Another interesting and novel build. Customer's wife was a target shooter and had been confined to using a pistol, because she was right-handed and left-eyed. Because of physical limitations, she was unable to make the transition to shooting a rifle left handed. They approached me for a solution as no other gunbuilder was willing to work with them.

As I started researching this, I found historical precedence for Cross Over guns of two styles....extreme castoff or a gooseneck wrist. W.W. Greener's book had some examples and a friend had a picture of an original.

The problem then became on of fit and design. Since they live in FL and I live in TN, this was a problem. I first had her try a variety of guns until she found one that fit, and they sent me the measurements. I mocked up a try-gun from aircraft grade styrofoam, reenforced with Bondo and sent it to them along with some coarse sandpaper. They were to sand or carve the stock until a fit was achieved and send it back. We couldn't get it to fit, and I was ready to give up on the project because of the distance problem. Since they were leaving on vacation soon, they decided to make a 900 mile detour to my shop on their way home.

I mocked up a piece of 4" thick pine by cutting out a standard halfstock template and inletting a barrel into the left side of it. It was waiting when they arrived, and we spent the whole day cutting and measuring until it fit her. As it turned out, we didn't need to go with the radical gooseneck wrist, and used extreme castoff instead. Using the pine mockup, I commenced building the gun. I had been looking around for a piece of wood thick enough to build the gun from. I ran across a crotch walnut slab and was able to cut 4" thick blank out of it.

Since this was strictly a target rifle, an under-rib or ram hole were not included. The tumbler of the lock was double-freed and the mainspring was held by a stirrup for fastest lock time. We chose TOTW's Ohio style patent breech with the drum cast integrally into it. It was internally radiused and polished to cut down on breech fouling.

The schnable endcap was applewood, dyed black to resemble ebony. The diamond inlays for the crosspin were of ebony. The sight was elevation adjustable, yet legal for use in primitive matches.

A brass range rod with handle made from the same wood as the stock was included.