Stock Ammo Sleeve & Sling for Mossberg Brush Gun

[Josh Ashman]

The title pretty well says it all. I was less than thrilled with how the lacing finished out on the ammo sleeve, but it's one of mine so I'm not going to bother re-doing it. HO 8 oz for the body of the sleeve with 4/5 oz bullet loops sewn on. The sling is 10/11 oz HO. Both were dyed with an old bottle of Tandy cocbolo water based eco dye that I have watered down several times. 2 coats of NF oil after that and then some Aussie wax and a day in the sun. 

Pretty fun little rifle! Anyway, thanks for looking and have a great day folks! 

Josh

[Double Daddy]

A craftsperson is, generally speaking, their own toughest critic. Excellent work as always, Josh...love those lever guns!

Edited July 16, 2019 by Double Daddy

[Rockoboy]

18 hours ago, Josh Ashman said:

I was less than thrilled with how the lacing finished

It all looks pretty good, but as a suggestion (from somebody who knows little about lacing), would the lacing lay better if the holes were slightly elongated, like a football shape rather than round? 

[Josh Ashman]

18 hours ago, Double Daddy said:

A craftsperson is, generally speaking, their own toughest critic. Excellent work as always, Josh...love those lever guns!

Thanks Chris! I sure love the lever guns myself!

3 hours ago, Rockoboy said:

It all looks pretty good, but as a suggestion (from somebody who knows little about lacing), would the lacing lay better if the holes were slightly elongated, like a football shape rather than round? 

Thanks Brian! Elongated holes would have helped. Although, I think the main issue I had on this project was that the lace, which was cut at 1/2" had stretched out to where it was only 3/8" or even a little less out at the tailing end.  Since I started wrapping at the pistol grip and finished up at the end of the stock it leaves more of a gap as you move back, with the last wrap being the worst. Adding to that, the last wrap is also leaned "out" from pulling the slack back under the previous wraps making it look even worse.  The lace I used was cut from the hide that's under the rifle in the pictures. It's getting pretty low on the side. I think that a better lace, cut closer to the spine and more consistent  tension on my wraps would have gone a long way towards cleaning the lacing up.  Elongating the holes would clean up the "bunches" where the relatively wide lace goes through the much smaller hole, although those "bunches" are fine with me if they lay flat enough. Making the holes elongated would also have given the lace a little more room, which in turn would have made for less stretching. It's a good suggestion, thanks for making it!

Have a great day folks! 

[dikman]

Would narrower lace be better? I've no experience with lacing, just wondered.

And yeah, there's something about lever guns that just looks "right". I have a Winchester 92 saddle ring carbine, made in 1897. It shows it's age, of course, but has a wonderful patina on it and still shoots well (plus another 3 levers). I love my lever guns.

[Josh Ashman]

13 hours ago, dikman said:

Would narrower lace be better? I've no experience with lacing, just wondered.

And yeah, there's something about lever guns that just looks "right". I have a Winchester 92 saddle ring carbine, made in 1897. It shows it's age, of course, but has a wonderful patina on it and still shoots well (plus another 3 levers). I love my lever guns.

Narrower lace, or a bigger round hole, or oval holes as Brian suggested would all work fine. With each you get a different look, none "right" and none "wrong", just different. I'm certainly no lacing expert (obviously, if I were mine would look better!), but what I was looking for on this was lace that touched at the edges, or at least was close to it. I missed that, so to me it doesn't look right. With the hot weekend forecast (100 + for SW Missouri) I may cut this off and re-do it just as an excuse to stay inside under the AC

I absolutely love model 92's! yours sounds great!

All the best, Josh

[Treed]

I think your holes look fine I would have just added more holes bring them closer together thus getting the lace edges to touch.... Fine looking rifle

Bobby

[Josh Ashman]

Thanks Bobby! Semper Fi! 

[dikman]

Now I can see what you're trying to achieve and, correct me if I'm wrong, I reckon you'll need bigger holes and slightly wider lace?

[Josh Ashman]

Good morning folks! 

On 7/19/2019 at 5:58 PM, dikman said:

Now I can see what you're trying to achieve and, correct me if I'm wrong, I reckon you'll need bigger holes and slightly wider lace?

I think wider lace would have done the trick. And really, if my lace hadn't have stretched out at the working end (getting narrower in process) I would have been able to let it be. The hole size was fine for 1/2" lace and really OK for 5/8" too. It takes a little more work to pull it through, but it'll still pull.  

I did go ahead and re-do it. I went with a braided lace this time. I cut it from the same hide, and it stretched again, however it's less noticeable with the braid. It's quite a bit more work to braid them, but they do look nicer! 

Thanks to everybody for taking time to look and comment. 

Have a great day folks!