos pulled off the net. Just takes a heap of time and 'course tools and some appropriate previous experiences...No, all that is mine for better or worse.

I did test very high on IQ tests but that's only because I knew the answers   But I have worked with tools, machines since I was a young kid and now I am an old man, naturally I have learned a good deal along the way. Metalsworking is my passion, I was deep into that well before I ever fooled with a gun project. Gunsmithing however is a whole 'nuther science...Notice I don't fool with anything modern high power chambering. I don't trust myself to build anything that can take the side of my face off if it isn't made egggzackardly right.
   Ohhh hey. let me brag on myself... Two weeks ago friend and I met up at the club to shoot at  steel turkey silhouette.. We first hammered it hard at the 300 meter pig line then friend Paul suggested we set it out at the 500 meter Rams line.. With my home built .45-70 Highwall and iron sights I could not see it at all with my right eye but could just barely see it as a blurry speck with my left eye...So I got down prone and put the rifle butt to my left shoulder and aimed with my left eye but worked the double set trigger with my usual right hand trigger finger...I hit it 5 of 7 shots...Last 3 shots were solid hits but then I quit because the awkward hold was hammering my left shoulder....Fun though. ...Do that with a hobbiest built home made rifle and it is a real good feeling.

Alpha Wolf, you sir are a very talented craftsman and exceptionally intuitive at reverse engineering. I was impressed looking at your photos of the guns you have made from scratch. You use the same thread that I use assembling my Maynard barrels, 13/16"-20. The cam-over locking linkage of the barrel to frame is simple but there is very little room for error and you seem to have nailed it. Overall your Maynards are impressive.

Making things from pictures can be done as you have proved but it is not simple. While in engineering school I had a part time job in the Industrial Engineering machine shop. One of the professors brought back some photos of a device from a conference he had been to and wanted it duplicated. Other full time people in the shop said they needed more information such as drawings or sketches to build it. When I was asked if I could make it I said yes. I got the job and completed it to the satisfaction of the professor. I didn't make any friends in the shop as I was just one of those young upstart college kids passing thru.

I agree with everyone else,you do do some very nice work. From what I see you have a pretty nice shop to work in. Just wish I had access to all the goodies you have as many people will have a lathe, and maybe a mill but you seem to have a grinder to go along with everything an some nice tooling to round things out. As a retired toolmaker, I see many things I easily recognize. Keep up the good work
Sam

I like the idea you suggest to carve the whole thing from a solid that then gets a rifled liner.. But working with what I had I chose the other route which was to thread a Green Mountain blank into a breech end portion....I don't have capability here to drill ,ream and rifle a barrel blank.
..I don't really know how to do any of this stuff..I just figger it out as I go along and hope for the best..Think I spent a month or 6 weeks building the pair of Maynards and spent less than a hundred bucks on each of them.. That is lot of fun hours for little money invested and they come out purty good. 



Gone Fly Fishing wrote on Oct 1^st, 2014 at 8:34am:

No, I've never built an entire Maynard rifle. I started assembling barrels in 2001 on a monobloc barrel stub machined from chrome-moly steel just the way you did it. A friend and retired diemaker made a 1st Model Maynard from scratch and now is making a few more. I have helped him by making the hammer and trigger blanks and I'm supplying the barrels.

By supporting Maynard shooters I've made a lot of parts, 1873 adapter rings, extractor blanks, screws, link blanks, hammers, triggers, anything to keep the rifles working.

The internet is the resource that makes all this possible for me.. Before I got very far along with my Maynards I found a gentleman online who answered a couple questions for me. I needed to know some dimensions so that I could scale it ..You can find good pictures of most any parts on Gunbroker but then you have got to figure out the dimensions. But I find that folks online are very helpful at measuring their own guns/parts and taking pictures when I need another view.

The "as you know" line is incorrect. Fact is that I don't know. I built these couple rifles FAST..I didn't have an authentic example to copy, indeed to this day I still have never seen a real one in person.Knowing that I cant build a precise replica just studying pictures I then give myself the liberty to make decisions that may not be right but keeps the project moving along.. I doubt that my nipple is in exactly the right place and oriented as it should be.. I had problem with getting the flame from the percussion cap doglegged over and thru the tiny hole in the breech face . My fix was to add the removable plug and in that plug I was able to machine a good flame channel.
    Hey no kidding.. Tough build really considering that the tiny hole in breechface must line up with tiny hole in rear of cartridge case when the barrel is levered down and cam over locked in place....Simple gun but it has to be right or it wont work. Indeed I am very pleased that I was able to build such a thing in rather short time and primarily working from pictures.. But it is not correct in all the details.


Gone Fly Fishing wrote on Oct 2^nd, 2014 at 3:58pm: